Imaging

[TSG]

I'm not sure if my speakers are imaging properly or what... but the vocals seem to be too low. Vocals are centered nicely however they appear to be about 8-10 inches under the tops of the speakers. Should that be?

FYI.. The speakers are approximately 34" tall and the tweeters are ear level when seated..

Thanks




Tom

[SiliGoose]

Is this something you suddenly noticed in your system?

What speakers do you have?
What recordings did you notice it on?




-Sili

[dsmith]

Are these new speakers or is this a change in existing speakers? If new and assuming they are working okay this may just be a characteristic of the speaker. Sometimes you can "lift" the sound by placing something under the front of the speaker to angle it up slightly. But this will also change the sound quality from my experience - only you can say if you prefer it. Another option is to place something a couple inches thick as a plinth under the base to raise the entire speaker. This would be my preference. The trick is to find something that is not an eyesore, such as a thick marble slab. If these are older speakers and this just started I guess something could have gone wrong in the crossover or the tweeters. Are they under warranty?

FYI, my 42" speakers image a little low also because the tweeters are at the bottom of the speaker array about 28" off the floor. This is for time alignment purposes. I have gotten used to it, and since I do most of my serious music listening with my eyes either closed or unfocused it really does not matter so much to me. But I would like to add a marble plinth one day.

Don

[sfdoddsy]

Try raising the speakers higher temporarily and see how that sounds. If it sounds better, you probably have speakers with vertical dispersion problems.


Steve




Steve's DIY Dipoles

[TSG]

Thanks for the reponses guys... My system has completely changed in the last 5 weeks... From a Harman Kardon AVR80 and Pioneer DV-525 to B&K Pro10/B&K Ref4420 and Sony 9000ES. Speaker wires and interconnects were upgraded as well. I still have my Polk speakers but I made changes to them such as lining the inside with poly batting and adding spikes to them. I believe the speakers always imaged low however it seems more evident because everything is a heck of a lot more detailed now. The Polks have a 3/4" tweeter near the top and two 5 1/4" drivers follow.. pretty much butting up to each other. The vocals seem to be at the same level as the bottom 5 1/4" drivers. About 10 days ago I did look into getting some custom marble stands for them but they were a little more than I wanted to spend ~$175 each. It would raise them up about 3" which I think would do the trick. I'll try putting some phone books under them and see if it does anything...




Tom

[dsmith]

TSG, now that your electronics have improved it may be time to look into a speaker upgrade.

Don

[TSG]

Don.. This is true. Ricky has mentioned it to me a few times too. I have been looking and posting about speakers.

BTW.. I said marble in my above post.. they were granite stands.




Tom

[David Meek]

Tom, the phone books may actually damp the output even more. They aren't very solid and are made of soft, porous material. The soft part will allow the speakers to move slightly as the drivers move and porous may make it more sound absorptive. Have you got any bricks or cinder-blocks? They'd come closer to approaching the granite stands.




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker

[dsmith]

You might go to Home Depot or Lowes and look at their decorative concrete slabs for walkways or whatever. They are cheap enough to try, though you might have to stack them, and if you don't like them put them in your yard. Actually, you should be able to return them anyway.

Don

[Lex]

Sounds like time to upgrade speakers now Tom. lol.

You change anything in the chain, you've changed the chain. You can quote me on that.

Perhaps some marble slabs with the effect seen here:

http://www.htguide.com/lexman/images/front1.jpg

Lex




Cable Guy DVD Collection

[Ricky]

You might want to try tilting the front of the speakers a little.

My front towers are 42inches tall, with the tweeters about 36 inches high and around ear level. When listening to 2 channel through my tube preamp, it seems like female vocals are coming from my center speaker, which is placed on top of my RPTV and about 60 inches high.

[Ricky]

Tom (or anyone),

Here someone willing to sell the musical Citation 7.0 and 7.1 combo for 1k (retail 7k), and he's charging a mere flat $65 for fedex air shipping on both items, 120 lbs packed! The 7.0 is an awesome analog preamp and has bass mgmt in the analog domain, and stereo subs! Of course, the 7.1 is a monster 4 channel amp. Just add two great bookshelfs and 1-2 passive subs. The finish is excellent and the blue lights would go nicely with the Sony DVP-9000es SACD

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3016343162&category=14 974