What, you thought I'd given up with futzing about with the speakers? When we last left, I had the balance turned over to the left as I faced the speakers. This stopped the feeling that the music was coming from somewhere around the back right corner of the room.
But having the balance wound over is not natural. So I went on reading hi-fi sites of dubious quality, until I ran across one run by an actual sound engineer who wrote like he had studied physics, and he said that my speakers needed to be at least 5cm from the wall but no more than a metre, as there was a dead zone between one and three metres from the back wall. Aha! So I'm okay with that.
Another said that my speakers needed to be at least three feet from the side walls. Fumbles for tape measure in toolbox. One was three foot from the wall, but the other was only 18 inches. Could that make a difference? I moved it.
Whoa! Suddenly the musicians were in the space between the speakers, not wandering down my right-hand wall. And I could return the balance to neutral, as God intended it should be.
The standard wisdom on placement has you the listener between the speakers as three points in an equilateral triangle. I can't do that in my room. But yet another article said, well, shelf speakers should be about 4 feet apart, but standmounts should be at least 8 feet apart. And don't forget a little bit of toe-in.
Grabs tape measure. Nearly six feet apart. Okay, what do I have to lose except my sanity? So I shuffled the speakers along the shelves by moving some books, tweaked a bit of toe-in, sat down and...
Oh yeah rock and roll!
You know when the reviewers talk about a tight, well-defined and clear soundstage and that thing where if everything is set up right, the speakers should feel as if they are not actually conveying sound?
It's all true.
I was streaming an Evelyn Glennie CD the other night, and I swear I could see every single shiny thing she was hitting, between the speakers. Mind you, that recording was probably mic'ed to within an inch of its life.
The music now stays between the speakers even if I'm concentrating on something else - though if there's a lot of sustained chords around Treble C, it does drift to the right.
I have no idea why I put up with that awful splashy, diffused sound I had before. Perhaps because I wasn't really listening, or perhaps I thought it was the gear, or perhaps I thought I would have to put baffles around the room. I did not believe that speaker placement could make such a huge difference.
But it does, and if you don't believe me, try it.
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