Tim Link
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I feel like I've come across something really fantastic! It started out as an attempt to simply derive a center channel from 2 channel stereo. By accident it turned out to be an outstanding crosstalk elimination method - much better than I thought at first because I hadn't dialed it in all the way. Turns out this sounds freakin' beautiful when listening on-axis, and still retains good tonal quality when off axis or even listening from another room. A slight adjustment transformed it from merely interesting to stunning.
For a long time now I've been interested in reducing stereo crosstalk that occurs from the sound of the speakers reaching both ears instead of just the intended ear. The gold standard for me was the result from using a physical divider that went right up to my face. Sounded amazing but a really uncomfortable way to listen. Now I've managed to get stellar results with no divider wall required, and it can be done with 3 small speakers and a two channel amplifier, with some very simple conversion of the left and right channels by converting one channel to sum and the other to difference. I did this in the digital domain on my Mac mini using Audio Hijack, as shown below.
The really important tweak to this Audio Hijack arrangement was adding the balance box at the end, which now instead of making the sound shift left or right, makes it wider or narrower by changing the ratio of the side channels to the center channel. You could also do this with the balance control on your pre-amp if it has one. The -12 percent off the center channel did the magic, fixing the somewhat hollow tone that was occurring and just bringing everything to life.
You do need three identical small speakers. They need to be arranged all in a row close enough together so the tweeters are ear distance from one another to get optimal on-axis response. The speakers must be narrow enough to accommodate that.
The speakers are wired with the center speaker getting the summed mono signal - which is the amp's right channel in my arrangement, and then the two outside speakers get the amp's left channel. I have them wired in parallel, with the right side speaker wired up backwards. This gives a L+R signal to the center speaker, a L-R signal to the left speaker, and a R-L signal to the right speaker.
Below you can see my humble array of three Sony SS-CS5 speakers which are currently blowing my mind. This is a different take on the Polk SDA concept and I think it works better.
If you're at all interested in crosstalk elimination I highly recommend you give this arrangement a try. This produces a very pure, clean, detailed, non-gimmicky stereo sound with excellent tone and musicality. No heavy handed processing is involved. Just simple summing and difference signals.
For a long time now I've been interested in reducing stereo crosstalk that occurs from the sound of the speakers reaching both ears instead of just the intended ear. The gold standard for me was the result from using a physical divider that went right up to my face. Sounded amazing but a really uncomfortable way to listen. Now I've managed to get stellar results with no divider wall required, and it can be done with 3 small speakers and a two channel amplifier, with some very simple conversion of the left and right channels by converting one channel to sum and the other to difference. I did this in the digital domain on my Mac mini using Audio Hijack, as shown below.
The really important tweak to this Audio Hijack arrangement was adding the balance box at the end, which now instead of making the sound shift left or right, makes it wider or narrower by changing the ratio of the side channels to the center channel. You could also do this with the balance control on your pre-amp if it has one. The -12 percent off the center channel did the magic, fixing the somewhat hollow tone that was occurring and just bringing everything to life.
You do need three identical small speakers. They need to be arranged all in a row close enough together so the tweeters are ear distance from one another to get optimal on-axis response. The speakers must be narrow enough to accommodate that.
The speakers are wired with the center speaker getting the summed mono signal - which is the amp's right channel in my arrangement, and then the two outside speakers get the amp's left channel. I have them wired in parallel, with the right side speaker wired up backwards. This gives a L+R signal to the center speaker, a L-R signal to the left speaker, and a R-L signal to the right speaker.
Below you can see my humble array of three Sony SS-CS5 speakers which are currently blowing my mind. This is a different take on the Polk SDA concept and I think it works better.
If you're at all interested in crosstalk elimination I highly recommend you give this arrangement a try. This produces a very pure, clean, detailed, non-gimmicky stereo sound with excellent tone and musicality. No heavy handed processing is involved. Just simple summing and difference signals.
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