Speaker Positioning

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
i am not sure this is true, the critical distance is very present in all rooms. and it is good to know about it, it open my eyes for the problem. before i heard about it i could not understand what was wrong in my setup, all looked so good in measurements but i could hear this "masking" effect as very present. it was very frusrating. i tried many things to overcome this but with no luck, the only cure was to sitt closer to the speakers, now i understand why, because of the critical distance.

so, for a clean speaker output setup i would recommend start with placing speakers as much free standing as possible, then start listening in the speaker near field and increase the distance until speaker output starts sounding colored or masked, you have then reached the critical distance

Hi Celef,
Thanks for your post. It made me go back and reread about the calculator. It's just that it only considers room dimensions, as if there is nothing else in the room. And I've found that everything in the room will effect the sound. Yet, I punched in my room dimensions and it gave a plausible answer to me. If the critical distance calculator helped you all, Great!.
 
Speaker Positioning Update

Recently I came across the audioaficionado thread about Master Set. Post #2 is an extremely accurate description of the method developed by Stirling Trayle and John Hunter at Sumiko in the 90's and what became the basis of the Master Set procedure by Rod Tomson of Soundings Hifi in Denver Colorado.

I subsequently followed the procedure exactly as described and found great success, much better than I had been doing on my own. The difference in the actual position of the speakers was small. The difference in sound was very significant.
I highly recommend this procedure exactly as described. It can be done by anyone but needs a great deal of patience to get correct.

The youtube video is by someone who has done the procedure and describes some of the issues that may come up in the process. It is a good introduction and reference that can be quite helpful.

Sumiko master set-up process - AudioAficionado.org

Master Set & Rational Speaker Placement How To For GREAT SOUNDSTAGE - YouTube
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.