10 Tips on how to get BETTER sound from your Stereo System!
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2019
- #Audiophile #hifi
Glossary for this Video:
1. 0:57 Speaker Positioning: Finding the right spot!
2. 3:08 Speaker Positioning: Not everything has to be perfectly lined up!
3. 4:56 Fine tuning! The benefit of using a good mono recording.
4. 5:59 Move that listening chair!
5. 7:00 Treat your freakin' room! It's worth it!
6. 8:12 Bookshelf users: Use good stands.
7. 9:22 Floorstander users: Use good spikes.
8. 10:06 TT or CDP users: Control those vibration tingles.
9. 11:30 Dedicated AC line baby! You know you want it.
10. 12:17 Polarity. It's worth a check!
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Want advice on how to run a dedicated AC power line? PS Audio did a bang up job stepping you through the process. Click here to get the info: www.psaudio.com/ps_how/how-to...
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Stands that Zero Fidelity approves of:
Entry: Monoprice 'Monolith', starting at $59 each: www.monoprice.com/product?p_i...
Mid: Pangea DS400 Heavy Duty, starting at $199/pair.
www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo...
Upper: Tri-Art P-Series stand, starting around $550/pair.
www.triartaudio.com/?page_id=...
OMFG Expensive: Star Sound stands (If you have to ask, you cant afford it).
starsoundtechnologies.com/inde...
For desktop Users, check out the IsoAcoustics ISO-300 as a good starting point:
www.isoacoustics.com/iso-130-i...
For what it's worth, I use the Isoacoustics Aperta 200's for my desktop system.
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Now let's talk about controlling resonance for your components.
On the cheap: www.amazon.com/dp/B075KHNK62/...
If you have the money: www.ingress-engineering.ca/
If you have even more money: avisolation.com/e1/
For turntables: Search for 'Medium load die springs'
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Lastly, let's talk about room-treatment options. There are lots of them. This is my "go-to" recommendation for most people:
www.gikacoustics.com/product/...
Really appreciate the insight this channel provides. Not really able to work with some of the regular products reviewed due to budget constraints. That said, getting this type of intel from a trusted source can be priceless.
Keep up the great work.
Good video. Couldn't agree more with the dedicated AC line! Well, couldn't agree more with several things you've said here.
after seriously playing hifi for 2 years, I can truly appreciate the wisdom laid down here by sean. It demonstrates his mastery. I like the suggestion asymmetrical arrangement of the speakers, it's our OCD aesthetics that robs us from the best sound. Guys, this is really good set of criteria for maximizing your investment - mostly free! oh the good speaker stand is a seriously good advice.
Each and every recommendation is great! Almost all of them I've heard from other reputable sources. Thanks a lot for sharing! (went away to buy some stuff))
Great tips!
Yes, we certainly will have issues with vibrations when we are having "problems to keeping the needle on the cartridge". 😍
All really useful advice. I do chuckle anytime the phrase "listening position " comes up, because my listening position is all over the room, I rarely sit still or in one spot. And its really cool also because I clearly hear things differently in parts of the room. Time to look into that room conditioning/treatment stuff....
Couldn't agree more with the seating position advice. Get your speaks where they work best in your room and move your chair to suit. It's brilliant and saves so much time.
Very useful, thanks for taking the time!
Useful and explained easily Waiting for 20 more tips and tweaks, debunking what doesn't really make a difference. Keep up the good job!
I love all the advice, ESPECIALLY about aesthetics of getting the speakers symmetrical, makes SO MUCH audio sense. That 1 inch to the right, left, front or back can snap everything into place, producing not only a center image, but also the overall soundstage. But sometimes we need to move both the speakers 2-3 inches matchingly to the left or right, makes a good difference to soundstage. And putting a piece of wooden board on the speaker plate in between the speaker and the plate, solves most of the reverberation problem.
