So today I took the time to actually try and get my system dialed in. I have been chasing upgrade after upgrade, not really sure what I was after, without ever looking at setup or treatments (still no treatments).
Obviously I always tried to get the speakers as far off the front wall as physically possible; and then played around with distance between speakers and toe in. Since buying the Dyn’s off @optimus, I’ve been really happy, but still had the itch to see what ‘more’ I could get as the consensus is that these speakers require proper power to really shine. I don’t discount that fact at all, but I still wanted to see what this system could do. I’ve been reading up about speaker placement, sort of tinkered with the 83% setup, tried the equilateral triangle, don’t really have a room that allows the 1/5th setup, so I thought I had the best I could.
All of a sudden, obviously due to my recent searches, my YouTube started coming up with speaker placement tips. I then stumbled upon a video which interested me, and piqued my interest as I recall seeing it somewhere before. Anyways, I had seen it before and swore I would do it with my then setup but to date had never tried. Today was my last day being on leave and decided to dedicate the day trying out the Master Set placement guide.
Now I know there are probably a lot of you on this forum that have probably seen this and have probably tried it yourselves. But if you haven’t heard about it, or you have but haven’t tried it, let me tell you, it was an absolute astonishing revelation to my system in my room. And that’s without even getting it 100% right (I know this because there is a cue to listen for on the track used and I never achieved that, yet). I probably need to do the entire process again as I was reading and following 3 different summarized versions and that was not clever of me. My toe in is too much and was right from the start, so I am going to do this again but this time I am going to use Bob Robbin’s ‘the art of rational speaker placement’ guide as he’s tweaked this already fantastic setup to be even better. Anyways, my system is now very much asymmetrical, the speakers are way closer to the front wall than what I would have ever imagined would be ‘right’ or sound good. What got me about this process is that it is about getting the speakers to couple with the room. Not the room trying to work with the speakers (ie. Treatment). Not to say there isn’t a need for treatment, but what I heard today was astonishing. And the absolute best part is that it’s free. It’s designed to make the odd shaped rooms, odd placed furniture, odd seating places etc to work together. The advice is to remove all treatment prior to doing this process.
Anyways, I will share the 3 videos that got me really intrigued and ultimately get up and give it a go. It is not an easy process, it is very time consuming (I spent 5 and a half hours and I still am not 100% convinced I got it right). I started over twice as well and boy do you get tired of listening to the same bass notes and voice over and over again for hours on end. That’s not to mention the physicality part of having to get up, move speaker, sit down, listen and repeat. Over and over again. But even at the point I am at, the improvements are so vast that I actually WANT to do it all over again.
Anyways, these Dynaudio’s to me now are absolutely fantastic. I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to a lot of systems and combinations, but to my ears, it now far exceeds anything I have heard in the past. The magicality is just next level.
Anyways, I thought I’d just share this bit of info with you all as it was extremely beneficial for me and my system.
This was the video that reminded of this setup and sent me searching for more. It’s short and sweet and very much summarized, but gives you the just of the process.
This next video is long but very informative. I strongly suggest giving the time to watch this. You could skip the first bit and proceed to where the process is discussed, but I enjoyed the entire video.
And finally. This is the last video I watched before cueing up the track and doing the process myself. Again, it is long. You could skip the first bit where Bob explains his background etc but I also enjoyed the entire video.
There are quite a few versions on the web, hence why I followed 3 (please don’t do this, I was stupid). My suggestion would be to follow the below explanation as it seems to be the closest version to what Bob does (you could purchase his pdf for 50usd if you wish. The money isn’t really for the pdf but for the support you will get from Bob himself via email etc if necessary, as explained in the second video above). Read the first post and navigate from there as you wish
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=163879.0
Let me make it clear, this is a tiring exercise. I am exhausted this evening. I assume a lot has to do with the fact that you really need to concentrate to try and discern the differences you are trying to hear, plus the physicality of the up and down etc.
