Guide to Speaker Placement

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by crwilli

This is correct. To build and hopefully not too complicated but if you think of the front baffle or face of your speaker forming a 90 degree angle with the floor if perfectly level. Then If you were to raise only the front of the speakers up (say you put two quarters underneath each front spike) you would be changing the rake angle.

Follow the your speaker mfg recommendations on this. At the very least get your self a laser and make sure both speakers have the same rake. You could also just make sure the tops of both speakers is perfectly level.

In this process, rake is done last. A level on top of the speaker or a laser will certainly get you in the ballpark. But the final adjusments are always done by ear. Your Strads easily illustrate how important listening is.

[crwilli]

Originally Posted by metaphacts

In this process, rake is done last. A level on top of the speaker or a laser will certainly get you in the ballpark. But the final adjusments are always done by ear. Your Strads easily illustrate how important listening is.

What he said!

[Bluemeanies]

Originally Posted by crwilli

This is correct. To build and hopefully not too complicated but if you think of the front baffle or face of your speaker forming a 90 degree angle with the floor if perfectly level. Then If you were to raise only the front of the speakers up (say you put two quarters underneath each front spike) you would be changing the rake angle.

Follow the your speaker mfg recommendations on this. At the very least get your self a laser and make sure both speakers have the same rake. You could also just make sure the tops of both speakers is perfectly level.

Thanks for clearing up the terminology. I had never heard that term.
My 803's are on spikes 1.5" from the floor and I DID use a laser making sure both speakers are equal. The spikes are on brass discs protecting the carpet.
I noticed on Bob's website there are speakers that are on pedestals.
I am assuming that the rake of the speaker is temperamental as is speaker placement and toe in, therefore experimenting and patience is part of the formula. Finding the correct angle has no formula.

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by Bluemeanies

Finding the correct angle has no formula.

Actually it is the last variable and there are sonic indicators of precisely what to do.

[crwilli]

Originally Posted by metaphacts

Actually it is the last variable and there are indicators of precisely what to do.

Bill,

Is it true that if you need to raise the stage to get the singer, for example, at the right height, you would lower the rear of the speakers?

Craig

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by crwilli

Bill,

Is it true that if you need to raise the stage to get the singer, for example, at the right height, you would lower the rear of the speakers?

Craig

You would typically raise the front (extend the front spikes). There are some speakers, rooms, set up situations where the choice would be to lower the rear, but they are rare by comparison.

[crwilli]

Thanks!

[bigblue]

What is the speaker manufacturers general view regarding this procedure? Altering the rake is usually not recommended in the manual as far as I know. Also you are usually recommended to set up everything symmetrically. But this is maybe all to change?

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by bigblue

What is the speaker manufacturers general view regarding this procedure? Altering the rake is usually not recommended in the manual as far as I know. Also you are usually recommended to set up everything symmetrically. But this is maybe all to change?

Were the listening room anechoic and the speaker designed for a specific distance and listening height, one could design a spike length that would not benefit from adjusting. In the real world, we have uneven floors, different listening distances, different ceiling heights, different surfaces, and on and on that if not accounted for, affect the final sonic result.

Rake is decidedly not new. It has always mattered on a single baffle loudspeaker and is deeply interrelated with/ relies upon the other key aspects of set up. How a speaker is raked is dependent on the one thing the designer can control, the speaker itself, and a myriad of variables he cannot - construction of the room, speaker position within the room, listener's position in the room, and the idiosyncracies of the room and its furnishings.

I realize this is a B&W Forum but I see that you have Amati Futuras. I would suggest that you contact your local Sonus faber dealer for further help.

[bigblue]

Thanks metaphacts.
My question was not specific to any speakers. Just curious as altering the rake as a consumer would (in my mind) disturb the time alignment.