Putting sand into the stand etc etc, man... get a life! Too much work, as if we have nothing else better to do. Oh... yeah... Sean you make a living out of this, I hope. And you should be making a good living! So good at what you do :)
I got something from this video like walking into the room and speaking using springs for the turntable and changing the polarity of the speaker cable and let's not forget about the speaker spikes I always forget about them things I must try thank you so much Sean The Best Is Yet To Come a big fan of yours Steve Costello
Great suggestions! Thanks
I can vouch for the Pangea Audio DS400 stands. As much as I said I didn't want to fuck with sand, I did that also. GREAT recommendation! I even rearranged my furniture to use stands for my 2 pair of Polk S20s instead of having a couple of them sitting on tables at the same height. They definitely sound better on the stands. I also just realized that I spent more on speaker stands than I have on other furniture in over a decade. I also spent nearly as much on the stands as I did the speakers. LMFAO!!! I will proudly say WORTH EVERY PENNY! Thanks for the awesome videos, Sean!
the common sense approach to audio neurotics. Sean keeping it real as always
Great video. Thanks!
Great video. I need to eventually do all this stuff (that I can anyway), if I haven't done it already. While buying new gear is very fun. If you don't do all the Audio Hygiene that should be done for the system you have now. There's a very good chance you're not really hearing what it's capable of. And you might be surprised, after it's all said and done, at just how good your system really is. Which may negate the need to spend all that money on new gear. And saving money is pretty fun stuff too. 😉
I'm aware it wasn't talked about in the video, but I know for my system that even just using quality homemade cables, and some premade ones too (bought 2nd hand, but NIB for a huge discount), made a BIG difference. I'll never go back to basic cabling again. That extra sparkle, and detail, you're looking for, may already be there. You just have to pull it out, so to speak. And speaker placement too. That's a real biggie. I've seen huge differences by just moving my speakers a couple of inches, and changing the toe in, on my current system. Also, if you can get the tweeters at your ear level too. That can really liven up the sound too. A HiFi is no different from a high performance car. It needs to be tuned correctly to run at it's best.
Superb video.....much appreciated.
Great video Sean!
Weighting down speakers from the top helps too. Lead weights inside fancy decor, like pots vases, hollowed out books. Key is get as close to double the speaker weight as possible, more is good too.
Since everyone's situation, ears, rooms, equipment, and personal taste are completely different with some overtones of common agreement . . . each person's remedy must be custom designed and not all rules will apply in achieving their goals. For me, I had an acquaintance, who listened to my system and suggested that the room was affecting my listening experience. He also mentioned that my monoblocks were adding background noise from the toroidal transformer. I also listened to his system and liked what I heard, so I sold my monoblocks and got very quiet amps, and also incorporated a DBX DriveRack PA2 in my system. Needless to say . . . the system sounds entirely different with great improvement because I can not only see the live response of the frequencies while listening but can also through the software adjust them to my listening preferences.
My speakers are Dahlquist DQ10s, which I modified a friends update on the crossovers, and added quite a bit of diffraction material, and added a ribbon tweeter. There are still some changes in drivers and in changing the passive crossovers to active with the help of the DBX. So thank you for the videos . . . always appreciative of input, learning, and continuing to grow in understanding in this very complex and very political hobby. I would say I have been in the hobby and learning for about 69 years and counting . . . and still, find it challenging with something new to learn. I still wish I had gained more technical knowledge and the equipment to test and tweak my system, but with what I do have . . . I really can't complain. It has been a great listening adventure.
Good points Zero! IME, keeping loudspeakers small (2 way monitors) and delegating the bass to a sub makes life much easier when positioning speakers. With large speakers it’s really tricky to get a good balance, I don’t think I was ever able to do so... Some toe in also helps imaging a great deal.
Leeloo Dallas Multipass I completely agree! I just recently upgraded to Wharfedale Denton 85th Anniversary Edition speakers on very good monitor stands with dual SVS SB3000 Subwoofers and all I can say is that it has completely made my music come alive! Imaging and soundstage are so realistic, making it sound like the artist is playing right out in front of me. Never going back! 😊
Yes, I was ocd on having my speakers exactly level with each other that has changed.Moved my right speaker (left when seated) about one inch closer did the trick for me, also if your speaker has that cupped sound in the upper midrange on some vocals try angling your speakers so they face slightly up by placing something under the front(bottom).Best advice I ever used was to get my sub higher off the floor, tightens up the bass and gives a more seamless transition in the sound.
