WILSON - Speaker placement know-how

[trittya]

Greetings to all FMs
Its been quite some time since I commenced a thread here. I was sent this as an email. I don't know if it works, so, I thought the best way to find out is to share it on this forum. Here it is

QUOTE
Wilson Speaker Set Up


First, remove the spikes (if any) off the bottom of the speakers so they sit flat on the floor; youre going to be doing a bit of sliding around. Move the speakers out of the way.

With your back flat against the wall behind the speaker, take steps forward putting one foot directly in front of the other and speak in a loud voice. What you are listening for is to hear the sound of your voice STOP coming off the wall behind you. If you have a very live room it may take you a few times to hear it, but you will hear it.

Once youve found that point, mark the position with a line of blue painters tape on the floor. Now, from that line youre going to continue stepping forward, one foot directly in front of the other, speaking loudly, until you hear your voice coming off the back wall of the room. Make another line of blue tape on the floor.

Repeat this procedure with the side walls of the room. What you should wind up with are 2 blue tape boxes on the floor, usually about 3 square and usually about 3 out from the room boundaries.

Now youre going to set the speakers in the center of each of the blue tape boxes. Viewing from your listening chair, toe the speakers in until you can see just a sliver of the inner facet of the cabinet. Take another piece of blue tape and run a line parallel to the side wall so that it touches the inner forward point of the cabinet and mark it in half inch increments with a magic marker or sharpie. Do this for each speaker.

Playing only one speaker at a time, play a piece of music with a strong constant bass line. Starting in 1 inch increments, slide the speaker back towards the wall behind it and listen for both quantity and quality of the bass line. You will hear one point where the speaker will lock with the room. When you find that point, you want to slide the speaker back an forth using the half inch increments until you fine tune the sound. Youll be very surprised at how much of a difference even tiny increments make.

Once youve done this for both speakers, youve optimized the bass performance.

Now, take another similarly marked piece of blue tape and run it parallel to the wall behind the speaker at thefarthest rear point on the cabinet.

Again, playing one speaker at a time, play a piece of music with strong treble content. Good piano recordings work well for this. Slide the speaker in one inch increments toward the closest side wall. As with the bass, youll hear a point where the treble will lock with the room. Again, using the half inch increments, fine tune the treble.

Step back and view the speakers from the listening position; make fine adjustments so that only a thin sliver of the inner cabinet facet can be seen.

Now you can play both speakers. Take a well recorded vocal (Diana Krall, Joni Mitchell, Patricia Barber, etc.) and play a selected track. You should see a solid center image with the voice exactly centered between the speaker. If the image seems to be skewed to the right, push that speaker back in half inch increments until the sound lock into the center. Usually very little adjustment is needed here. If the image is skewed to the left, etc, etc.

Replace the spikes and you can now enjoy your very precisely set up and tuned speakers!

I recommend some big power orchestral music or a nice Grateful Dead soundboard tape?

UNQUOTE

HTH
May I request you all to post your comments, experience and feedback here for the benefit of all.

TIA

Regards

 

[anm]

ppl at my house will think I have gone mad will have to do this when there isn't anyone around

 

[trittya]

ppl at my house will think I have gone mad will have to do this when there isn't anyone around

My folks are already convinced of that about me, so it doesn't matter whether or not they are around :lol:

 

[hydra]

This looks like a very nice way of setting things up. We get to play it by ear, rather than going by some set percentages and measurements. And we will most likely end up with a result that is satisfactory to our personal preferences.

The only issue is, the furniture in the room will be a bit of a hindrance in being able to walk around and identifying the areas to be marked by the blue squares. Also, this setup doesn't really give us a starting point if we can't make out the exact points where the room couples with the bass/treble etc. But then somebody with even a bit of listening experience should be able to set things up by ear this way.

Somebody with a dedicated listening room (minimum furniture and WAF issues) will benefit the most from this method.

One other thing I was a bit confused about is this:

Now you can play both speakers. Take a well recorded vocal (Diana Krall, Joni Mitchell, Patricia Barber, etc.) and play a selected track. You should see a solid center image with the voice exactly centered between the speaker. If the image seems to be skewed to the right, push that speaker back in half inch increments until the sound lock into the center. Usually very little adjustment is needed here. If the image is skewed to the left, etc, etc.

From personal experience of listening to a lot of Diana Krall and Patricia Barber with my own setup, the vocals do at times seem to originate a bit to the right of center. They are not really always bang in the center.

For example in Patricia Barber's live version of "Let it Rain" (Companion, 1999) and a few other tracks in that album, her voice comes from a bit to the right of center, with the guitar a bit to the left of center. In most of the tracks in Diana Krall's "Live in Paris" (2002), her voice comes from a bit to the right of center.

I'm sure this is not a problem with my setup, as in the case of at least 90% of other music with vocals, the singer is dead in the center.

So I think the above guideline that I quoted needs to be used with music that we are very familiar with, and where we are sure that the vocals are dead in center.

 

[santhosh]

Dear Third Peg,
Interesting way to dial in the speakers. Like Anant, said I would not do it when family is home...especially the shouting bit...LOL.

Two questions:
1) Why is this called Wilson? Wilson Audio? I have always wondered how to position a Wilson Audio Floorstander as they are so tall and the tweeter is positioned too achieve a ear level at listening position.
2) Why is it recommended to remove spikes while performing this setup. Any other reason apart from damaging floor or hurting ourselves?

 

[trittya]

Dear Third Peg,
Interesting way to dial in the speakers. Like Anant, said I would not do it when family is home...especially the shouting bit...LOL.

Two questions:
1) Why is this called Wilson? Wilson Audio? I have always wondered how to position a Wilson Audio Floorstander as they are so tall and the tweeter is positioned too achieve a ear level at listening position.
2) Why is it recommended to remove spikes while performing this setup. Any other reason apart from damaging floor or hurting ourselves?

Yeah, Santhosh, Wilson Audio, I guess. . . . .
Like I said, I got this via email from a FB group member. therefore, I am at a loss for further details on this.

As regards your 2nd query, I guess you are right in having answered yourself because its fairly difficult and (would be very stupid indeed) to move a speaker with spikes on. Only two can then pick and place and thats no easy task as home audio towers have no handles,

Besides you also run the grave risk of the metal inserts ripped off the (usually MDF)cabinets, the reason why some prefer a separate metal/wood base and then couple the speaker to this.

If you've ever worn athletic spikes and tried walking on the floor, you'll get my drift faster!!!
Stupid thought, isn't it?
See, I told ya so. . . .

B Regards

 

[hydra]

There's a bit more info on this here: WASP: speakers placement [English]