michalm
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Joined: Oct 5 2013 - 2:10am
B&W CM8 placement and room acoustics
JoeE SP9
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I've found that a speaker width of ~75% of the listening distance is a good place to start. The actual final positioning may/will take a while so take your time and don't rush it. Make small changes with width and toe in/out and listen for a while with each change.

Most pop and rock recordings are studio recordings and have little to no sound stage. Most pop and rock live recordings don't have much of a sound stage either. The use of PA systems and the over reliance on fixing it in the studio has a negative impact on sound staging.

Recordings made with a minimal number of microphones, usually classical or jazz, and little to no studio "sweetening" will produce the best sound stage.

I highly recommend Groove Note CDs. They are recorded live to a two track master (30IPS analog tape) using a minimal number of microphones, a passive mixer and no studio "sweetening" whatsoever. The CD is "cut" directly from the master. They compare very favorably to direct to disk LPs which many consider to be among the best recordings ever made. 

RCA Living Stereo recordings and Mercury Living Presence recordings are widely considered to sound pretty damn good. They were done live with a minimal number of microphones, passive mixers and little to no studio work. That they are all 40+ year old recordings doesn't say a lot of good things about a lot of modern recordings.

Please note: I make a definite distinction between imaging and sound stage. Imaging to me is the left to right positioning of musicians and instruments. Any two speakers spread apart will produce imaging. A sound stage is the impression/illusion of depth and three dimensionality. Imaging is easy. Getting a good sound stage is not always easy. Many speakers do a poor job of producing a sound stage. I suspect those B&Ws set up the way you have them in your room will produce a very good (wide and deep) sound stage when you've finished tweaking their positions.

Nellomilanese
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I'm jumping in here because your room and set up it's very similar to mine. The carpet on the floor helps, so do placing the tv behind the speakers, excellent choice. Yes a courtain on the windows will help...I noticed same thing with my room...but it depends on the records...on some records the difference w or without might be very small or 0. Doors open will help also (less reflective surfaces).

Also, VERY IMPORTANT is to have the right wall (right from your position) treated on the reflection point....some paintings would help, even better some stylish acoustics panels.

Last but not least you might start thinking about some bass traps if the bass response is not good....i'm still experimenting myself...at one point I pilled all the pillows I have in the corners  laugh Good luck and keep on experimenting with settings, position etc Most of the time you'll go back to the previous setting/set-up but sometimes you'll find improvements ! After 7 months i'm still finding improvements....I just find out that a -3 Sub setting on the receiver helps A LOT with bass response, specially w poor/compressed files.

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