There are even laser kits to make sure your speaker points at you... A few years ago I even thought buying one...
All Very good points. Speaker placement, room treatment and listening position I think are the top three things that really matter. Playing around with the polarity with mono recordings can be fun.
Does it really cause no harm if i reverse the polarity?
@@myplaguesify That's correct. Reversing the polarity will do no harm to your speakers or amp. You might notice the low frequencies cancel each other out if they arrive to your listening space (ears) at the same time. You might notice vocals disappear as well.
Good content as usual, Sean.
Appreciated!
Thank You. I'm trying to figure my stereo out. This helps.
I tried to talk to the wall once. Well, my mum called the exorcist.
Hahaha
Good advice!
Great video. I wish you could recommend some good wall mounts for bookshelves. Everyone I've tried sucks, they all end up sagging. Also one tip I wish you had for 2 channel. Fiber Optical Cable vs Digital Coaxial. Which is better in your opinion? Even for 5.1 sound.
My Bowers & Wilkinson 500 series is mounted on the wall with special speaker mounts
What are your opinion on that?
Only channel who js giving a neutral advice
Without any. Commercial interests
Appreciated whole heartedly!
good advice
I use a 1.5v battery across my speaker terminals and observe the speaker cone movement to check phasing.
Elvis Rocker is agreat mono recording. Mono switch on a stereo recording?
When it comes to the "Equilateral Triangle", thats usually where I start, then make my adjustments from there. I have found that starting there, I tend to have to adjust much less than starting with the speakers closer together.
In a 2 channel music listening do u play it as monolith or stereo
5:01 They used to have mono switches on amps back in the old school days (vintage amps) but not on any amps after the 80's. I know it seemed to make it roll off a bit, but it would be useful for positioning your speakers. Did mono switches really roll off in the top end or is it a sonic illusion?
✔️ x9
2 dedicated mains lines to each system. One for digital the other for amps;-)
The offset triangle is interesting....
Will have to try it as a balance control. Wish amps still had them!
It's also worth playing with hight and tilt angle of speakers. I have my floorstanders tilted up slightly and raised a couple of inches. This is because they are less than a meter tall.
I have the opposite problem. the tweeters are too high off the ground. im thinking removing the spikes as i have marble floors so the vibrations shouldnt transfer into the ground to the detriment of the sound i hope
@@darpanbhuyan1909 hi you could try tilting them forward by extending the rear spikes.
@@chrisvinicombe9947 thanks chris... simple and effective but hadn't occurred to me... sometimes common sense ain't so common after all!!! :D :D
Hi Sean....Im a newbie here..i just want to ask if spikes are advisable even if my floorstanding speakers are placed on a concrete floor...i have this idea that they're only good for carpeted floor..please advise.....thanks in advance...
Regarding Polarity, when I was a kid, I used to connect a 1.5V dry cell to my speaker, and check the movement of the speaker. If it went forward, it was fine, otherwise I considered it reversed. Does it make sense ?
Per your last tip, I swapped the polarity on my R (which Audyssey threw up a phase error, which I determined was due to placement and not the speaker), and immediately I noticed an expansion in the sound stage: vocals seemed to scale vertically along the center axis and movement of instruments across the stage. I do like this setup -so thanks for the tip - however, I'm concerned about any long term damage to speaker or AVR circuitry? Using SR6014 and pair of Elac UF52
Would the length of speaker wire effect speaker positioning? If your speaker wires are different lengths?
Would love to hear more about the polarity what systems or types of amps or brands are like that
www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/tip-of-the-month-ac-polarity/
www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/system-tweaking_e.html
www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_polaritycheck.php
www.richardfarrar.com/are-your-speakers-wired-correctly/
I was just thinking That duke album. Good advise all around
It's a good un'.
The emblem crooked on that white speaker?
Wish I could set up a listening room. My listening area is the living room. Left side is the balcony so I got the darn glass sliding doors like 8” from the left speaker. Right side opens up to the dining room.
I had a pair of ProAc Tablette Anniversary and they sounded ok. Then I sold them to a friend. He has a cosy little listening room. When played there, it sounded so sweet.
