Sonic's System

Hi Sonic

Not so fast! When you did this did you re do your sub.

Give me a step by step cause I hear something.

Hi Michael

Come to think of it, I didn't adjust the subwoofer back then.

So Sonic moved the bookcases and the CD cabinet as you suggested like so:



This time, it works! Maybe it is because there are now only two bookcases in the room not four and the CD cabinet is moved to the side.

Much better! Images are clearer, more projection and width beyond walls. The bass is slightly lifted but turning down the X-30 level control by 2dB and a slight adjustment of the crossover point and the bass is fine. No boom but a slight overhang occasionally that is slightly annoying but the whole system is working now.

Volume for a given setting is slightly higher and more detail such as fingers on guitars can be heard that tell Sonic there are human beings playing music not synths. Found that each instrument or image source has its own ambience.

Sonic is surprised this placement works now!

The Acoustic Wall (let's call it that for now) is about 14 inches from my ears and the listening chair position in relation to the room and speakers has not changed.

Sonic has 3 FS PZCs and 2 FS DRTs outside the room plus 6 EchoTunes and three Sound Shutters on hand. What do I do next?

Sonic

Welcome to the big league

Let it be proclaimed that we must have a listening wall behind our ears.

If there is one big push I would like to make to the listening community once they have a knowledge of the tune is to expound on the rear ear pressure. This is almost as big as stereo itself. Our ears are so sensitive and we don't give them enough credit in the audio chain. By helping them with the extra pressure we can allow our ears to pick up far more of the music.

Now that I have my soap box out let me explain something. Listen up speaker owners. Take a good look at what Sonic just did and apply this same technology behind your speakers. Speakers using boxes need to make their cabinets voiced free resonant. The back of you speaker cone needs pressure to sound correct and should never be smothered by poly fill, wool, or any other absorber. If any speaker is doing the fill thing it is a bad design based on bad and impractical theory. How can you kill a back wave without it destroying the front way. This has never made sense in any real testing parameters and is only a myth from people who do not know how the rear wave works. It's sad that speaker designers have missed the boat for so long and have robbed listeners of so much music.

Open baffle and panel speakers need this pressure as well and should never dampen behind their speakers, but instead should be controlling the rear wave so that it using the room together with the front and rear movement in a pressurized coordinated effort. This is why I almost always use some type of PZC behind these types of speaker designs. The bigger the panel the further away a PZC should be for an open sound and the closer for an attack sound. Sometimes aeroplanes or wall panels are actually better than PZCs for back wave but this depends on the construction of the room.

soap box removed Michael sits down

next scene

Scene 2

Sonic let it settle and talk to you. You can hear more pressure than ever and you can see the size of things better so take it in and feel the zones and waves.

Hi Michael

What a difference! I kept on listing for hours and there are details that became more fleshed out, but the biggest change is a much greater sense that the music was playing (or recorded) within a “volume of space”.

If my experience is typical of half-tuned or untuned audiophile systems, the amount of music conventional rooms and systems are missing is very high. But Sonic does not mean something like ”I heard a cello that I never knew was there in this recording I heard for years”. So far in the 10 familiar recordings I listened to (with great pleasure I must add)….there was none of this but I could hear every recording in a context of a musical reality. That is music being played by humans making music together in a volume of space.

The baroque recordings from Archiv, Harmonia Mundi, Teldec and Accent were outstanding. The few pop recordings I listened to were more entertaining that before but the Tune did not do a remix. Recordings that sounded odd still remained that way.

Also Sonic feels that I am no longer watching a bubble of music but have entered the bubble in someway. The instruments and vocalists are not so focused I could touch them but believably presented.

Thank you Michael! That advice you gave to use the bookcase and what you said to overcome my reluctance to try this tune made all the difference.

Yes, we all need a listening wall behind our heads….for sure….and the Haas effect will sort out the imaging and the Michael’s gear can take care of the bass.

Sonic is now listening to the wall. First up is a sense of higher pressure in its vicinity. Not just me but visitors have commented. Non-tunees say telling things like “your room sounds different around here.”….“the air in this room feels different”…one visitor started talking loudly to herself and walked around a bit and remarked she has not heard her voice like this.

I tested the room with a hand drum and shouts. No serious echoes except in one place forward at a front corner. That this is the only problem is quite a surprise given that the room has so little acoustic burn. Sonic noticed that the high pressure is only around the wall and not in other parts of the room. I may need to deploy the PZCs and DRTs to even this out because I can sense/hear steps in the room as I do the drumming and vocalising. But right now, I must like all Tunees let the room settle and get used to the new space.

