[cyclingasronomer]

wow! i just relocated my speakers according to george cardas's method, and i am amazed at the difference. everything just clicked into focus, as they say. the music had better dynamics, high frequency clarity, better detail, more depth, and much better timing and musical espression. you put the woofers .276 times the room width out from each wall, and the woofer face .447 times the room width out from the rear wall. you might try it. and i was about to get rid of my vandersteens because i thought they were ovrwhelming my room with bass, and hence muddying up the music message. now i have to decide if it'd be even better with new speakers, and if i should go for the 2ce signatures. 'phones are intimate and pleasing for their detail, but a nice sound stage is lucious!

 

[schiss]

Isn't your little exercise totally revealing? Even some pretty cheap systems could sound better properly set-up.

The same problem you had with too much bass happens with SUBWOOFERS, too. Most folks just ram them into a corner and th5row some magazine on them, or hide them behind a chair, but that's usually a terrible SOUNDING place to put them. Level controls on powered subs help a bit, but it's still interacting with the room boundaries and needs to be placed properly.


Schiss

 

[Ctn]

I found putting spikes on speakers make much more of a diff on carpet.

 

[dstroot]

Where can one find out more about Cardas' method? I looked on the cardas web site but must have missed it.

 

[cyclingasronomer]

www.cardas.com then main menu, then insights, on the right side is a list. it is two-thirds of the way down,called room setups. i've tried the thirds set up and this seems to click better with my room. amazing.

 

[pigmode]

Yup, it seems that bad positioning and room acoustics can make a great system sound pretty mediocre.

 

[legoman]

a well positioned relatively cheap system often (dare I say: usually) beats a badly positioned expensive system.

 

[Tuberoller]

I am really upset about a speaker placement problem I'm having.I bought a set of Avante garde Duos and they sounded great powered by a set of Glass Audio SET monoblocs at CES in Las Vegas.They sound awful in my system and don't sound much better when powered by the identical Glass Audio amps.I think there is a problem with the subwoofer levels as well,but I swear it sounds as though Billie Holiday is suffering from nasal congestion when I play her through these speakers.i hate this and you don't want to know how much these speakers and amps cost.My wife is most disappointed though,she fell in love with this set-up as well.I have been in contact with the designer to try to remedy my problem,which he blames solely on placement and room acoustics.i hope i can figure something out.

 

[cyclingasronomer]

or positioning can make a good system sound even better! i liked my setup. except, because of my small room and large speakers, i had to use many tube traps and such devices to tame the bass. the false bass in your singer's chest would, i assume, be helped by better. read more appropriate, postitioning in that room. maybe you need some foam on the walls. have you tried the cardas position? the pearson rule of thirds? near-field listening? we moved my friend's speakers in his room to near field last night and he was very impressed. i imagine you know that near field takes away the room intereaction with the speakers. good luck.

 

[CRESCENDOPOWER]

Thank God for HEADPHONES!

 

[pigmode]

Quote:

. i imagine you know that near field takes away the room intereaction with the speakers. good luck.

In a small room you could still have standing wave issues. I'll be experimenting with basstraps in a couple of months.

I honestly think my speaker system produces a higher level of sound than my HPs.

 

[cyclingasronomer]

headphones are really nice, as well as relatively easy. but after you've worked for the perfect room, you can gloat and enjoy things you can't with 'phones. of course, you get much more detail with 'phones than with most speakers, too! they're both fun!

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Tuberoller -- it sounded good at a show? Then there must be something wrong with it, I'd return it ASAP!

(J/K...)

 

[pigmode]

cyclingasronomer,

Can you describe your experience with tubetraps? How many are you using, which brand, and how are they positioned? How did they affect your sound quality?

tia

 

[cyclingasronomer]

hi. sorry i didn't respond sooner. i've been listening to vandersteen 2ce signatures, audio physics spark, virgo, and another model i don't remember, as well as ruock, and totem speakers. it looks like i'll be keeping my tube traps, since i chose the vandersteens in my little 10 foot by 11 to 13 foot room. i'll pick sweet, lucious, engaging sound over solid, detailed, dry any day. ... now to the tube traps. i have a mixture of commercial ones and ones i had my son build for me from directions in a stereo magazine. i had the tube trap people design the trapping, when i thought i was going to go all the way with the real stuff. the most important were the round ones in the corners, then half-rounds on the front wall, then on the side wall rightbehind the speakers. the next step was third rounds on the ceiling. in that room i also built the walls double thick and stuffed them with insulation. i also use a variety of panels, as well as three inch and four inch foam panels, that stuff recording studios use. yes, it does damp things, but you get great detail. i'm going to try to play with getting rid of some of this stuff in my new room, but when one is in love with vandersteen speakers in a small room, one has to commit! actually, the room doesn't sound as damped as one would expect, especially now with a bay window. oh, i have done the bass trap bit kind of, putting tube traps in the closet in my front wall, then putting the foam over the entrance. i know this sounds like i'm fighting myself with the speakers, room, and dampers, but it really does sound nice. i can soak into the music really well, which i prefer to thinking about it.