Voted "other".. reason as below.
View attachment 339779
All source material is 2 channel ripped CD quality files.
Use a DEQX HDP-4 to feed two monoblocks and an integrated, so four speakers in total.
Side speakers are wired out of phase to the fronts (this ensures, after experimentation, that the sound stays located in front of me) and I do apply the same 10 point PEQ to all four speakers with the addition of a rolloff of the bass starting at 100HZ for the sides (again after experimentation).
The DEQX act as the master volume control and the integrated's volume allows me to control the stereo width to the point where the soundscape is wall to wall and the speakers truely disappear.
I value stereo width as the most important system attribute in regards to providing, at least to me, the most realistic "live" experience (noting I spent decades listening to small combo live Blues and Jazz bands in "hole in the wall" clubs so that is my live reference... very close to the band but with a wide soundscape...which strangely is how many of my albums are recorded)
I listen along the long wall of my 8m x 5m room and the front speakers have a toe in of 45 deg!!!! where their centers cross in front of my head while the rears point directly at my ears in a plane 1m in front of them. The rears are about 6.5m apart and the fronts about 5m apart.
All speakers are Gallo Ref 3.5's and room is well treated.
Basically I have a giant headphone setup but without that "inside your head" experience.
Despite what you may imagine, there is no flutter echo or image "super sizing"
So why all this.. cause 95% of my music collection are stereo Jazz and Blues records from the late 50's to late 60's when pan potting in mixing desks didnt exist so we have three strong sound stage domains... hard left, center and hard right.
Thus in a traditional setup, images would cluster around speakers which wasnt life like to me. This could be overcome with a wide front speaker seperation but that was detremential to the center image
Experimentation with the setup above provided the best of both worlds: realistically sized instruements left and right with no clustering and a strong center image. And as each albums balance is different from the previous, a quick tweak of the integrateds volume allows me to control where the left and right instruements are located.
I can move my head and look directly at a side speaker and the balance doesnt change. HOWEVER... it has taken a long time to dial in the speaker positions, relative to each other and my listening position. Plus workout the best type/location of my self built room treatments which by vitrue of having four full range (30hz to 35khz) speakers is extensive.
The Gallo Ref 3.5's do have a major role in all of this: They are boxless, have only one crossover point, have an MTM array and the tweeter has a 300 degree "sweet spot". Should they die one day I would imagine some omni's would also work well.
This layout might not work for many but I have sat with this for 15 years and tweaked and tweaked to reach the potential I could hear in the early days.
Peter
