Somewhere on teh intarwebs Rob wrote:
On 23/03/2012 10:00, TonyL wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

Problems with imaging may have nothing to do with the nominal
frequency response of the speakers. May be due to other factors like
their radiation pattern, colouration due to other parts vibrating,
how this all interacts with your room's acoustic, etc, etc.


Thanks Jim,

I did do some experimenting with positioning and room acoustics with
no real improvement. As individual speakers the IPL units sound
fine...just no proper imaging as a pair. Somebody emailed me
suggesting that the ribbon tweeters used could be the
problem....does this make sense? Could they have a narrow or uneven
radiation pattern? If an MF or HF driver were wired incorrectly could
this explain the
lack of image?

My fully assembled Behringer monitors cost less than half of the IPL
driver kits (enclosures not included) and yet sound so much
better...must be a reason...


I had some Dynaudio floor standers and bookshelf speakers - model 40
and 70 I think. Used the same drivers (maybe the bass on the 70 was
an inch bigger). The small speakers sounded *much* better in terms of
imaging and especially bass. I think the extended bass of the larger
speakers served to muddy the dispersion of the sound (or some such!).

In my case I think the room size (about 15' x 12') conspired against
the larger speaker too.

You could have a point. I recently changed the low-frequency cut-off (where
bass is sent to the sub and the 'large' speakers) for the 'small' speakers
on my HT setup from 100Hz to 200Hz and now there seems to be so much
more.... Surround effects. Sounds come from particular places so much moreso
than previously.

What's more the front left and right (set to 'large') now have heaps more
punch and sound so much better - but that's beside the point. Removing
frequencies from below 200Hz improved the..... imaging I guess of the
smaller speakers considerably.

I think you're right in saying that extended bass can interfere with
imaging - which makes a case for the sub / satellite system that I've been
trying to get away from with my music / stereo system. (Not that the main
speakers are exactly satellites, being 3-ways with a 10" woofer. However
they don't get down below ~50Hz very well so I augmented them with a powered
subwoofer set to 50Hz and less. Imaging is great.)
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)