Just when I thought I was all tweaked out

Early B.

...I always wondered how my speakers would sound if they were raised several inches off the floor. So I went into the basement and pulled out two shelves from a modular audio rack I had. Bingo! Fortunately, the shelves are the same color as the speakers. Looks cool, I think. (The WAF hasn’t commented yet, so I’m guardedly optimistic.)

I nearly broke my back lifting the speakers onto the 8” tall shelves. Now the speakers are 52” high. Don’t worry, each shelf has a weight load capacity of 200 lbs and the speakers weigh about 150 lbs.

OK, so do they sound differently now? No, not really. I expected the imaging to shift a bit higher, but it didn’t. No decrease in bass, so that’s a good thing, I suppose.

I’ll decide later to keep it like it is or dismantle it.

Face

Is it me, or is the stand on the left missing a leg?

Polkitup2

Ok Early B., part of the audio gig with me is ashetics. Get those speakers off those three legged shelves. My god, the next thing I expect to see is you setting that bare breasted statute on top of the speakers.:D

Ricardo

Too much time in your hands?? Get them down...save that negative WAF for something really worth it (because the veredict won't be good).

Early B.

HTrookie wrote: »

Too much time in your hands?? Get them down...save that negative WAF for something really worth it (because the veredict won't be good).

Ha!!!

Just got the thumbs up from the better half three minutes ago.

Yeah, I'm shocked, too. :eek:

tonyb

I dunno....you must have some naked pics of the wife your blackmailing her with.NO woman in her right mind would give the thumbs up on that one Brad.
Maybe you got her sauced up before asking.;)

Early B.

tonyb wrote: »

NO woman in her right mind would give the thumbs up on that one Brad.

Apparently, you've never met my wife.;)

Polkersince85

I smell a big time "Honey do" coming.

Ern Dog

I like that everything has a wood finish to match your livingroom and the wire management looks clean. It looks kinda weird though with 3 legs.

VR3

I dont get it....

But...

Good on ya... LOL

I think you should take all that energy and dust your bottom shelf.

I'm just saying

Early B.

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote: »

I think you should take all that energy and dust your bottom shelf.

I'm just saying

Eff you!:p
Actually, the bottom shelf is perforated, so what you're seeing is the carpet underneath, although I don't deny the dust.

I looked at it again tonight and had second thoughts. I'll probably dismantle the shelves soon. My curiosity has been satiated.

My intent was to find a way to increase the height of the midrange and tweeters. The vocals appear to be emanating from less the 2 ft. off the floor. Perhaps it's the room and seating position (9 ft. away), and there ain't much I can do about it. I dunno.

VR3

Eh...

You need tilt - screw height.

TILT is where its at man..

9 feet? Try... 1" tilt

Early B.

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote: »

Eh...

You need tilt - screw height.

TILT is where its at man..

9 feet? Try... 1" tilt

I tried it already when you mentioned it a few days ago. Nada.

VR3

Oddd....

I think you should sell off your entire rig and start over -- SOMETHING IS TOTALLY WRONG!!!

JK...

Although 2 ft vocal height is effing weird man...

In my small lil 10.5x10.5 room sitting 6 ft away, most vocals are about 6ish feet off the floor.

VR3

So - just curious...

Does it really sound like a dude is 2 ft on the ground? Sitting down?

If so -- is that not just totally funky sounding?

danger boy

the speakers on the stands don't bother me really.. not my thing but.. since it didn't do anything negative or positive.. just put them back on the floor. i'd hate to risk they falling by accident and be damaged or damage a component.

venomclan

Ut oh, Early is losing it. Quick, someone nearby get to his house and stop him before he does something nuts: like put his tv on the center channel or something...
Venom

dkg999

I have to admit, I couldn't do the TV on the center channel! That would really bother me!

Nice Marsh A400 though :cool: I'm keeping it's little sister busy

Early B.

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote: »

So - just curious...

Does it really sound like a dude is 2 ft on the ground? Sitting down?

