Speaker setup advice
 

Hi All

I’m about to spend some time setting up my speakers after numerous tweaks and new components over the past 6-12 months which I know can be a time consuming and sometimes frustrating process!

I was going to use the tips that Jim Smith provides in his CD / book as a bit of a guide but would appreciate any other advice that people had from their own experiences or other resources to help.

My speakers are B&W 802D2’s.

Thanks guys!

Under manufacturer's forum, you will find a B&W link.
Im sure there are speaker placement tips you'll find helpful.

I know I did when looking for tips for my Sonus Faber's

Best of luck.

Thanks for the tip - will check it out...

Speaker setup advice
 

Check Dan’s post on the Master Speaker setup process. It will yield phenomenal results if followed carefully.
http://www.audioaficionado.org/showp...56&postcount=5

+1 on this process. Go slow.

Success is worth the pain of listening to ‘Ballad of A Runaway Horse’ 200 times in an afternoon! ;)

Dan has a great post here :goodpost:. I went the other way and decided to pay someone to come over who specializes in Master Set. He comes today.

The cool thing is now that you know the basics you can watch and learn more. My dealer came over my house two days ago and basically did exactly what was listed on Dan's posting. He had told me before it needed to be done as I have changed both the preamp and amplifiers in the system. I ended up being the third person helping move the speakers in the room. Wilson Maxx 3's are easily moved when on sliders thank goodness! It is a very slow process when done correctly. The only thing I would use instead of a CD case would be painters tape either blue or the new Frog tape which is green. You can write the individual placement numbers on them being more accurate.

Great idea - if I can find someone I might do the same...

Be good to hear what difference you experience after your guy has locked them in

He spent 3 hours today, and will come back tomorrow for further fine tuning.
My 2 mains are done though.

I have a lot of opinion on this so take it lightly. Perhaps this will help set expectations in case you've been oversold.

First the bad, it's not that bad. :icon_thumbsdown:
Speakers are no longer symmetrical.
The mids are a bit thinner than I'm used to. My guy said it's a signature of MC sound. He wasn't putting down on MC, or he didn't mean to. He also said it's indicative of new recordings are often mastered to sound good in a car which is known to put out strong mids.
I'm catching some bright reflections off the ceiling I wasn't noticing before. I used to get annoyingly bright reflections on my left wall so I toed it in to avoid it. I won't be able to move the speaker around anymore.

The good:thumbsup:
I get more bass from my mains. It's better, but it's not good enough to where I can eliminate subs for 2 channel music in a large room.
Soundstage is now more of a thing. I had some soundstage before, but it's precise now. When we dialed in the subs, the room got audibly larger. The room is about 15 ft wide, but it now sounds like I'm in a room 30 ft wide.
Music is more detailed. $500 on speaker placement probably has more gains that high end cables but your mileage may vary. I've tested XLR cables costing about $1K and they made less of a difference. This new found detail could actually be a bad thing. The source now matters more than ever.
I used to stream tidal using Airplay and thought it sounded great. Now is sounds like crap. My guy told me to plug my phone in using the USB since Airplay compresses out some of the bass, he's right. What I couldn't hear the difference in before, is now widely different. Airplay clearly worse than plugging my phone in via USB. He recommended a high quality streamer which my system is missing.
With bass there were some notes that were naturally much louder than others (like a one note wonder), now the bassline is more consistent in volume.

Some wierd:scratch2:
He dialed my subs in. They used to be insanely scary loud, and wildly inaccurate (too slow and merged/slurred notes together). Now they are very precise and to his ear now "musical", but unacceptably low in volume output to my ears. I'm not too happy in this department but I'm not sure I'd change it.
That country song was starting to grow on me.
When we were close to dialing in the soundstage it was like the singer was in the center, and the bassist was wobbling from side to side of the singer with each note. One more tiny movement and it went away and the bassist was standing still.
I have a jumpseat ottoman in the room. I had to decide if I want the room tuned with or without the ottoman in front of the listening position. I decided to leave the ottoman since it's unlikely I'd move it out of the room to listen to music. At the end my guy pushed the ottoman around the room so I can hear the difference. You might not believe it until you hear it yourself, but it changes the sound.

Would I do it again? :yes:
I learned quite a bit, but not enough that I'd want to do this alone.

Thanks for the update - geez the non-symmetrical set up would do my head in for a bit!

Comments about the high quality streamer I relate to - went from ‘airplay’ to a Linn now to an Aurender and the difference is very significant with both of these compared to a cheaper or AirPlay set up...

Good luck with the fine tuning and hope it all comes together - sounds like some give and take to date but overall worthwhile!