Also you’d think that Sonic would try some quick tests to scope the limits of this Tune setting and I did.

1.Tried some EchoTunes on the Acoustic Walls at the top and the two sides at ear level. Nope…while the sound is still good, this caused the images and ambience to shrink noticeably. The music started to play smaller…not good.

2.Tried a spare Shutter at the top of the Wall angled up 45 degrees without the EchoTunes. Not good either. Looks like the Wall sounds best without any burn attached to it.

3.Am hearing that the Wall has a sound of its own. Not musical like Michael’s wood. Not bad but there is a colouration and signature from the Wall that gets into the music – the bookcases are solid teak, a good and valuable wood.

4. When trying singing tones in the room, the tone is in my chest and does not pull up or down in pitch. This is consistent at all points Sonic tested in the room.

5. Dynamic sections of music pieces now free up and get very louder….fortissimo is loud.

6.Michael can you give me some steps on how to tune the equipment and cables to suit the new balance of the room?

7.Tried playing some musick a few clicks of the preamp louder….now the room now doesn’t constrict and overload.

8. The Magneplanars don’t that “snap-blur” signature anymore that some have commented about them. I would like to get more efficiency like horns do without the honky colouration.

Good thing too is that this new placement has freed up space in my room. I don’t have to weave between DRTs and PZCs to reach books, CDs and musical instruments.

Excellent guidance Michael. Much appreciated. The system sounds so good that Sonic just wants to listen and listen. Just heard Bach’s Dorian toccatas and fugues and the building sounds like its shaking from the organ….and there is the tight image of Starker playing Kodaly’s Cello Sonata that fills a space larger than my room.

Michael, how shall I go about placing the PZCs and DRTs?

Sonic

Hi fellow Zonees!

After another day of settling and listening, Sonic must say that the Acoustic Wall has made a huge difference and is one of the turning points in my Tune -- others being using a tuneable rack, top tuning, PZCs, using Michael's cables and Shutters.

Even though the set up isn't optimised, I am already putting CDs on just to hear a track only to listen to the end. In a couple of days of more settling, I'll start a programme to optimise the use of the three PZCs and two FS DRTs, then start tuning the electronics. What an adventure...was listening to Mozart's Divertimentos and Telemann's sonatas for solo violin this evening and the sound was room filling for the ensemble and focussed in scale for the solo violin work with the sense the music was played in a huge and slightly live space (Mozart - Ton Koopman, Erato. Telemann - Andrew Manze, Harmonia Mudi). I could hear the violin was strung with gut strings and there was a sense of how loud the instrument was (softer than a modern violin with steel strings that can exceed 95dB at the left ear) and the force being used with the bow. Sonic thinks this is wonderful...then for a test I listened to an old Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young CD that was loaned me and tried it LOUD...and I got a wall-to-wall soundstage with instruments and their ambience placed clearly in a bubble that extended from behind me to beyond the side and front walls. I hardly ever listen at these levels but what Sonic got was real, especially to hear the singers' voices weave around each other...it maybe with my system, realism was just a couple of clicks of the volume knob higher.

I got a feeling what I can do with the PZCs....more soon.

Sonic

Hi Michael,

Do comment on the placement options for the FS DRTs and PZCs, plus how I can tune the electronics. For this I am thinking of placing the two Rega toriodal transfomers on the stiff Harmonic Springs top and bottom, place an MW piece, then top tune this assenbly with another MW canopy and the resitone rods and tuning down-rod.

Sonic

Hey, Sonic,

Isn't it wild how something that you once considered to be a negative is now a positive just by turning it around? Not to mention that every time you achieve a new dimension in sound quality, you find yet another way to go even further! That's not only good news for you but for all of us looking for improvements.

What was your idea on a new placement for the PZCs? Will you try them somewhere behind the Maggies, as Mr. Green suggested, experimenting with the tightness of the tuning bolts? Then, at some later time, see what happens with the FS RoomTune panels in their stead. If I had those tools, I'm sure that is what I would be doing, being the Curious George that I am.

Hi Michael, Robert and fellow Zonees!

Sonics was listening to a Jean Baptiste Lully baroque opera when I heard my system start speaking to me saying, "I need a bit more pressure reinforcement in the zone just ahead of the amplifier rack" ...eh?..the sound of the room is telling me how to tune it..."I got just the thing for you" said Sonic.