My Name ... it’s a 2 bedroom but lately a lot of new condos have a single oblong space when you enter. That’s the dining area and the living room. Then as you enter, the far side is the balcony.
Living room is on far side ...
Interesting and informative talk, thank you very much. What do you think about room correction software like Dirac which works with the room you have rather than room correction which physically alters the room and has low partner acceptance factor?
I think Dirac is a decent solution for people who have spacial and/or feng shui constraints. Truth be told, I've yet to hear in-room correction that I like - hence why I didn't mention this in the video. That said, there's quite a few solutions that I've yet to experience, so I'll keep an open mind about it.
Great video like always! Question:
I’m running a 2.1 record setup with Elac’s Unifi in a small room with and an old cheap Denon AVR I found in a thrift store. I’m just not getting that next-level experience I keep waiting for. I liked your video on the Sprout100, do you think that would be a good replacement? Any other recs? Thanks!
The Sprout 100 is a solid match with the ELAC's. Plus, most retailers that sell em' offer some kind of a trial period, so I'd def. encourage you to go for it.
ZF, Play anything by Pat Metheny, will work too. Good vid. D.
Another one to mention is if you have floor standers, get them OFF the floor as that's a mistake many make. Ideally, speakers like my vintage ADS L810 large bookshelves, they need to be about 12 to 15 inches off the floor and there are stands for these, the L800 but gotta find a pair. Even a pair of Kliptsch Forte speakers need to be raised by a similar amount or you risk incurring a lower mid to upper bass boominess.
I have a set of ADS 710 speakers I purchased new in 1981 in central NC. Since then purchased Paradigm 5.2 and Polk 5 channel systems. Still my ADS speakers sound GREAT. They are my reference to see how newer speakers have evolved.
When I bought my last system, I photographed the room. I think my room is on the lively side of average. My speakers would never be called "bright sounding" but these speakers are bright enough. Room acoustics are important, but I have always tried to buy speakers or electronics that perform well under many situations. Not easy to do, but it can be done. Even if I won the lottery, I still would not buy these big assed speaker cabinets/ I would still go for stand mounted speakers or smaller floor standers. I might take a look at the entry level Magnapan speakers. I think They are what 1,400 bucks a pop? Other than the maggies, I would steer clear from big cabinet heavy speakers
Ahhh…. flipping polarity is not a question of "like" or "not like". They are either IN phase or OUT of phase... it's not a preference! Many audio newbies don't know how to tell that speakers are out of phase (polarity), but I have never encountered a piece of gear that had the +plus and -minus mislabeled. Over the years I've corrected more systems in store showrooms than I can count!
How does the voice of neutrality work,?
I mean your listening from the actual position your speakers will be in, ??
What do you think about speakers where the manufacturer says that they work well up against the wall or on an actual bookshelf? Is this sealed speaker marketing or is there some design truth to it beyond the lack of port?...like a wider baffle or baffle step correction for this placement. thanks
Depends on the manufacturer. For example, Swedish manufacturer GURU designs their speakers to be placed directly against a wall. So does Heed Audio, Sjofn, Audio Note (UK), Dali's Mentor Menuet, and a number of others. Now, no speaker is going to sound ideal on a literal bookshelf, but many are tuned to work well in environments like that - so yep, there are options.
Excellent video. Thanks. You obviously have some good knowledge and a very pleasant demeanor. However, I'm compelled to offer controversial alternatives to some of your controversial suggestions.
1. Acoustic treatment benefits are IMO, way overrated but I presume depends greatly on the level of playback one is able to achieve from their system. The higher the level of musicality generated by a playback system, the less important acoustic treatments are. I never use any. :) Acoustic treatments should never be confused with what should be deemed reasonble listening room. For example. I would never consider a bare floor or a glass table as reasonable. IOW, even though a carpet/pad are a form of acoustic treatment, I consider it a bare essential / requirement. Acoustic treatments e.g. panels, absorbers, etc. is what I think of as being overrated.
