curtain of sound between them, your room’s reflections and/or seating distance is destroying the coherent sound that was engineered into the VR design. To eliminate this unwanted effect, you will need to determine whether the room’s reflections are at fault, or whether you are not in the “sweet spot.”
To find the focal point of the VR system, move forwards and backwards slowly while listening to the pink noise “ball.” You can either rock in your listening seat, or move back and forth by several feet if you are way out of the equilateral triangle. Using a director’s chair for this works best, as it is easy to move. If you have a fixed seating position that can not be moved due to furniture considerations, you will have to move the speakers either closer together, or further apart, depending on the strength of the pink noise “ball.” If your former speakers were placed close together to achieve center fill, try spreading the
*Note: if the speakers can not be separated more than a few feet due to room considerations, as in a video application, it may be necessary to toe the speakers outwards in order to gain a wide sound stage and reduce the tendency towards monophonic image focus.
When placing the speakers further apart than 8 feet, try toeing them in towards you, listening for the “ball” to lock in. It really helps to have two people moving the speakers while you sit in the listening position, giving them orders.
It isn’t really difficult, it’s fun. Of course, experimenting with several types of placement schemes is valuable, for it will teach you how the speakers interact with your particular room. Only by careful experimentation will you find that “magic” sweet spot for your new
REAR AMBIENCE DRIVER ADJUSTMENT:
The VR design has a
Once the speaker location has been determined, it is time to add some rear ambience. While listening to a variety of naturally recorded music, dial in successively more ambience, listening carefully to the change. If your rear wall behind the speakers is highly reflective, only a little ambience will be necessary if the speakers are fairly close to the wall.
In some situations, where the rear wall is highly reflective and the driving amp/cables are somewhat overly detailed, it may be possible that no rear fill is necessary nor desirable. If you hear “brightness” creep into the overall balance, it may be time to back off on the Spatial Dimension Control. In a room that’s fairly dead, with soft sounding gear, it may be necessary to use the Spatial Dimension control fully on.
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