Troll

I’m seeing a lot of reflective surfaces. Clap and if the echo fades in less than a second you’re good, otherwise consider bigger rug and some honeycomb or fabric blinds. Your patio door is going to reflect energy and probably hit you with left speaker more. If you want more bass and greater separation I’d flip the room and float the sectional so you have room for side and rear surrounds. But seeing you have kids you may or may not want them flipping off the back of the couch!

Fantastic review. If you are new to Klipsch they can be very revealing and you might find some of your favorite tunes aren't your favorite on Klipsch while other tunes you liked seriously wake up and you love them even more. I've heard songs on the radio that weren't my favorite that came alive on Chorus and I loved the song just for the sound quality. The artists I have known love to hear their songs played on all sorts of things, they don't care as long as you play their tunes. I have a neighbor who is a professional musician and he had never heard his own music on any hifi gear. I had total fun watching him. When you get over your "what can these guys do" then just sit back and enjoy your new world, save your ears. When I moved I used to set up my Chorus first before I moved anything else in so I could hear good tunes and also hear the room change as furniture moved in. The imagery of one in the back seat and one hanging out the trunk is fabulous. I hope you took a photo! If not throw the boxes back in there just for the shot!

Also if the mix engineer uses stereo sound shouldn’t we not override “the artists intention”? They can do mono if they want.

True but the exact same argument was used for mono v stereo and 2-channel v 5.1 and 5.1 v Atmos. And what’s a sensation anyway? Whatever it is you’ll get used to it. Might as well just listen to AM radio through single speaker. What’s the point if you don’t perceive it. I know plenty of people that literally can’t tell the difference in sound quality, while others have golden ears like super tasters. If you can’t perceive it does it exist? If the mix engineer who works in an Atmos room wants us to hear something should we try to share their experience? Not everyone needs an IMAX level of sound.

Lots of existing discussions on isolation in general. But it is relevant to this discussion too since it is LS models and discussion of possible cabinet resonance. Up to you. Not sure if new members can start new topics immediately.

What is the angle of separation in your setup? Mine is about 45 for mains and 90 for surrounds. I can totally tell a difference in stereo v mono bass, but my surrounds are chorus. Especially with Atmos on albums like Yello the bass waves move across the room. It’s lovely. You’d never get that if you were cutting off your lows and sending to sub. I’ve tried it.

If you draw a level line from your ear to the tweeter center, where is it now that you raised it? That might tell us something. Does it still fire level or at an angle now?

Photos?

IMHO the physics answer is unresolving speakers hide bad mixes. I bet the mix sounds great on harbeth p3esr near fields. Go figure out why. Also try on headphones. I watched a more recent Chris Isaac video and the eq on his voice is now totally different. I wonder why…. but at the time it had an unusual sound quality to rise above the fray. If you play with mix limits you play with fire. However it’s easily remedied on playback. There was one little bit in his voice after the enveloping warble that almost sounded like cone breakup. Maybe that’s the limit he hit with microphone or levels. It’s very brief. I always have to play a clean track to fix my head after hearing a bad mix. Compare this experience to over driving a speaker that can’t handle it, that actually does cone breakup. Heard that plenty of times. Time to move on to the next song.

That’s wonderful.

On used original commercial units redeployed to home use. Commercial plywood LaScalas had commercial woofers with higher SPLs and were often deployed in harsh environments, auditoriums with high temperature and humidity swings over many years. It’s fantastic people find them so good for reuse. Before you go screw up a pair of AL5s which are MDF/HDF and therefore have different resonance characteristics, I’d consider your SPLs and real world use and actual audible measurements from listening position. Should be easily done with test tone and mic, to pick up actual signal mismatch and with someone alternately pressing on sidewall to dampen to see if errant signal reduces or goes away. Probably REW can do it.

That’s the way waves work. You can test it with water. It’s what you’d expect, two speakers play louder than one. https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/physical-processes/light-and-electromagnetic-radiation-questions/v/wave-interference

Sorry I post as I think, since sometimes I keep thinking about something and reading/watching from other sources after I post the last comment. Not trying to self-promote I have nothing to sell. But I’m also not about to get corralled by old-timers. I’m a live and let live guy. If my pace or wording bothers you just move on. Yes I will move on too. I’m not one to yell at the tv or newspaper. I just change the channel or read something else. Community is in-person. It’s a canard to think online is really community. But it’s great for information sharing. If I ever meet any of you and remember your fake handle online then I might show some regard and defer. However my oldest friends know I say the darnedest things and they like me for it. Let’s not try to control each other. That’s the beginning of real community. Cheers.

I’ve a little crow to eat. When I reported I was able to reproduce the irritation of Big Blue Sky :37, I wasn’t running a flat PEQ. As soon as I ensured I was running flat/straight, and ensured the sub was off, nothing was there that I detected to be a warble or phase type issue, or unlistenable at 80-100dB. I also tried the suggested PEQ of 148Hz, Q:8, -7db at Yamaha’s 140.3 and alternately 148.7 and didn’t notice anything different than flat, though I was using my ears not a meter. Normally with the kind of music and movies I like to listen to I run PEQ 15.6Hz, Q:0.5, +6 PEQ 66Hz, Q:0.5, +6 all around. That curve does raise 148Hz about +4-5 db and makes for great husky male voices like Santa on Violent Night. So at a loud volume the Isaac Warble (lack of a better word) comes out loud and clear esp with subwoofer, and yes it’s removed if only one channel driven. Now, I’m not a set the volume and leave it kind of guy, and plenty of sources have irritating passages regardless of EQ settings so I just turn them down, skip ahead or as OP suggests, skip the entire song. I did that constantly with vinyl, 8-track, tape, and CD ever since I was a kid. Thank goodness it kept getting easier! Plenty of reasons to find songs and recordings unlistenable. My current scream is Morgan Wallen Thinkin’ Bout Me because it’s a stupid ear worm like achy breaky heart was. Don’t suffer people it’s just entertainment! The horns on AL5 can definitely envelope you at center stage and either you call that tunneling or whatever and you like it or you don’t. I usually sit to one side unless I’m really trying to take in something. I love how they will throw and image even if not in the sweet spot. I never feel like I’m listening to one speaker which happens a lot with other speakers when you’re off to the side. If you don’t like that effect you can over-cross them. Anyway, just sharing for what it’s worth!

Do you have any independently verified examples? I mean sure I could slap on the Jubilee Celestion driver atop my AL5 and make it more sensitive. Already verified that. But the usual networks upgrades with “high performance” components across the board lowered sensitivity in every case I read. Happy to look at an outlier, but the OP is unhappy precisely because of the choice to go 3rd party.