2. You suggested decoupling speakers to floor using spikes is an oxymoron. That's like saying decouple the lightbulb from the wall outlet with copper wiring. Decoupling is the act of severing an energy conduit. A box of sand under a speaker will instantly "decouple" a speaker from the floor (not recommended) whereas a tightly fastened spike will "couple" the speaker to the floor and thus allow unwanted (previously trapped) energy to exit the speaker into the floor (this is desireable).
3. You suggested brass spikes. Brass may be fine for music instruments but is a soft and slow metal and since in your example we're talking "coupling" speakers to the floor, brass is too slow and will create a bottleneck of the amount of unwanted energy to transfer away from the speaker.
4. When discussing vibration mgmt, you mentioned CDP's and TT's skipping from severe vibrations of people walking by etc. In truth, this has nothing directly to do with vibration but everything to do with shock and impact which is an entirely different subject and remedy. Shock and impact can induce subsequent vibrations. For example. If I take a sledgehammer to a vertical beam in the basement, the whole house may eventually vibration (if the house doesn't collapse first from the impact) but again what you describe is shock and impact.
5. You mentioned vibration isolation. Though most dream at night of bungee cords, springs, sponges, sand, and Sorbothane in a utopian high-end environment, in truth the concept of true isolation from all vibrations is actually against the laws of physics and impossible to achieve. Because, if one successfully "isolates" a sensitive instrument from 1 of the 3 primary sources of vibrations i.e. floor, air, internally-generated, they simultaneously will inheritly trap all vibrations in the sensitive instruments coming from the 1 or 2 other sources. Hence, true vibration isolation is really nothing more than a grossly inferior form of the one true vibration methodology which is resonant energy transfer.
6. You suggested dedicated circuits/lines to isolate noise from other appliances, dimmers, computers, etc throughout the house when there's no real proof of this. All AC coming in from the street is noisy/dirty and of course other electrical items in the house don't help matters. In fact, some attest that all digital noise is bi-directional and will travel all the way back to the service panel and then induce sonic harm into all the other circuits. In such cases, a dedicated circuit/line does little more than dedicate noise already on that line. The only real benefit of dedicated circuits/lines is for as you allude, ensuring high-powered amplifiers have enough juice for loud, dynamic, and/or complex passages.
7. Because of #6 above, your subscribers could really benefit had you included superior AC line conditioning/filtering/cleansing and/or purifying in your list of top 10 suggestions. Superior being the keyword here as the industry is littered with inferior products. Nevertheless, this the beginning of what separates a truly musical playback system from the "hi-fi" sound found in so many systems. In fact, the sonic benefits of "purified" AC are so immense and across the board, this should have been suggestion #2.
This is great stuff, all around solid advice. My tips would be to fill the speaker stands with sand to kill resonance. Also, what I've done with speaker position is using Bob from myspeakersetup.com 's method for placement. Basically start with both speakers against the wall, pull the left speaker out until the bass is coupled with the room. Then, pull the right speaker out until the center image is formed. Use minimal toe in to focus center image. Finally, use minimal rake angle (tilt the speaker back) to raise the soundstage and make it sound like the singer is standing up (this is personal preference though). I would be careful with this last tip though as too much rake angle can screw up the tonal balance of your speakers. I used to think having everything symmetrical was the way to go. Boy was I wrong. With this method no measuring tape is needed as you are making adjustments by ear. Also, rooms aren't symmetrical so speaker placement shouldn't be either.
Sound like gru i love gru thanks it helped me very much
Spot on... i have myself noticed 80 percent of these things in past 7 years. Most of this came to make sense from 2015 onwards... 1. placing one speaker ahead of the other is something i have not heard from any one but yes have seen the image gets better because the back wall is ahead on one side.
About switching polarity advice ... sure thing - go try it, just TURN OFF your amplifier prior disconnecting speakers ... some amplifiers may not survive this operation (check users manual if unsure).
Very good points! One more. Tip #11 Win the Lottery
Yes that's definitely number 11 the bottom of the list much more important things than that😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
I bi-amp my speakers,i reverse the polarity in high freq.(tweeter) but remain the polarity in woofer.and notice a minor difference the instruments became more forward which for me is good,.does it harm my tweeter for reversing polarity? or my amplifier? coz if not i will keep it this way..thanks man
Nope. No harm will be done.
generally it will cause a massive dip in amplitude at the crossover point, as well as messing with the phase allignment, effectively causing you to perceive that the tweeter has moved back or forward a little, so it might be that brain perceives the highs to be literally closer.
edit: or if you're using 2 different amplifiers you could actually be fixing a phase difference.