I took the 2 FS PZCs and placed them ahead of the racks in a V, 2.5 feet at the narrower end, pointed at the listening chair. For sure the wood panels are facing the sides of the room. This is idea not original but something done by Cdimi and Yikes (check out the Tuneland archives) a long time ago.

KAPOW! The whole soundstage got focussed and opened up and opened up. The performers' layout in an orchestra, emsemble and band is no longer in doubt or veiled. Sonic can see the stage. A 3D curtain now runs across my room from beyond the side walls. I had to reintroduce the floor shutters (followed Drewster's advice to remove as much of the treatment at first). The ambience and reverb is wonderful. Now not only have I got focus and depth, some recordings image so broadly that a single harpsichord sounds like a duet of two instruments! Yes, that BIG!

Even better is an image projection of sound that is no more laid back. My system is now mildly "in-your-face" like a horn system. No more artificial depth but a lively, punchy sound that is louder with snap and faster rise times. Just Like my amps increased their power by a lot. Yes, my system no londer given the laid-back feel of the Maggies but is thight and balanced withy no slap echoes anywhere.

Sonic needs to dial in the best angle and separation of the PZCs but what an improvement! I can correct for balance and any assymetric channel by tuning the PZC bolts and pivoting th PZC unit....but I stopped because this can lead me to tune every recording and that is a road to neurosis.

Now I can hear the system/room say things to me like "the Maia transformer can release more music if you ground them and top tune them."..."we are the rear corners, we like being live, so don't add acoustic burn near us!"...the Acoustic Wall said "tune us up with [name of Michael's product] and you'll hear more detail and life!". And the Magneplanar MG1.5QRs said "we can give you more musick..." I got to PM Michael on the Next Step.

Of course Sonic doesn't hear voices but the Tune is getting instinctive. The PZCs behind the spaker plane and in a V is a first step forward and with the PZCs and their bolts I can adjustnthe spatiality and the frequency balance of the music.

There is still a small lack of girth especially in instruments and low voices. How do I get this?

This is wonderful -- yeah this nust be what the Tune sounds like...

Wow!

Sonic

Hi Michael and fellow Zonees!

Looks liken its been a bit quiet this last week at the Zone….but it has been a good one for Sonic! Over the last week I listened a lot and dialed in the forward PZC position. In the end, the best and most neutral sound and image came from this conventional set up:







Sonic found when the PZCs were forward of the racks I got a projected sound which I like a lot but it soon became recognized as an artifact. Every recording regardless of music type, size and number of instruments and voices took on this character. I also heard a recording of a solo baroque violin (Telemann/Manze/Harmonia Mundi) that was recorded with a distant perspective that is small-in-image with a huge ambience field -- but it was projected forward right up towards my listening seat. It don’t happen that way in real life.

So Sonic started moving the PZCs back little by little. Things got better. Then I reached the racks. So said I, “OK..let’s see what a cluster of three PZCs between the rack and the front wall does.” Done...and yes, much more realistic. Beautiful sounding in fact. I miss that projected effect but I am sure Michael can help me bring some of it back.

Michael: any comments on how Sonic is going about this tune process? How do I use PZCs or Aeroplanes to build up the pressure zone directly behind my Magneplanars?

This whole set up is really delivering the Tune to Sonic. Now to look at dialing in the rear of the room.

Sonic

Hey, Sonic,

I have to ask...how often do you move your speakers or chair, because it seems like you move everything else around quite a bit? This past couple of weeks, I have been concentrating on incremental, inch at a time moves of my speakers and chair, as well as that partition behind me, and this can make a noticeable change as much as anything. You must be at, or well beyond, the point where tiny things can make huge differences.

Hi Robert

Good to hear from you, was wondering what happened to the movers and shakers of the Tune this week!

Actually, I have not moved my speakers for months, the last move being to remove the slight toe-in (1 inch) used to compensate for the 35 degree off-axis listening position vis-a-vis the tweeter. I think this was when I got the Shutters sorted and reduced the absorption in the rear of the room, I could cut the toe-in which improved the imaging.

Toe-in tends to localise images onto the speaker surface and stick them there. Oops... the new Magneplanar 1.7 specifically says that toe-in must be applied. Let's see if this is a law for that speaker which i hear is miles ahead of the 1.5s and 1.6s. Magneplanar is also rumoured to be reintroducing the Tympanis.

The placement of my listening chair has been fixed for at least a couple of years according to my notes. Of course I occasionally move the seating position but I've always returned to this spot.

