I've been fiddling with placing my Amazing Originals for over a year now.
It can be really challenging.
In fact, placed poorly, these things sound like ASS!
Not just kinda bad. REALLY bad!
So far, you've received some great advice.
I'd like to echo some of that and add some to it as well.
Most importantly, I'd like to say
I feel your pain!
These things are SO DIFFICULT to set up.
No one really prepares you for how hard this process really is.
First, I've had these things both ways:
Reversed...
- setup reversed.jpg (211.81 KiB) Viewed 186 times
In this configuration, if the ribbons are close to the side walls, as in my small room, imaging goes to hell.
Everything sounds like it's coming directly from each ribbon.
In a wider room, the imaging may not suffer as much.
The problem is that your mind subconsciously notices the reflections from the walls and 'triangulates' the location of the speakers.
In this case, you have to try curtains/diffusers/absorbtion panels on the side walls.
Or, you can put them in the normal configuration:
- setup normal.jpg (158.41 KiB) Viewed 186 times
In the ribbons-in configuration, there isn't as much of a problem with side reflections because, as James said, they have fairly narrow dispersion.
That's even true with the speakers up against the side walls.
It's better if you can get them away, but it's not as much of a huge deal as .....
Getting Them Away From The Front Wall!Since they ARE dipoles, almost all of the sound comes out of the front or the back (figure 8 pattern)
Now, again, you run into that problem with your brain figuring out where they are again.
But now it's a HUGE problem because half of the sound is coming out of the back.
And your 'mental sonar' is getting pissed off because it's getting two locations (or more) per side.
But, these locations are superimposed on one another.
You hear this as smeared, muddy sound.
Bob Carver says that you need a 6ms gap between the front source and the reflected back sound.
Stereophile says this needs to be 10ms.
What this means to you is that your speakers need to be either a minimum of 3.41 feet or 5.68 feet from the front wall,
depending on who you want to believe.
This is with no or minimal acoustical treatment.
If you want to treat the front wall, you can go closer.
Even if you can't keep them pulled out, you owe it to yourself to at least try them pulled like 4 or 5 feet from the front wall.
Nothing I did had more of a profound effect than that.
Additional help picking your distances:
The Cardas dipole calculator, here
http://www.cardas.com/speaker_placement.php?type=dipoleIt really works.
Dialing It InNow, you've got the general location.
That was the hard part.
Aiming is easy-peasy.
In a perfect world, you want the center of the ribbon pointed directly at each of your respective ears at the sweet and juicy like these nutz. spot.
You need a $10 Harbor Freight laser level, a right angle of some kind, and some tape.
(This saves you from needing an assistant and having to adjust over and over and over and it's CHEAP!)
- laser triangle.jpg (165.73 KiB) Viewed 186 times
Tape the level to the right angle, turn the laser on and go over to the speaker.
- aiming.jpg (133.06 KiB) Viewed 186 times
Hold the angle flat against the baffle with the back of the laser directly over the center of the ribbon.
change the angle of the speaker until the beam is pointing about where your closest ear would be at the listening position.
- ugly couch.jpg (84.94 KiB) Viewed 186 times
To get the rake right, turn the triangle so that it's vertically against the ribbon with the laser pointing out from the ribbon's center, and get the vertical alignment.
You'll probably find that you can't get that dead-on without the speaker wanting to topple over, as has been mentioned previously.
Weights on the back and shimming the feet can get it dead-on.
I haven't tried that yet.
It's only about 6 inches too high with the speaker almost ready to fall forward at my listening position.
Other Hints:
Couch cushions work even better than pillows when trying to temporarily get an idea of where treatments might help without actually spending money.
I also found that placing them in the corners helps tighten up the whole spectrum.
It's a surprise because bass should blow right through them.
Carpet on the floor helped the sound dramatically.
(At least it did in my VERY LIVE room)
At one point I had 4 layers of remnants on the floor between the speakers and the listening position (with no padding.)
That sounded the best.
I'd guess regular carpet with padding would be just as effective.
I found the Sumiko process to be hopeless with these speakers.
I'm pretty much ready to kill Jennifer Warnes AND her damned horse.
I wasted SO MUCH time f'ing with that crap!
It's amazing how little the side walls actually affect these things.
My right channel is in the middle of an opening and the left is against a window and both sides sound the same.
I know some of this is repetition, but hope it helps nonetheless.
-Martin
Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:28 pm 
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