Are those diffusers that you bought off Amazon worth the purchase? Or would you recommending going absorption first?
Go absorption first. Honestly, the jury is out with those diffusers. When I used them in a normal diffuser application (ie: to disperse direct acoustic energy), they didn't seem to make an audible difference. However, when I placed them to the side of my speakers (to address slap echo), they made a notable impact. Moreso then regular furniture. Ron at New Record Day owns the same panels and had the same exact experience as myself, for what that's worth. So yep - Go with two or three absorption panels first, and then worry about diffusers.
@@ZeroFidelity thanks! I'll do that. And keep up the great content. Your channel has been really valuable to me in my audio Journey.
How can u put better speakers in a SOUL?
Excellent . One more thing two speakers side cabinets should see each other and nothing should be there between them. Also little lifting front baffle up by adjusting spikes of stands .By doing so we get sound stage . But it May not possible for everyone
One of the tips I was going to give was keeping large objects from being in-between the speaks. But usually when people do that, it's because they have to, not because they want to. I agree though, it's best to have nada in-between the speakers that is at or above driver height.
Zero Fidelity thank you very for this video just placed Hudson hifi feet to place under my CD player
Amphion makes studio monitors. how about evaluating them?
Amphion expressed interest in sending me the Argon 3 bookies after my review of the Helium 410's. Things have been radio silent since then. I probably won't be covering their monitors anytime soon, although I wouldn't be opposed to it if some were sent my way.
Polarity YES speakers do come faulty from factory wired out of polarity and therefore out of phase.
#2 problem, i use a voice
saying This is the Left speaker This it the right
get the womans voice on target the same sound
My wife found me standing up against the wall in our spare room talking to myself.......needless to say I am now single!!! 🤣
Welp, there are always headphones... :D :D
🤣😂🤣😭😭😭
Bonus! Now you can buy more equipment!
Gosh.... that is funny.
Need a video on sub woofers which everyone should have, and if you have the space two even better, thanks for the speaker alignment information I will be moving my left side speaker closer to center.
Yea, I think every room has a sweet spot.And 2 feet in any direction changes the sound.
as far as speaker stands for the desktop, im using the Soundrise stands, they do a damn good job and clear up space due to the design.
Sweet suggestion!
I have a fairly large, high ceiling listening area, and what worked for me in the end, and I fought against it thinking I could do it by ear, was using my receiver’s room correction function. It set the two front towers, center, and surrounds in the large setting. I set the cross on the sub at 50 hz.and the volume is at a level so it blends nicely with the towers.
It made all the difference for the better in both two channel and surround sound listening. I’m finally enjoying the sound of my cds, vinyl, streamed music, and movies.
I'd say that for multi-channel systems, room correction can be very impactful! For two-channel, I prefer the old school way of doing things, but there are tons of room-correction tools on the market today and there are plenty of people who like em'. A totally valid way to potentially get better sound!
I do have a separate two channel setup along side the newer equipment. It’s my early 90’s Proton AA1150 amp and preamp hooked to two Klipsch B3’s on stands and an old BSR passive subwoofer in which I did use the old school methods you pointed out here and obviously its very a different sound but just as satisfying as the AVR setup.
Always enjoy your videos and thanks for the response!
sometimes you put the speakers out of phase when designing deliberately to alter its characteristics phase
@Zero Fidelity I'm going to get the P-Series stand & then paint them a little darker! lol but thanks bro! ;-)
Heck yeah!
@@ZeroFidelity Actually they are available stained (special order)
Voice of Neutrality is out. I'm not on speaking terms with myself since week 4 of lockdown.
What amp is that? It looks fab! Great video by the way, I’ll be doing the own voice trick of tip number one.
That's the Heed Audio 'Elixir' integrated amplifier. Hope the voice technique works for ya!
Keep yours speakers away from the back wall and side walls and align them to your R ear and L ear a big difference.