Sonic would say that my system doesn't respond to 1/4" steps, or my ears don't. I am not at that level yet. I found that once dialed in to something reasonable -- in my case half-way down the length of the room and tweeter ribbons about 2 ft from the adjacent wall -- speaker position is not something that needs to be agonised over. Ditto listening spot. You can build your tune round it with DRTs, PZCs, aeroplanes and racks. Along the way, the tune and the room will talk to you and you may make a shift or you may not. But I suggest you don't stress yourself with the 1/4" at a time routine. That's the last thing I will do. It leads to frustration if the resolution of the system is at the low end of the scale and you'll suffer from the "did-it-improve-did-it not" moments of doubts and psychological pressure to effect a change will likely push the tweaker into making a mistake.

And of course, Sonic would not try two things at one time if possible -- certainly not move my PZCs from one end of the room to the other AND move my speakers. That can cause one to easily get lost.

Sonic has also learnt to approach a tune relaxed and with no fear. I don't have to go and effect a change. If the music builds, that's wonderful but sometimes it doesn't. I estimate only 6 out of 10 tunes I attempt really work on a long term basis, others are mistakes and the rest are my imagination.

Yes and enjoy the music (and in your case, movies) before everything else.

Sonic

Hi Michael

Sonic's bookcases are two units about (but not exactly) 30" wide by 6 ft tall each. What can we do to tune them some more? You were talking about using treated wood.

What can we do without drilling holes in these solid wood bookcases?

Over the last few days since I moved the PZCs front, the subjective volume has been going up. Also the room is de-limiting. I can play the music very loudly and Sonic doesn't hear the room overloading.

Now to look at what I can do to tune the rear of the room. Of course I must remember that the amount/volume of absorptive material in my room has not been reduced. It has been controlled thanks to Michael's advice to turn the bookcases around. Sonic should therefore not approach the rear of the room as if were live.

At this time, I'll have to try the FS-DRTs and move the Shutters about but I have a feeling, from earlier tests, that the ambient field will be sensitive to even small amounts of burn.

Sonic

Hi Sonic

This has been a very busy week so sorry I've missed out on much of the fun. The Tunable Room takes tons of time and attention. The amount of hand voicing is something that one has to experience to understand. I'll probably start a thread on the room sometime to let you guys see some of the process.

I bring up the Tunable Room so that you guys can see the importance of voicing/curing of the wood of any of my projects. With me doing the work myself for the time being these pieces of wood never had it so good. I don't cut corners when voicing and that is the reason why my pieces sound the way they do. Knowing when the right time to sand and the method of sanding/coating/drying makes the difference in range and tonality. Now when I see people doing wood projects based on just choosing a type of wood and putting it together it makes me shake my head and realize why high end misses the boat.

I'm so pleased that we have gotten your system to the level of what I would call a real design. It always bothered me that the rear of the room (meaning right behind your ears) was not in tune like it could have been. Now with the added support of sound pressure produced by a wood wall you can hear the benifits. Listeners should never minimize the use of pressure even if they don't understand it or have been taught wrongly that this pressure is distortion of some type. Distortion is caused when harmonics do not align and go partially out of tune/phase with each other. It's vital that as the most serious of listeners we understand what distortion is, instead of what the audiophile books say that it is. Distortion has been made into and audiophile myth that has ruined most system integration attempts.

Here is the easiest way to understand distortion. Distortion is when energy is taken out of it's natural pattern and is forced into an unnatural state. The energy tries to align itself into a spherical pattern again (which is the natural state of energy). While it is doing so it is distorted, disfigured, out of balance causing fusion. In other words distortion is energy out of tune (following a natural pattern) trying to get back in tune.

Volume is not distortion. Increased sound pressure is only distortion when it is in an unsettle state (fusion). Here's the important part. It doesn't matter where the energy is built up from, if it is in balance it is not distortion.

The best place to amplify sound waves when listening to a stereo is right behind your ears. It's also the best place to align the harmonics without distortion if the surface can produce good sound wave patterns with weight and authority.

Now, on to your wall,

Once you choose the type of wood to be used we can attach it to your wall using wood clamps instead of screws.

I've been treating wood for the tunable room that I think would work nicely for your application as well. We could also use the pine but with your humidity I'm wondering if the Ply would be better. Recently I found some beautiful pieces of 2 X 3s that would work great for the framing.

