S E T U P D E T A I L S
14
Also, changing the back-tilt away from a straight-facing aim will degrade time-
alignment.
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The back tilt adjustment can be accomplished by shining a flashlight from ear
height (chest height on older models) and watching for a reflection from the
wood astride the centers of the speakers. It can alternatively be eyeballed by
taping one end of a piece of string to the side of each speaker and the other
end to something at seated shoulder height and distance, and tilting the speaker
to get what looks like a 90° angle at the speaker end. Taping a laser level to the
center of the side of one speaker and making the beam strike the right height is
another way.
•
When there is too much deep bass, and the only solution is to deviate from an
equilateral triangle to get the speakers away from side walls, this will obviously
narrow the soundstage, but could be worth it.
•
For recordings made using a Blumlein microphone arrangement, a 90° angle
between the speakers is best, although this is hard to arrange in most rooms
without sitting very close to the speakers, which not everyone will want to do,
and where the drivers do not converge as well in time. In many cases, a very
wide arrangement is just more enjoyable for the extra soundstage width, and
the image is always crisp enough to support this without degrading focus.
•
For the most holographic effect, try two-microphone recordings, especially
binaural!