Need help with new towers?

[Jimfinn2112]

I finally got my espresso towers with the raal tweeters last week. They are beautiful for sure. I'm having trouble with the sound. I'm running them through a Denon X3300, which I plan to upgrade in the near future. My room is estimated at 14*19*8 and it L's at the back of the room. The crazy thing is they sound better as I move away from them. My seat is about 7.2 feet away. I'm not sure how to describe the sound up close... maybe hollow. But at 14 feet it's a whole other story. I've ran audyssey multiple times and have tried all kinds set ups from the receiver. Even had audyssey turned off. I will say at lower volumes from my seat they sound really good. They're paired with an Svs pb 4000 which I just got before the speakers arrived. All you cats seem very knowledgeable about all things sound. I'm looking for a little help!

[MarkGraz]

I sit about the same distance and don't have that issue. You may be in need of some room treatments, but I am certainly not an expert.

[kyzersoze98]

Can you post pictures of your room?

[Jimfinn2112]

Had to chop it down to get it to work.

[mikesiskav]

Are you sure the polarity is correct on the wiring? If they're out of phase it can sound really weird.

[Bruce Watson]

The crazy thing is they sound better as I move away from them. My seat is about 7.2 feet away. I'm not sure how to describe the sound up close... maybe hollow. But at 14 feet it's a whole other story.

From this description my guess is you've got a first reflections kind of problem at your normal seat. The "cure" for that is room treatments. I'd look at a decent panel at the first reflection points.

http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/reflection-free-zone/
http://realtraps.com/rfz.htm
http://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm
http://www.gikacoustics.com/articles/

[davef]

I finally got my espresso towers with the raal tweeters last week. They are beautiful for sure. I'm having trouble with the sound. I'm running them through a Denon X3300, which I plan to upgrade in the near future. My room is estimated at 14*19*8 and it L's at the back of the room. The crazy thing is they sound better as I move away from them. My seat is about 7.2 feet away. I'm not sure how to describe the sound up close... maybe hollow. But at 14 feet it's a whole other story. I've ran audyssey multiple times and have tried all kinds set ups from the receiver. Even had audyssey turned off. I will say at lower volumes from my seat they sound really good. They're paired with an Svs pb 4000 which I just got before the speakers arrived. All you cats seem very knowledgeable about all things sound. I'm looking for a little help!

Hi JimFinn2112 and welcome to the forum.

You are perfectly describing the effects of what are called standing waves. The sound of speakers doesn't actually change at varying distances -- from 1 meter away to 15+ meters away, the speakers will sound the same. However, what changes is how the soundwaves produced by the speakers (or anything else) react in your room. The louder the volume, the greater the amount of standing wave excitation.

As a reference, here is a great article with regards to speaker placement and listening position to help reduce some of the possible negative room effects.

http://www.ecoustics.com/articles/st...optimum-sound/

The first step is to determine the major contributor, it could be the subs, the speakers and/or the integration between your subs and speakers...

To do this.. Turn Audyssey completely off, unplug your subwoofers so they are no longer functional, and set the towers to "large" so they are playing full range.

Listen to the same music and report back (or email me) with your findings...

[Jimfinn2112]

Thanks Dave,
I'll do it and get back to you. The guys who have responded to my thread all seem to think it's the room and reccomend treatments at the first reflection points. I was curious as to your take on that!

[davef]

Thanks Dave,
I'll do it and get back to you. The guys who have responded to my thread all seem to think it's the room and reccomend treatments at the first reflection points. I was curious as to your take on that!

Typically, when someone describes a "hollow" sound it is usually issues in the upper bass region, for which treating first reflection points would be rather pointless. In addition, since the speakers sound great at lower volumes and seem to get hollow sounding at louder volumes, that is a key indication of room modes.

My hunch is that it is a combination of standing waves and speaker/sub integration. Also, when taking Audyssey measurements, it is critical to follow the recommended microphone placement guide. Many people run Audyssey with the mic just at the listening position and this most often ends up with poor results. All 12 positions should be used...



Also let me know what settings you are using on the sub...

Dina mentioned that you sent her an email and are getting better results with a few of her recommendations, that is a good start -- but best steps at this point is to follow my procedures so we can isolate the issue. Now, I am not saying we can fully fix the issue, there are no quick fixes to room modes if this is the issue, but we can certainly take steps to reduce their impact.

[davef]

Almost forgot, can you also post the room dimensions? It looks to be almost square which is not a good thing.... Plus, I strongly recommend less toe-in (try no toe-in) and if you can pull the speakers closer to the listening position to help minimize some of the nasty reflections you will get off the TV.