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Left and right speaker pairs - is this a thing?

antcollinet

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Just read this on the Dali website. Information they've not put in the manual:

In order to create the best possible stereo image, DALI loudspeakers are designed in matching pairs.

Sure enough the speakers are marked left or right on the back. Also unsurprisingly I had them the wrong way round. I have been bothered by poor stereo imaging, and now I've repositioned the speakers, it seems to be better. But I might just be imagining it.

Is this a common thing? Anyone else experience differences in imaging as a result of left/right speaker placement?
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Their frequency responses might be matched. Also some speakers are mirror images where for instance the tweeter might be on the inner side of each speaker.
 

Zvu

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It is a thing if you have such a poor quality control that you must pair the speakers per frequency response. You getting the same two loudspeakers this way doesn't mean that you've got what designer wanted you to hear.

I'd steer away from such companies.
 
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antcollinet

antcollinet

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I don't think it is about frequency response. I suspect asymetric mechanics/radiation. If it was FR, then left right wouldn't matter.
 

Zvu

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If it is different radiation then do not steer away but run Forest, run ! :)
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Really, asymmetrical driver layout with L/R mirroring and matching responses of L/R pairs is quite common. It doesn't reflect anything in particular on product quality. If anything, its good that they would bother to match them.
 

Count Arthur

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I had a pair of Musical Fidelity MC2s years ago which were "handed" due to the offset tweater.

Feast your eyes on these beauties. :oops:

1630878120656.png


I have to say £300 gets you a much nicer looking and better finished speaker now than it did in the late 80s. These were really quite rough, bare chipboard at the back with a really cheap and nasty plastic vinyl wrap and that awful blue logo. :facepalm:
 

Zvu

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I think you guys are missing the point.

OP wrote what was written on Dali website and i know of no Dali loudspeaker with offset drivers (correct me if i am wrong).

Having offset drivers but getting two loudspeakers with both tweeters left i would consider really flawed by design or packaging mistake.
 

MZKM

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OP has the Oberon 5 and it has aligned drivers.

I looked at the Dali that Amir reviewed a little while ago, and it indeed had an L indicator, though the horizontal off-axis shows identical performance (Amir uses the symmetrical setting in the Klippel when appropriate which cuts down on measurement/processing time, but still any noticeable difference would appear).
 

DonH56

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Revel matches their speakers to a reference so each one matches any other one. Makes more sense to me than matching in pairs. Another pair purchased later, or a repaired speaker, will match all the others. I imagine other manufacturers do something similar.
 

Certainkindoffool

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I owned speakers with ribbon tweeters in the past that had a centre "waveguide" where the inner half of the ribbon was, supposedly, in phase, and the outer half was out of phase. I have no idea idea if this was actually true though.
 
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antcollinet

antcollinet

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Do you think if you EQ only one speaker imaging won't be affected?

No, but I think if the frequency response was mismatched or matched perfectly, imaging would be unaffected if the speakers were swapped left to right.
 

restorer-john

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Most of Yamaha's range of speakers were Left/Right marked and they were always shipped and sold in those matched serial number and marked pairs. All the NS-1000s were L/R paired and plenty of the symmetrical design Yamaha speakers were also L/R paired.

Running design changes to long running products would mean you'd always want a matching pair. Or where speakers were not marked, serial numbers that were close.

In this day with so many odd number speakers being bought for HT and the ability to match them better, I guess left/right pairing is out of fashion.
 

Ultrasonic

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I thought selling speakers as matched pairs had been relatively common for decades? At least for non-budget models.
 

Chromatischism

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No, but I think if the frequency response was mismatched or matched perfectly, imaging would be unaffected if the speakers were swapped left to right.
Granted, this would take some pretty serious sample variance, but if a speaker has a dB more output in the vocal range you can bet imaging will shift towards that speaker.
 

restorer-john

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I thought selling speakers as matched pairs had been relatively common for decades?

Also, the pairing with upper range models was not only for electrical/acoustic matching but also the veneer/grain matching.
 
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antcollinet

antcollinet

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Granted, this would take some pretty serious sample variance, but if a speaker has a dB more output in the vocal range you can bet imaging will shift towards that speaker.


Sorry - should have said quality of the imaging. Obviously any left/right bias would follow the speaker, if they were not level matched.

My fundamental point above. The speakers are sold with left right markings, and the instructions are to place them as marked for the best imaging. The reason for that cannot be frequency response. It would only make sense if there was a mirrored asymmetric left right radiation pattern (Which could result from non aligned mechanics as shown in some of the examples above, or (eg) a side facing tweeter). However the Oberons, at least visually, are mechanically symmetric.

I suspect the real reason is internal to Dali - such as tracking speakers through the production process, or managing after sales service etc. Or perhaps they use it for grain matching on the higher end speakrs, and is then used for the entry level vinyl wrapped models for process consistency.
 

KMO

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The speakers are sold with left right markings, and the instructions are to place them as marked for the best imaging.

What specifically does it say? Your quote above only talks about them being a matched pair.
 
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