"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , Keith G
wrote:

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...


I've also seen that. Also that they would drive two ESLs in antiphase
to check they could null the two outputs at the mic to confirm the two
speakers were near identical in performance.

How is that so hard - I would expect that with Lowthers?

Try it. Put the mic at the same distance (say 2m) from both, and drive the
pair in antiphase at the same level. Try doing this in your listening room
and if possible compare with doing it outside.

The problems a

A) most 'pairs' of speakers aren't actually that well matched in
sensitivity, frequency response, etc.


How much does that matter in most 'domestic' applications?



B) most chuck the power all over the room with a very poorly controlled
directionality pattern.


Again, what odds to anyone prepared only to pay as little as possible for
'budget' speakers?

That said, the budget Wharfedales. KEFs, Quads, B&Ws and Tannoy
standmounters I tried a while back (all mentioned here at the time, in their
time) were (IMO) sonically excellent and ludicrously good VFM - and I could
have lived with any of them!



I was seeing the quads doing this 'on the factory floor'.

if you can play antiphase music, sit in the listening position and hear
nothing (or very faint) until you switch back to inphase mono, then your
system probably can give very good imaging. But if not, then you may find
the imaging isn't what it could be. Depends on the details, though, so
isn't that simple to assess.

This is one of the tests I tend to do when fiddling with speaker/room
setup
to assess if I am close to a good arrangement. Can be quite revealing.


OK, that is all very interesting but I'm going to spare myself the effort -
I 'swing the other way' and don't care about any speaker disparity I can't
really hear. I remember that I had one each of two of those pairs of speaker
mentioned above (I think the Wharfedal Diamonds and KEF Cresta 2s) wired up
for a while (one brand on the left, the other on the right and never noticed
anything. I'd bet no-one here would have noticed either!

The 'horns' can be shoved into almost any postion (provided there's one on
the left and one on the right somewhere) and the 'image' might move a bit
but it's quite academic - the music exists independently of the speakers,
wherever they are - up to a point, obviously! (Like I said the other day -
my 'sweet spot' is all the way from my room out to the back door!! :-)