Speaker Placement Constraints and Heresy

[JuneBug]

I have been lurking around the bulletin board for quite some time now, and have greatly benefited from the enormous amount of information throughout the board. Special thanks to whoever discovered the horn damping trick.

However, I haven't seen anyone with quite the same problem I currently have. I have had a pair of Heresy speakers for over 12 years, and they have inhabited a variety of living rooms in that time. All of them have allowed for a distance from the listener of at least ten feet. Until now. I am currently living in a New York City apartment. Even after trying various furniture positions, the farthest away I can from the speakers is about six-seven feet. From what I saw in a new thread on the Home Theater forum, the average distance from the listener (at least on this board) seems to be at least ten feet (or greater).

Does anyone here have any ideas about this? I have already done the obvious things, such as put the speakers on stands to put them at ear level, as wide apart as possible, and toed in toward the listener. The result so far has recovered the width of the soundstage to some extent, but the *depth* has been severely shortened. A side effect of all this has been that, because I am sitting so close, I have been able hear, in intimate detail, every recording flaw on any given disc. Other than getting a bigger apartment, is there anything else I can do?

[jdm56]

JuneBug,

You're getting a little too much of a good thing, eh?

Have you tried toeing in the speakers a bit? So long as you don't overdo it to the point of dulling the sound, that might help. You might try bringing them in to where the speakers axis' cross just in front of the listening spot.

------------------

JDMcCall

[RossVTaylor]

Or, try laying the Heresy's on their sides. Mine are at the moment, and I like it. I recently learned that some of the earlier Cornwalls had vertically oriented horns and that it's perfectly acceptable to do that with Heresy's. In fact, one of the old Heresy spec sheets mentions this when using the Heresy as a center.

It's worth a try.

Ross

[JuneBug]

Actually, I saw the idea about turning the Heresy on it's side on another topic, and tried it on my speakers. I hated it. It seemed as if all of the musicians on various CDs were playing in a space about from 5 feet wide.

I suspect that it only works on Heresy speakers that use the older, metal horns. My Heresy's are from 1989 and have the newer fiberglass/plastic horns.

In my quest to restore the soundstage to what it sounded like in other places, I have been using a Nureality Vivid 3D processor. I had heard about this unit long ago (I read the original review in StereoReview, back when the unit was being marketed by Hughes Electronics). I found one (new!) on Ebay for a fraction of what they orignally cost.

I have to say, that the results have been impressive. The soundstage has incredible width, and a *lot* more depth. However, I am the kind of person who would prefer to skip, at least on music, any kind of secondary equalization.

However, I do have to say, that I can live with the Nureality unit if that's the only way I can get back what I lost when I moved into this place.

[RossVTaylor]

Hmmm... I found that placing my Heresy II's on their sides gave the music a very laid back quality.... baddum, bah.

[Colin]

I don't know about moving them so far out from the front wall, although in my current set-up some distance away (about 2') helps,

the soundstage of my big old horns has always been wide and oval - more shallow than say a cone driver system with the speakers way out in the middle of the room, where the soundstage seems to go off to the sides better than my horn arrangements,

the horn soundstage is also a lot wider than a line driver array, for example, which seemd to have a well defined, but narrow circle in between the two speakers (NearFeild Pipedreams)

I would start off with the big old horns in the two corners, pointed at your ears and then inch them in towards you from there, measure with a tape to make sure they are equidistant, you should be about twice as far from the front of the speakers as the speakers are fron each other, in other words if the speakers are five feet apart, you should be 120 inches in front of them, toe themm into to point at your ears, or the back of your head, which ever you prefer, use a solo female singer to spot the image location - it should be somewhere right in front of you, somewhere just about there ...