Sda-crs Demo

madmax

Since I have my SDA-CRS here at work I decided to set them up in a big room which has been cleared out to see what they would sound like. The room is 18' X 24' with corporate style carpet. The ceiling is dropped acoustic tile. The room was empty except for a leather couch. Three sides of the room is drywall and the fourth has huge windows with metal mini blinds over them. For amplification I brought in two Manley tube mono-blocks rated at 100 watts per channel. The source was my Luxman tube preamp CD player. I used RCA flat cable for the speaker wire and Pheonix Gold interconnects.

The room is rather live sounding but since I had no dampening material I left it that way. I obtained the best sound with the speakers centered on the long wall, about 8' apart and 4' from the back wall with the couch sitting in the middle of the room about 6' in front of the speakers. I tried many combinations and this was absolutely the best.

The sound was the worst I've ever heard. I'm not too good with all the audiophile terms but I believe it sounded like ****. Yes, **** is the term I'm looking for.

The sound was distorted, the SDA effect was masked by the wall reflections, at a very low volume it seemed loud and obnoxious, no separation, hollow, noisy, naysal etc. I have never heard a speaker system, regardless of price, sound any worse. One of my co-workers mentioned that his Sony speakers and amp would have sounded better. I agreed.

So much for the big room idea! Even if the room was dampened I don't think it would have sounded very good. This was my first attempt at trying the CRS's in a room larger than 12' X 20' like my livingroom. (in which case they sound awesome)

I think the demise of the system is the liveness of the room, the room is too large for the speakers, and the room walls use the steel 2 X 4's rather than wood ones which privide little attenuation of vibration.

I WAS going to try to make a listening area at home this same size but I think I will stick to something smaller now. I have to wonder what the 1.2's would do in such a room (dampened) but I lack the willpower to carry the 200 lb monsters to work with me.

I have come to the conclusion that the room is certainly more important than any electronics you could buy. This is a great sytem in the proper setting.

Does anyone else have experience with a room this big?

madmax

deq15

stick to the parameters - other threads have the optimum specs for setting them up by the book but basically keep them less than 12 inches from the wall ( i like 5" but ... ) and set them about only 8 feet apart. and ear level high. a clean EQ will help keep the dampening factors in check of course they should be square to the wall they are up against and never tilted in any direction. a bigger room doesnt mean a bigger spread - think small and give it another go...

jrausch

Even though they had stands made for them. I think they are best suited for solid wood bookshelves. The first time I demo'd a pair was back in 85' and they were in a demo room that was setup like a small office. They were placed in a hardwood bookshelf, so they could really show off the bass capabilities. Nowadays speakers are placed right next to each other with 20-30 different pairs competing for the sale. I don’t think they were ever designed for such a large room. I think they were for corporate YUP’s that wanted the SDA sound in their office.

mantis

First hand experience with room acoustic's.Metal studs and an alive room.........I love it........I absolutely love it.

Great to see your experience.Now the question is......how do you fix it?????That room wasn't 2 big for your speakers.

Remember just because the room is deep, you still make for the equal triangle give or take a foot here or 2.Id give it another try , this time find your reflection points and see if you can improve the room.Id love to see what you come up with.

madmax

Mantis,
You like live rooms? The reflections seemed equal everywhere. I must have moved the speakers and couch 20 times. Whew! You can have the freakin live rooms!
madmax

madmax

Oh yea,
Closer than about 4 feet from the back wall they started sounding boomy. The effect was boom-hiss-boom-hiss with no midrange. Farther than 4 feet they were nayselly. It would be interesting to try again with the room dampened but I no longer have that option. The room is now full of office crap. I think so long as the room is live (at least with the SDA's) there is no possibility of good sound.
madmax

DarqueKnight

It is possible to get good sound in a live room. Some recording studios are "live" (hardwood floors, large glass windows, no wall treatments, etc.).

However, I would think that the kind of echo you get from metal blinds, metal window frames, and metal wall studs is far harsher than the reflections from wood floors and drywall.

My 1.2TL's are in a slightly live room and I like the effect.