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absolute fidelity
no less than 5 feet apart. If the image is still too big, toe the
speakers in a slight amount.
Conversely, if the image is too small, move the speakers apart. The
speakers should be no more than eight feet apart. Repeat this process
until you have it right.
The wider apart you have the speakers, relative to your seating
position, the more you will have to toe the speakers in. However, this
may result in “audiophile-itis”. You get a huge soundstage, but only a
tiny sweet spot and you have to sit exactly in the center. Also, when
the speakers are very far apart, you may have to play them louder
before you can enjoy a realistic soundstage. The images are more
diffuse, and can seem larger than life.
If you have the speakers 18 inches into the room, and you are not
getting enough front to back depth (the singer not appearing behind the
speaker enough), pull the speakers away from the front wall a little bit at
a time. However, slightly more than 1/3 of the way into the room is
about as far as you want to go. Pulling them half-way into the middle
of the room is unlikely to help.
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 10 to 15 degrees (toe-in)
towards your listening position until you have a properly defined center
image. If the speakers are too far apart, the mid-bass will de-couple and
you will lose the side image. If they are too close together you will have
too small and congested a center 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.