Quote:
Why raise them when you can just aim them upward?
Audioengine speaker stands
why..?
because if you raise them you can continue to send soundwave reflections towards a wall behind you.
as well as relfecting soundwaves off the side walls.
a lot of neat tricks can be done when the soundwaves have the abilitiy to bounce back directly at the speakers.
you should read up on noise cancellation and reverb timings of the room and when / where / why sound dampening is a good/bad thing.
the reading should stem into perspectives such as 'feedback destroyers' and room optimization DSP's (and what those digital signal processors are actually doing.. by all means literally)
speaking ideally.. you would want a soundwave that comes out of the speaker and bounces into absolutely nothing, but some speakers use common room measurements to 'optimize' the final output.
you can use those walls as an advantage whereby throwing out a soundwave and then throw out numerous 'out of phase' soundwaves to cancel out what was originally sent out.
but to understand..
the soundwaves disappear on their own like evaporating water.. or an echo that slowly loses momentum with each bounce off the wall.
or even a billiard cue ball that loses speed after each time it bounces off a rail.. going back and forth until it finally comes to a halt.
the first problem that comes about is knowing that different size rooms have different back and forth characteristics.
and what this means is, different frequencies will die on their own quickly.. while other frequencies refuse to die because they are bouncing between the walls at 'optimum' intervals.
kinda like those office beads that have six or eight silver/chrome balls and you grab one ball to swing out sideways.. then that ball falls down and strikes the remaining balls that are lined up in a row... thus making the ball at the other end swing out.
and this 'knick-knack' continues on for some time because of newtons law 'objects in motion will remain in motion and objects that abruptly stop will inflict the same inertia onto whatever caused the sudden stop.' (the equal and opposite motion rule)
anyways..
some notes or 'tones' or 'frequencies' (whichever you wanna call them) will fade away and die faster than others.. this all depends on the length and width of the room to determine which notes/tones linger.
now, if you send out three soundwaves at once.. and two of them die quickly on their own.. when you send an 'out of phase' soundwave to cancel out what was just sent (to clear up any echo in the room)
the problem is..
two of them are already dead.. so yes, one soundwave of the three will meet its opposite phased version and will suddenly cease to exist.
but the other two soundwaves that are 'out of phase' have no soundwave to come in contact with.. and that means you are listening to the soundwave twice... which is fatiguing to the ears and also robs details and clarity within the air.
this stuff happens in nanoseconds i suppose.
so the result would be tones or notes that are unusually long compared to the actual audio that is on the CD.
the long sounds are really robbing the vivid detail.. its like trying to hear the music with the television still on and sending audio out into the airspace.
listening to two things at once is horrendous.
so..
aiming the speakers up towards your ears will bounce the soundwave off of the ceiling and back wall.. basically the seam where the ceiling meets the back wall.
and that can become much more trickier to compensate for, when comparing a simple cube or rectangle.
besides, there are optimization 'setups' and 'tweaks' for time alignment that require the speaker be aimed directly at the wall and not tipped up towards the ceiling.
THX setup console is one example of time alignment software that helps the vivid details make it to your ear drums rather than getting utterly lost in the air.
an ideal setup would be a powerhouse of equipment and rather than using an equalizer, you use very fancy time alignment to compensate for the length and width of the room you are in.
if you use time alignment because one speaker is further away from your ear than the other.. then you know you dont have to have the power level different for each speaker because the speaker close to your ear will 'wait' to output the soundwave so that the soundwave from the left side hits your ears at the exact same time as the right side.
the same time + the same amount of speaker cone movement = no perceivable difference
it is possible to lose amplitude (which comes from the amount of speaker cone movement) because of air pressure (or a lack of)
and wind can also goof around with the soundwaves.
there are lots and lots of equipment (mostly for car audio) that have time alignment features built in.. basically because the driver door speaker is closer than the passenger door speaker.
you can really appreciate the difference that can be made using time alignment.
but be warned though, because when you use time alignment.. the details are only as loud as the speaker furthest away.
so you will want to turn the balance to the right side a little bit and make sure not to push the speaker into distortion.
the new sound will also have 'feel' or vivid details all up in your face and ears thanks to the balance adjustment which again is needed because the details are only as loud as your furthest speaker.
and this can be a considerable distance for some setups.. i have seen speakers placed about 20ft apart from eachother before.
trying to hear the details in the audio from a speaker that is 18ft away and not turned up very loud is not easy and much is left to be desired (which would result in the volume knob being used)
there are two things to observe and take note here.
1. you can aim speakers towards your ears and listen to the soundwaves that come directly from the speaker cone and totally ignore those soundwaves as they continue to move passed your ears. (which would be like having the speakers outside with no walls whatsoever)
2. you fill up a space or 'room' with sound, much like filling up a balloon with air.
and when you fill up the balloon, you dont have to.. but you should make sure that there are no uneven air pressures inside so the balloon doesnt get big in one spot and pop prematurely.
having audio panels can further help with eliminating soundwaves that are stubborn and refuse to die out quickly.
and thus, the best place for your sound panels would be on the wall behind your speakers so as to catch the soundwave as it bounces off the wall behind you on the couch.
the sound paneling will prevent the waves from bouncing off a wall a second time which really helps keep the air clean.
i am only trying to suggest that the person try to fill the room with sound rather than point the speakers up towards the ears because you might make the situation worse.. or no better at all.
but you have to have audiophile hearing to be able to appreciate the vivid details because sometimes trying to find those details is almost worse than trying to hear a pin drop in total silence.
(and a pin drop in total silence from a distance of four or five feet away from you is more appropriate)
