But just anecdotally, in my case, I’ve never adapted to a speaker that I didn’t like almost immediately. Whatever causes that fairly immediate impression it seems to be pretty sticky.
First impressions are powerful, and color all subsequent impressions.
For me, most changes in gear evaluated with an A/B switch (or just by ear) leave me with, "I like this part more on A, but this other part less." I think that focusing on different things at different times, mids and vocals, bass, how high the treble extends, have avoided that immediate dislike reaction. So for three amps, I might like the detail on one (D) the tone on another (A/B), and the huge but fuzzy sound stage on another (vintage A).
Full on dislike takes longer, and I only have one pair of speakers that fall to this level for music. But they work fine for the boom/crash/zoom as surrounds in my 5.1.
Hi,
Toe-in could affect energizing room modes if:
- toe-in changes position of the driver, iow rotation axis is not at the driver
- speaker has directivity at room sized wavelengths, which happens if it is physically very big, or has pattern control being some dipole or cardioid system.
Small monopole speaker have no directivity on room sized wavelengths, so toe-in has no effect on how modes measure at listening position. Just because the modes are due to room dimensions, at wavelengths size of the room, and the speaker is much smaller. Only way to change how bad peaks/dips measure is to move the speakers or the mic to another location.
If one observes modes changing with toe-in with small monopole, perhaps it is through some secondary effect like the speaker being over a floor joist or something, vibrating the floor differently, which might emit the sound and affect how room modes energize. Perhaps effect of modes are still the same, but measurement mic stand conducts vibration from floor to mic. Some mics have great "handling noise".
Thanks for that, I found it quite informative. If I had some dipoles I would experiment.
Frequency sweeps in REW don't show this effect very clearly, so what you say does apply in ways I can see. There is a slight difference between 256 and 512 sampling, but nothing changes above that. To get at what the floor does, I need white noise. Or a wider sine wave than REW uses that ascends and descends fairly slowly, which does capture much of the effect.
There is some difference if the speaker stands are on top of a floor joist or between them. Not a lot, not enough that I worry about it, but that does change how energy goes into and out of the stands/floor.
It makes sense to me that if we line up speakers along a diagonal corner, more energy will get into that standing wave. Non-corner alignment changes that. Sub placement is a good example, corner placements act differently than other placements in a room. Maybe in a sealed room this would not have the same effect, but my room is not sealed.
The issue is my bouncy floor, and how quickly it starts to bounce. Different toe in angles change how quickly that happens due to more or less sound escaping the listening space, and more or less corner reinforcement that speeds or slows the bounce.
Well I suppose I could sympathize with that. I don't like perfect speakers because there is nothing for me to DSP with
I was very happy to get things right (for me). I am also very happy that Wiim now has separate channel PEQ, because it gives me a chance to do more DSP. I get deep satisfaction from making things work better, in all things.
Tuning a system is an end in itself in some ways, but mostly it's a means to the end of getting lost in the music.