Hi Michael and Zonees

Gave more thought to what you (Mr Green) said -- that planar speakers should have a PZCs or aeroplanes behind them to build the pressure of the back wave. Sonic don't have spare PZCs but I got two now out-of-work FS-DRTs in storage. Their spikes were removed too... ...took them and placed them about 5 ft behind the Magneplanars at an acute angle to the sidewalls (for Zonees who want to try this, go look at Michael's placement diagram for the aeroplanes and you'll get an idea what Sonic's attempting).

Musick on. Very promising indeed. So more moving the DRTs about, very easy with no spikes. Only thing is that an absorptive side faces the Janis W-1 subwoofer. Boomy bass, funny peaky treble. I took down the two EchoTunes from the front corners. This is more like it. The soundstage squared up and the fuzzy, slightly spatially distorted zones behind the speakers now came into focus. This made Orlando Lassus' Mass for two choirs (Gimmell) sound much more right with the placement of individual voices behind the panels clearer.

Sonic not saying this is the greatest thing since sliced bread but there are gains in focus and volume. I'll let the system settle in (or let me get to used to this new sound) and then tune things a bit more like angling the shutters. And I got the plastic reflective sheets from Michael. I could use them to cut the DRT's burn which will prove the concept then maybe buy the aeroplanes.

Sonic seems to get the impression that the Tune serves jazz an rock/blues/pop better than classical musick. Works recorded by the Blumlein technigue or spaced omnis are muscial and realistic with huge hall ambeince but it is really with the rock and jazz played at higher than my normal levels (say peaks now at 83 to 85 dB, C-weighting, fast meter response) that I can sense instruments and voices coming forward of the speakers, micro details like singers grunting before starting their lyrics, faders being pushed up in the mix in steps and whizz bang effects. Great fun. More to share as the set up gells over the next few days.

Sonic

Hi Sonic

One thing to keep in mind about classical music is, because the recording techniques involved with the distance between instrument and microphone set up classical seems to take more time in the settling process. With the other types of music it sounds more immediate because of close micing/direct recording method.

In rock for example space is created instantaneously where as with classical you have more of the element of distance which always takes more time to settle in.

The cases behind you could be covered with a tunable wall. Currently I've been using my source of Birch Ply to get the job done.

here is the recommended pattern

Hi Michael

The ply pattern looks really nice! I guess the diagram is for one bookcase, no?

A point: my bookcase backing is set in -- that is there is a =/> 1/4" lip all round. I'll let you know the size of the set-in area and you can PM me the cost. WIth multiple pieces like this, how are we going to clamp them? Are the wood clamps you talked about the C-clamps?

About the point you made on classical music taking longer to settle. Truly it is puzzling to Sonic, unless I misunderstand.

As I understand, settling is a physical process where materials start vibrating together, wires run in an newly set up systems get into the optimal condition for playing music. It happens on "my side" of the musical world. It takes place over time as music is played through the system.

IMO, the system however doesn't know in a sentient sense what music it is transmitting -- Classical, Tibetan throat singing or the Rolling Stones....or how those recordings were made, the distance the mikes were from the performers or whether there were mikes at all. I wonder how a system can settle faster when transmitting rock and slower when transmitting classical unless it is linked to playback volumes or vibrations being transmitted because rock has much more high and low frequency content than most classical musick.

On tuning, Sonic has slowed up and just played hours of music. I think I've gone a little too fast these couple of weeks so must let the settling embed before taking more steps. I'll probably post some pix shortly of what I've done.

Sonic

Hi Michael

The space on my bookcases bounded by the raised lip is 69.5 cms wide by 165.5 cms high. This is the area that can be covered by the Birch ply sheets. Here's a picture:







This is the layout I am testing for the front of the room -- the DRTs are there to raise pressure behind the speaker panels. Notice the plastic sheeting from Michael on the rear of the DRTs. The room is extraordinarily sensitive now to the introduction of acoustic burn.







And the rear wall with just two Shutters.





Michael -- comments and advice if you please?

Sonic

Hey Sonic,

It's so great to see what you are able to do with your room now that you removed those two bookcases. Like you have a whole new space to play in and are engaged in the process of mastering it. And I love how you describe your tuning intuition working for you. Maybe you are tuning in to the "Music of the Spheres."

Hi Sonic

True high end is a blast. It will forever change the way you listen to any system.

A comment about the different types of music.

Simpler forms of recordings seem to stand out faster because of the fundamental structures being the easiest ones to develop (direct or close). These recordings (like any) become more real as time goes on, but the fundamentals are easier to detect. Classical is a different animal all together because the music content is not so direct but instead mixed into the ambient sound. If you wish we can start a thread on classical recording, but in a nut shell classical music takes a lot longer to bring out the fundamentals than does simpler forms.