✌🏻
I am having a child move out going off to college soon so I will inherit the bedroom he is in. It's not a big room maybe 12 by 12 have you ever seen anybody set the room up in a diagonal proportion meaning the components and the speakers are both in one corner and you're sitting in the opposite corner just curious
Yep. I've seen a number of dealers and manufacturers do this - and sometimes the sound can be genuinely good!
@@ZeroFidelity thank you for the feedback I always appreciate your opinion
I have a set of bookshelf speakers and I always thought, gosh if I lift the hight a bit, the tweeters will be closer to ear level. I got no positive results. On a whim one day, I decided to angle the speakers back and shoot over my ears. Center image became natural.
Now, I do get what this is all about, you folks, looking for perfection which is some sort of never ending quest, but that's OK as the jurney is the target here. I get it. But as a newbie, someone, who is just about for the first time try to build some stereo system in his new livingroom, someone, who love to listen to music, but also have other interests... I must say that I'm always rethinking whether it makes sense to even start. I mean, let's go by the list here.
1+2+3+4) finding the right spot, well the right spot of speakers and everything else needs to be also visually pleasing. It's gonna be in the living room of me and my family, not my personal listening room. Even with my weak form of OCD I can't live with idea that some speaker is 10 inches from a wall and the other 15... Same apply for me, there is a place to sit in the living room which location in the room makes sense from many different reasons (door out of the room, to the terace, position of light, windows etc.), no, I don't want to mess with it because of finding the sweet spot for the audio (which will be anyway sweet just for 1 person).
5) No, thank you. It's a living room, so whatever can be used, such as carpets or some windows shades are good to go as they would have been there anyway, but putting some isolation materials on my walls? Common!
6+7) No bannana here either from once again a design reasons. Same reason why I think about bookshelfs and nothing else will lead me to rejection of any stands (if such a massive stand is an option then I need to ask why bother and not buy same space occupying floorstanders instead?), so the speakers will go on massive wood lowboard and that's it.
8) fair enough
9) Aaaaand back to extreme :D
10) fair enough
So as you can see, I'm obviously not serios with my stereo at all, right? I'm doing everything by the book...
... in the oposite world. So now what? Shall I give up all together, buy some stupid soundbar and live with it? I hope not, I really do hope that everytime I see a video of this sort it's a little over the top, little too much, little exaggerating. I hope that because I basically looking for the balance, I able to accept the information that I'm not gonna get best out of my system, or maybe not the best by far, but in exchange of better balance of all my other (mostly visual / design related) needs of me and my family.
I'm probably gonna find soon whether this, what I without any experience in the field consider as extreme is really an extreme, or I'm wrong (and such videos are right) and it's either doing it completely properly, or rather not at all.
I think you took this video just a tad too seriously.. :D To be clear, you don't have to follow through on ANYTHING in this video to enjoy good sound. This video is simply for individuals who have the inclination and ability to tweak and adjust. If that's not you - it's no problem! To address some things:
Some people may be chasing perfection, but most of us realize that utopia doesn't exist. Hence why most people simply want to make the most out of what they have. As for extremes: One could argue that dropping big bucks on audio gear is extreme as is.
Welcome to the hobby. Hope you manage to have fun!
@@ZeroFidelity No worries, I know I'm not the typical audience of your videos and I understand that typical audience will more than appreciate all you've mentioned. My comment was just to bring the point of view of someone who is new to the hobby, that this level of seriousness is somewhat stressing :D Right now, I still have the "outsider look" on the community and I do hope that I will resist this "perfection seeking" as long as possible. :)
Isn’t there an app for checking phase?
Probably. There are test CD's as well. I also use a flip phone, so I have no idea what apps are out there - let alone how to use em'. :D
Rule #1 - have a vacuum tube preamp, it makes digital sourced material sound so much better and lessens the fatigue factor.
Another way to get your stereo to sound better is apparently to figure out what speakers you want, then have Sean review them, then wait for the manufacturer to integrate improvements suggested by ZF. Here's the proof... a video from Tekton from a couple days ago. This is a cool video, too (even answers the combing (sp?) question I've read about). ua-cam.com/video/7sAxkwxtC6A/v-deo.html
Woah. Didn't know about that vid. Cool stuff and thanks for sharing!