I really do look forward to feedback regarding this because in my short time in this hobby, I think this is the single most important and beneficial upgrade available to anyone, and it’s free.
Obviously I always tried to get the speakers as far off the front wall as physically possible; and then played around with distance between speakers and toe in. Since buying the Dyn’s off @optimus, I’ve been really happy, but still had the itch to see what ‘more’ I could get as the consensus is that these speakers require proper power to really shine. I don’t discount that fact at all, but I still wanted to see what this system could do. I’ve been reading up about speaker placement, sort of tinkered with the 83% setup, tried the equilateral triangle, don’t really have a room that allows the 1/5th setup, so I thought I had the best I could.
All of a sudden, obviously due to my recent searches, my YouTube started coming up with speaker placement tips. I then stumbled upon a video which interested me, and piqued my interest as I recall seeing it somewhere before. Anyways, I had seen it before and swore I would do it with my then setup but to date had never tried. Today was my last day being on leave and decided to dedicate the day trying out the Master Set placement guide.
Now I know there are probably a lot of you on this forum that have probably seen this and have probably tried it yourselves. But if you haven’t heard about it, or you have but haven’t tried it, let me tell you, it was an absolute astonishing revelation to my system in my room. And that’s without even getting it 100% right (I know this because there is a cue to listen for on the track used and I never achieved that, yet). I probably need to do the entire process again as I was reading and following 3 different summarized versions and that was not clever of me. My toe in is too much and was right from the start, so I am going to do this again but this time I am going to use Bob Robbin’s ‘the art of rational speaker placement’ guide as he’s tweaked this already fantastic setup to be even better. Anyways, my system is now very much asymmetrical, the speakers are way closer to the front wall than what I would have ever imagined would be ‘right’ or sound good. What got me about this process is that it is about getting the speakers to couple with the room. Not the room trying to work with the speakers (ie. Treatment). Not to say there isn’t a need for treatment, but what I heard today was astonishing. And the absolute best part is that it’s free. It’s designed to make the odd shaped rooms, odd placed furniture, odd seating places etc to work together. The advice is to remove all treatment prior to doing this process.
Anyways, I will share the 3 videos that got me really intrigued and ultimately get up and give it a go. It is not an easy process, it is very time consuming (I spent 5 and a half hours and I still am not 100% convinced I got it right). I started over twice as well and boy do you get tired of listening to the same bass notes and voice over and over again for hours on end. That’s not to mention the physicality part of having to get up, move speaker, sit down, listen and repeat. Over and over again. But even at the point I am at, the improvements are so vast that I actually WANT to do it all over again.
Anyways, these Dynaudio’s to me now are absolutely fantastic. I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to a lot of systems and combinations, but to my ears, it now far exceeds anything I have heard in the past. The magicality is just next level.
Anyways, I thought I’d just share this bit of info with you all as it was extremely beneficial for me and my system.
This was the video that reminded of this setup and sent me searching for more. It’s short and sweet and very much summarized, but gives you the just of the process.
This next video is long but very informative. I strongly suggest giving the time to watch this. You could skip the first bit and proceed to where the process is discussed, but I enjoyed the entire video.
And finally. This is the last video I watched before cueing up the track and doing the process myself. Again, it is long. You could skip the first bit where Bob explains his background etc but I also enjoyed the entire video.
There are quite a few versions on the web, hence why I followed 3 (please don’t do this, I was stupid). My suggestion would be to follow the below explanation as it seems to be the closest version to what Bob does (you could purchase his pdf for 50usd if you wish. The money isn’t really for the pdf but for the support you will get from Bob himself via email etc if necessary, as explained in the second video above). Read the first post and navigate from there as you wish
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=163879.0
Let me make it clear, this is a tiring exercise. I am exhausted this evening. I assume a lot has to do with the fact that you really need to concentrate to try and discern the differences you are trying to hear, plus the physicality of the up and down etc.
I really do look forward to feedback regarding this because in my short time in this hobby, I think this is the single most important and beneficial upgrade available to anyone, and it’s free.