For example: sometimes you'll hear people praise a Deutsche Grammophon studio recorded piece and pan a live hall piece done by DG. The hall pieces of the company seem to be glassy or muddled sounding on a freshly tweaked system begging for unexperienced A/B or reviewer types to throw in their 2 cents. But if those same people would stop tweaking for a moment and let their system settle they would gain deeper insite to the energy in the room which makes the DG live recordings what they are.

The drawing that I made for you is a wall that covers the whole bookcase (both of them together) area. The clamps are full length plastic or metal grip clamps use for wood working. Their what I use to make my toys with.

Hi Michael

Thanks for elaborating – from what I understand you are saying is that pop and rock settle faster due to its harmonic structure compared to classical where the fundamentals are more bound up with the ambience. So for a given number of repeated plays of a CD, rock will show more benefit of the Tune than classical.

This I think relates to what you said years about playing a CD many times over and tuning the system step by step. I remember you played a pop recording for days on end and tuned it making it sound like different recordings or spotlighting various aspects of the music.

Classical music may take longer to respond to the tune but I wonder how Sonic can, as one who listens mostly to this form of music, gain the full benefit of the tune without playing the same piece repeatedly. Likely Sonic is not the only one who plans a small program of music each evening and runs thru the CDs and tapes one by one in a single pass.

Sonic

Hi Sonic,

Have you tried playing a cd continuously for several days...even a week to see what will happen? I'll put on a cd and let it play very quietly then I'll sit down and turn it up and I would get those WOW moments because the cd would open way up, etc. If you open and close the drawer it moves the process backwards...but for me not entirely back to the beginning.

Hi Sonic

As Chip is saying this is a fun adventure that yields much. It's one of the reason you guys have seen me with several systems in one house.

Greetings friends at the Zone!

Chip: yes Sonic has tried playing a CD for an extended period, like a day+ and it is true that after several repeats I do hear the music open up an lot. At Michael's urging and out of curiosity, I did this once using Vivaldi's lute concertos on Hungaroton. Sonic however would prefer a program of musick each evening rather than listening to one album over many days. Not the way my thinking works. Also continuous play also wastes my laser life .. a week's play is 168 hours...and for most of thios period I am not listening. Don't like the idea of leaving lots of electrics on in my dwelling when I am out.

But Mr ChipDivot, Sonic owes you great thanks....I looked at your thread and noticed you place your Cable Grounds sideways and the cables lying across the long side of the centre bar. Ever ready to try a Tune at no cost I turned my Cable Grounds supporting the speaker cables over. And another Tune moment happened. There was a difference and for the better! Now some may say this is impossible but it sure gave more girth in my music. Over the next few days, more Cable Grounds were flipped round and there was an improvement each time...until I got to the T3 cable to the Janis W-1 subwoofer. It didn't work, bass became too upfront and out of balance with the rest of the music. Now 14 of my 17 Cable Grounds are on their sides.

Robert -- thanks for sharing what the other RH said about subwoofer placement. Three subs! Crazy and all the emphasis of placement by formula never worked in my experience. Sonic has found that things go dead at the thirds. My speakers may not be able to do ultra near field but I go moderately near and with the wall behind me (bookcases) this delivers the musick.

On Sonic's system, I had to backtrack on the attempt to build pressure behind the speaker panels with the FS DRTs. The idea works but I need aeroplanes. The slightest bit of burn and the sound is worse. Even PZCs couldn't do the job.

So I am back to the cluster of 3 FS-PZCs behind the rack, EchoTunes adjacent to the front corners and left it there.

With the increase in girth from turning the Cable Grounds on their sides pushed images too much out at the speaker posiitons. Sonic removed the floor mounted Shutters and things got more balanced.

Then I was looking at the two forlorn looking FS-DRTs in the next room. They needed a job so thought I...well what's there to lose trying something crazy...this!







What a huge difference! The reflective sides face in to build pressure between the panels. And the whole room opened up even more. Images were fuller, treble improved. On some CDs, I can stand next to a speakers and see part of the stereo image on the other speaker and across the side wall. Let's see how this settles in.

Here is the front of the room with the ChipDivot Cable Ground Tune.







Yes....I think we have made some progress

Sonic

Hey, Sonic,

As usual, you are fearless when it comes to experimentation.