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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: Placement recommendations posted by pburant on November 12, 2004 at 06:21:22:
These things are not "active" electronically, they passively impact sound waves in the room. There are 4 synergistic physical functions here, but only 2 are of major importance in most rooms. Those 2, diffusion and diffraction, should help you with the theoretical placement of the lenses.Diffusion essentially involves scattering the wavefronts by blocking and reflecting them. Diffraction is more complex and I'm not going to try to explain it, but involves separating components of the wavefront as they go between the speaker and the walls, then back again. Both of these work best, IMHO, when they get right into the primary wall reflection lines in your room.
My room is large and rectangular and I use a short wall placement of speakers. That means that my listening position is along the short axis of the room from the speakers. That also means that the "first" reflection points in my setup are at the wall directly behind my speakers. So I start with placement in that line - between speaker and rear wall - for best effect. Mine are toed outward, fairly close to that wall, not far back from the speaker (clearance from speaker back to wall is about 22" total) and slightly outward. Since my speakers are toed in also, if you drew a perpendicular line from the middle of the back of my monitors to the wall, the lenses are right in that line. Makes sense, doesn't it, if I'm trying to impact that first reflection?
If you have a long wall placement in a rectangular room ,first place to start with only 2 clones is outboard of your front grills toed out, exactly as you have them. If you have a square room you're already in trouble, so you probably need 2 pairs of lenses, one at each of the above described positions.
These are starting points only. YOu should have someone else help you by moving them slowly according to your directions as you sit at your listening position and hear what they are doing. You can do fine adjustments much later.
Be aware that Argent recommended 3 lenses, one in the middle, plus suggested a couple behind your listening position for those reflection points if your chair is out from the rear wall too. And they also suggest outboards, etc., so you can use even more! But my experience is that you can start with just 2 and do wonders in SOME rooms, not necessarily all.
David Aiken and one other inmate experimented with different configurations of each lens array and wildly different room shapes and got interesting and good effects. This is not a "one size fits all" deal here! There are also all sorts of diffusion lens look-alikes out there you can DIY, so this isn't even a matter of being an orthodox Argent design copy either.
Looking at your picture, I seem to see what to my eyes looks like enough room behind the speakers to duplicate my placement. If you have a short wall (or square room) situation, try this out and listen for a day or so.
BTW, I've also found even in my situation that outboard placements like yours work, just differently, as does middle placment (I have a piano between so this was impractical, but not impossible). Height off the floor also can change the sonic effect somewhat. YOu have to decide what works for you sonically and esthetically. For my tastes in small combo jazz mostly the behind the speakers works best. For classical I found I prefered the soundstage effects of outboard placement like yours. Getting the idea here yet?
I didn't get it at all at first listen. But my 21 year old son got it immediately. By day 2 I heard the differences quite clearly. Cannot tell you why, as burn in would be a ludicrous explanation in a non-electric device! Maybe I just listened better when less tired; maybe the ambient noise in my house - always a serious factor - was less. However, my wife, my kids and my non-audiophile neighbors can hear it clearly and continue to be impressed. Remove them and you go into shock and withdrawal in my home.... In fact, even with monophonic recordings off of FM the sound image is superior and intriguing with these lenses vs. without. YMMV.
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Follow Ups
- OK, here's my best shot (long) - bartc 06:52:05 11/12/04 (2)
- Cool - thanks! - pburant 09:39:54 11/12/04 (1)
- Re: Cool - thanks! - bartc 21:33:57 11/12/04 (0)
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