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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Be careful: Imaging vs. Compression
Post Subject: Speakers positioning and listening objectivesPosted by Romy the Cat on: 2/14/2006

 Hugh wrote:
The rewards of ideal speaker placement is something I've experienced as well and perhaps is related to DPLOS or possbily audio-moronism.  While not easy to find or predictable between speaker brands the result is consistant.  As it turns out my first experience with this result was actually a complete fluke.  After a night of positioning my speakers I, through a measurement mistake, returned my speakers to what I thought was their original position but to my suprise was something far better.  Not long after finding this position the speakers were boxed up to make way for some renovations and I subsequently lost the paper I wrote the speaker locations on and it took me about 1.5 years of diligent trial and error to locate this position(s) again.
 
Hugh, this is the story of my life as well, I was a few times with my installations very close, then something forced me move the speakers and then it took month or years to put it back. For instance a few month back I thought I “got something” but then it was “a change” and nowadays my playback installed “as is”, very far from the real DPLOS
 Hugh wrote:
The best advice I can give to those willing to seek out the location is to put away your calculators and measuring tapes.  Also, I'm convinced this ideal location tends to float around a little over time requiring slight speaker re-positioning from time to time.
 
Yes, I know about the very slight deviations of the DPLOS with time. This is a part of the larger mystery: a long-term room reactance to the playback performing at DPLOS. I have few hypnosis why it might be but none of them credible, verifiable or predictable. Not to mention that the small changes in playback most of the time affect the DPLOS.
 Hugh wrote:
For testing I prefer to use a recording of a female singer, when speaker location is optimized sound just seems to come to life and float around the room.  The central singer seemingly reaches out envelopes me and at times I can sense "phantom" breath blow across my face or during the parting of lips feel I've been kissed.  This experience probably sounds a little strange for some but "phantom" sensations are real and to occur my brain has accepted the re-creation of voice and breath as natural and has interpreted the intimacy of the re-creation as a familiar real intimate experience and then bridges the gap and creates the "phantom" physical sensation, in essence turning the experience into something organic.  My speakers require to be postioned just so before I can experience this nature of reaction and also when in this location terms such as imaging, sounstaging, extension.....etc. become quite foreign and completely irrelevent to the music. 
 
Hmmm, I use in away similar techniques but I stratified them. I recognize 4 levels DPLOS proximity.
 
At the level #1 I concern about the sonic performance of the playback. Imaging, soundstage, separations, presentations, tonal balances, stereo tricks, sizes, deferent type of dynamics, relationship with room, dynamic imaging with volume fluctuation and the rest of the typical audio routine. At this level the calculators, measuring tapes and high resolution RTA really help.  At this level it is possible to get a very good hi-fi sound. The precision of the DPLOS proximity I would say around 4”-15”
 
At the level #2 I look for the relationship between the audible and sensible sensation and the relationship between the tonal pressure and acoustic dB pressure. The DPLOS proximity I at this level around 1.5”-4”. At this level a new listing awareness is born (including the organic "phantom" sensations that you very accurately described) and the each characteristics of the level #1 get magnified and improved.
 
At the level #3 I look for the preservation of all that was accomplished of the level #2 but in addition I look for the amplitude of produced intentions. If music calls for thinking, sorrow, joy, melancholy or pomposity then it should be very extreme thinking, sorrow, joy, melancholy or pomposity. At this level the quality of the composition or performance become prominent and better performances should yield higher listing amplitude. At this level the playback system should AMPLIFY not sound but the musicality of a performance. Interestingly that when a system is made up to operate properly at the level #3 then some qualities of the level #1 and level #2 do over the roof. For instance, a listening perception get a possibility to accommodate itself to any aspect of Sound (for instance any single instrument, or any single phrase) and to abstract the selected “item” out of everything. At the level #3 the precision of the DPLOS proximity (if everything else was made correctly) would be less than 1”.
 
At the level #4 all bets are off and the precision of the DPLOS proximity is around 1/16”… and most like at the different location then it was the previous levels. :-) At this level the dynamics, imaging, soundstage, separations, presentations, tonal balances, and the rest things from level #1 return back not now, they have totally different meaning as they become connected to the physical experiences of a listener. When a listening awareness operates at the level of RECOMPOSING or RE-PERFORMING then the synchronization between the cerebral processes of a listener with the “heard sound reproduction” becomes an important expressive tool. There are many other things that are going on at this level and how the DPLOS proximity might affect it. I try do not share them publicly in order do not feed the reviewers and other industry dirt from stealing the evaluation points and then, using them for their primitive objectives while having no comprehending what it all might means (there was a few occurrences).

I also generally keep these thoughts to myself, particularly about the level #3 and level #4,  because there are not a lot of people who might understand it (and are some other reasons…)

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

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