If so -- is that not just totally funky sounding?

It's not "totally funky sounding" when I'm sitting down listening to music, which is 99% of the time. But standing -- yeah, a problem. A bit annoying sometimes, but other people probably wouldn't notice it unless I mentioned it to them. I don't know if there's a way to resolve it. I also have a TV stand with a 50" TV in the middle of the speakers, so that can't be good. I'm not complaining because that's part of the limitations you gotta deal with in this hobby, but if I can fix it, I'm gonna try, even if it's an unconventional tweak.

Early B.

dkg999 wrote: »

I have to admit, I couldn't do the TV on the center channel! That would really bother me!

I agree. I don't like it, either.

For several years, I put the center channel on the second shelf of the rack, but it wasn't ideal because the dialogue always appeared to be coming from underneath the picture. I found that by placing the center channel at ear level, I could eliminate this problem. So I had to choose the lesser of two evils, and the lesser evil required for me to set the TV on top of the center channel. Of course, if I was content with a smaller center channel, I would have opted for shelf placement.

Actually, it all looks better in person.

Music Joe

A bare reflective ceiling limits image height

Early B.

Music Joe wrote: »

A bare reflective ceiling limits image height

Ooohhhh.

OK, if that's true, then I'm guessing I'd need to strategically place a couple of acoustic panels on the ceiling?

Does anyone have any links that specifically speak to this issue? I need to get my research on...

Thanks.

Music Joe

I wish I could point you to an article or thread that detailed early reflection or ceiling reflection.
Most resources are room treatment sellers interested in pushing whole room/full treatment aspects. They focus away from DIY,budget,or step by step, and get your head spinning. There seems to be no DIY room treatment guru webpages out there.
But! A common theme seems to be early relection and various ways to absorb/diffuse it.
A helper with a mirror and laser pointer. From about where my ears would be, I bounced it off the mirror held at the sidewalls and ceiling to hit the tweeter mids module. I mapped the areas in marker pen.

Rives resources that you can glean from

Audioholic resource page scrool down page

The rooms interaction with loudspeakers through boundary reenforcement and early reflection seem to be the top gremlins.
Early reflection points spotlight certain sonics,and detract from natural reproduction.

I started experimenting with a everything but the kitchen sink approach with many hit/miss DIY absorbtion ideas... large absorbtive panels on the walls and ceiling made the room too dead but did do some nice things. Eggcrate foam sucked as well. A cut up latex matress topper and pleated airfilters seemed to go in the right direction. As I went more diffusion/less absorbtion it worked really well for me. I found areas of the ceiling and wall that always needed something on them.
The speakers have a much harder time giving away the rooms dimensions which is about 20x12 (med/small?) and my rather large speakers now dissapear far better.
I think some combo of diffusion and light absorbtion on the ceiling may be best. I'm all diffusion on the ceiling right now with mache eggcrate airless spayed on both sides with heavy,heavy coats of latex paint. My next step may be to add back very light absorbtion via experimental placement.
The pro products which control wide bands of frequencies are most likely worth what they cost, however on my budget the homemade stuff transformed my listening space on the cheap.

Eggcrate probably won't fly with most spouses, my wife is patient with me that way...by mapping out the hottest reflection points and experimenting with absorbtion like multi-layered pleated airfilters or ma'che eggcrate may allow you to identify and maximize the use of a fewer number of the right kind of panels.

treitz3

I told you I wasn't buying it Early. Here you are tweaking within....what? Two weeks? That CC is still calling out to you...........

The problem is easy to fix, just turn your speakers upside down. That way the image will bounce off the carpet and won't limit the imaging. Or what Trey said.



Seriously, check out Micheal Greene's Room tunes for a little more to ponder over if interested. Here's a linky.......
http://www.michaelgreenaudio.com/
Somewhere on the site is a drawing that gives you what a setup may look like. Can't find it right now as they have changed everything around since I was last there, but if you are interested, you'll find it.

engtaz

Nice setup. Congrats +2 on acoustic panels

engtaz