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a bs o l u t e f i d e l i t y
you want to go. Pulling them halfway into the middle of the room
is unlikely to help much, and probably make things worse.
Find the best compromise for your room, your tastes and your space
requirements. If you are not getting proper focus on the voice, you
may angle the left and right speaker up to about 15 degrees (toe-in)
towards your listening position until you have a properly defined
centre image. If the speakers are too far apart you will lose the side
image and if they are too close together you will have too small a
centre stage.
When properly set-up, very little sound should appear to come
directly from the speaker. Instead, the sound stage should extend
far beyond the left and right edge of the loudspeakers and they
should have tremendous front to back depth. When the recording is
close miked (when the instrument or performer is very close to the
recording microphone) the music may appear to come directly
from the loudspeaker. This is normal. Typically, however, the sound
should appear to be detached from the loudspeakers.
A simple rule of thumb to follow is that focus will be achieved by
placing the speakers closer together or farther apart, and front to
back depth can be adjusted by the distance from the rear wall.
Further, as the system “breaks in”, the depth and width of the
soundspace will increase and so will the “smoothness” of the sound.
Further adjustments
In some problematic rooms a resonance may develop at one or
two frequencies that is unnatural to the music. By moving the
speakers closer to the front wall or farther
from the front wall, the
resonance may be reduced at the listener’s position. There are
no absolute rules concerning problematic rooms, so do not be
afraid to experiment with best speaker placement.
Ultimately, it is all about balance. You have a number of controls
at hand with which to adjust the bass response, the low-pass filter
frequency and woofer volume. You can also move the speakers
closer together (for better coupling), or further apart.