An OCD nightmare,asymmetrical placement and positive connections in the negative terminals,a lot of audiophiles even if their systems sounded better. Would be so stressed out they could not sit back and enjoy it 🤪
🤯🤪🤪🤔🤔🤪🤣
what watch are you wearing? is that a Rolex pepsi on a rubber strap?
CD... digital mastered
I didnt know summitG was a audiophile.
Tip #1...open the best bottle of wine, put on you fav music and check yer bank account the next day....
😂😂😂 That's a great one.
my stereo tv speakers run almost 70 procent to the left speaker. :) sounds god to me :)
My Name hidden? Its preamp to amp to speakers. The pre has balance l/r
My Name hidden? Its preamp to amp to speakers. The pre has balance l/r
Here is a tip, when your adjusting center image use a electronic music track(for example the encounter by ace Ventura)and try to get get the kick drum be in the center if u would do it ur golden.
Buy nice equipment and get rid of reverbs. That gets you there. Its that easy.
You should try marriage counseling with all these tips and information I would have still been married today I bet LOL PS just changing the back of the speaker wire connection from positive to negative is safe I'm not going to blow up my speakers and do the same thing on the amp side or just leave the app at the regular position and just criss cross the wires in the back of the speaker
hehe. Yep. No danger unless you purposefully touch both the positive and negative leads together while the amp is on. And you do it just on the speaker side. No worries about the amp or any other cable in the system.
I swear by the Cardas speaker placement method. I spent months and months doing it by ear before I discovered the Cardas website and I found out I'm within inches of Cardas' formula. That tells me their method works.
I also swear by the equilateral triangle placement. The only reason I'm not doing it on my main system is because of practicality concerns.
There are many methods - with no golden bullet that'll work for everyone. I'm happy you found an approach that works for you!
For $500 it is not that difficult to buy a circuit breaker, some 10 or12 gauge wire, and a wall outlet and do it yourself. It should take less than one hour depending on how you route the wire and a youtube video can be found on how to do it with complete safety.
Magnepan speakers take months of experimentation complete with acoustic panels to get right but they are my favorite because a pair of $50,000 box speakers can't touch a $1400 pair of Magnepans.
waiting for the new maggies, hope they don't dissapoint! got 2/450w@4ohms mAMP w/DAC 2v2 ready to rock!
@@CarlVanDoren61 I think they will outclass any box speakers you ever heard, depending on your tastes. They are incredibly refined. I run mine with 833-A SET driven by 45's through LL2765 interstage transformers. The output transformers are Hammond 1642SE. I put 1000 Volts on the plates of the 833-A's.
Also bare in mind supply amperages vary throughout the day. Listening when most of the population is work will aid listening quality.
I live out in the country so that helps. My amplifiers are SET which, unlike solid state and push-pull, do not need extra current during loud crescendos.
no me i just want to hear these tips get to it
So it is not the intrinsic value of the music in what the creator is trying to tell through it , nor which degree of truthfulness and fidelity on high of the music the speakers are putting out there that really makes the difference, but the positioning...? And that 3 sided triangle thing applies only sometimes...? Uhm... Zero Fidelity , Gotta go and listen to some good Celestial music now through my good old reliable system.
I've gotta disagree on several points- When I redecorated I stripped the walls of wallpaper installed wooden flooring and bought a leather sofa. I LOVE the brighter sound in the redecorated room. It's all down to personal taste and state of our own hearing!
Why is there such a tiny coffin in the thumbnail?
Guilty of being obsessed with symmetry and other general OCD-ness when it comes to the presentation of gear. Feel compelled to move things back into place after each listening session.
Also, for those that just don't have the space to reposition things, or just can't be bothered, then something else to maybe consider is room correction software (if you're not against it).
PS - Great video buddy. Informative & concise, as always.
And yes, I still lean forward when listening :)
lawl Barry. You are like the hyper kid that's high on junk food all the time. D:
If your room isn't symmetrical then it's ok if your gear is.
all you need is a good power conditioner an electrician can’t stop voltage spikes and drops