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Deleted member 15865
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While there are hundreds of tweaks one can do to one’s system, I am gradually realising that the most impactful change/setting for a system is the gap between the speakers and the front wall. Don’t trust the one foot prescribed by the speaker manufacturer - they also prescribe 40W amp while we know that a higher powered/current amp makes the same speakers sound far better.
As I keep pulling my speakers away from the front wall, I am astounded at the increasing openness, clarity and ease in sound with which they keep responding. I’ve been doing this progressively over the past month or two. Today I pulled them from 90cm (gap) to 95cm (gap). That might seem a small (just 5%) increase, but the improvement is still very palpable. I wonder if they’d sound even better if I increase to 1 m gap!
And that advice that rear-ported speakers need wall reinforcement for the bass to sound is debatable. Yes, you need a wall behind the port, but not necessarily as close as 1 ft. Even with almost 1 m gap I am not missing any bass that the speakers is capable of producing. On the contrary, the bass I am hearing now is more resolved, faster and more enjoyable.
Of course these results/numbers would depend on the specific speaker and the room characteristics. And this might not be applicable at all to certain kinds of speakers. But I am now thinking that almost everyone who places their speakers close to the front wall by default or due to constraint should try progressively pulling them out to check how the sound is changing. I see that especially those with smaller/budget speakers like mine and non-dedicated listening room end up settling with a smaller separation from front wall too quickly. I shall suggest don’t settle without experimenting. Almost every costlier system/ demo room one sees in person or on YouTube has a large gap between them and the front wall. There must be something to it, no?
P.S. Further discussion with a fellow FM brought out the fact that as the other impacting factors (eg vibration, resonance, contacts etc) are addressed, one is more likely to hear the difference/improvement in sound with a placement alteration.
Also, if you find that the sound is turning pale/thin when you pull out the speakers, check if the cables and interconnects you’ve added are acting as filters for certain frequencies.
As I keep pulling my speakers away from the front wall, I am astounded at the increasing openness, clarity and ease in sound with which they keep responding. I’ve been doing this progressively over the past month or two. Today I pulled them from 90cm (gap) to 95cm (gap). That might seem a small (just 5%) increase, but the improvement is still very palpable. I wonder if they’d sound even better if I increase to 1 m gap!
And that advice that rear-ported speakers need wall reinforcement for the bass to sound is debatable. Yes, you need a wall behind the port, but not necessarily as close as 1 ft. Even with almost 1 m gap I am not missing any bass that the speakers is capable of producing. On the contrary, the bass I am hearing now is more resolved, faster and more enjoyable.
Of course these results/numbers would depend on the specific speaker and the room characteristics. And this might not be applicable at all to certain kinds of speakers. But I am now thinking that almost everyone who places their speakers close to the front wall by default or due to constraint should try progressively pulling them out to check how the sound is changing. I see that especially those with smaller/budget speakers like mine and non-dedicated listening room end up settling with a smaller separation from front wall too quickly. I shall suggest don’t settle without experimenting. Almost every costlier system/ demo room one sees in person or on YouTube has a large gap between them and the front wall. There must be something to it, no?
P.S. Further discussion with a fellow FM brought out the fact that as the other impacting factors (eg vibration, resonance, contacts etc) are addressed, one is more likely to hear the difference/improvement in sound with a placement alteration.
Also, if you find that the sound is turning pale/thin when you pull out the speakers, check if the cables and interconnects you’ve added are acting as filters for certain frequencies.
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