It’s all in the his profile.
252 supercap Dr cps2 cds3.
The general rule I’ve found is to start with the speakers pointing straight forwards, then to toe them in just enough to give a stable central image on vocals. This gives a bit room filling sound that should sound good wherever you sit in the room.
Six feet from such large speakers sounds tellingly close. Are you able to move them a bit further apart and sit further away? So long as they have 50 or 60cm behind them they should be fine.
…please bear in mind that some speakers are designed to work with no toe-in (this will, of course, be a general principle…in any particular implementation, these speakers may sound best with some toe-in). I have tried mine with toe-in…the music, including the imaging, absolutely collapsed.
Yes they do sound better with toe-in its just the voice will move if I move right or left I need to lock the center image I guess just keep moving till I find it.
…I think that if you move yourself, this will be akin to using a balance control…indeed, the position of the intended central image will no longer be central.
Yes I have moved back 2 feet and it has improved but I am getting close to center of room which is not ideal for bass.
When I’m listening ‘seriously’ I’m on my own, sitting in the ‘sweet spot’. When I’m sitting anywhere else it means we have company, the music is on quietly as background, and no-one cares where the voice is coming from!
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Sounds like your journey of experimentation is just starting!
As always…there are more questions than answers…and the more I find out…
Scheherezade and other stories…Renaissance, on vinyl, on the TTat this time…sublime
OK thanks its all a learning process.
I have Sopra 2 set about 85cm from rear wall and 2.1m apart. My lounge (6.4 x 5-6m) is irregular and speaker are not symmetrically placed relative to side. Lots of doors and windows. I’m not bothered about sweet spots, but I get beautiful bass and the rest. Voices and instruments are clearly spatially separated. Whether the places they come from is correct doesn’t bother me as following the music is what is important to me.
Just focus on finding a spot where moving one speaker gives a good result.
Phil
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I have have moved the speakers to 7f apart and a small unit that was beside 1 Speaker and much better results now and a good tie-in.
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I think the “voice moving” thing is partly positioning but partly the design of the speakers. All the speakers I have hosted over many years have exhibited this phenomenon to a greater or lesser extent, at least until my recent set. Playing around with toe-in and positioning is always a good idea and will certainly help, but ultimately, the speakers themselves will impose some limits.
Current speakers are ATC. (Sorry I realise that doesn’t help with your Focals.) I bought them because I love the music they make, but the fact that they have proved to have by far the widest sweet spot I have encountered came as an unexpected bonus. I think this is an ATC design objective: they call it “coherent dispersion” and aim to make it as wide as possible.
Roger
Listening relatively near field (irrespective of speaker size) can be the best way of minimising room effects- but inevitably means that the ‘sweet spot’ is small, simply because the equilateral triangle is smaller.if the best listening spot is about 38% from the front wall, the next best may be about that distance from the rear wall, meaning the speakers further apart if kept the same distance from the front wall, and a wider sweet spot.
I don’t know if there is anything of use in this thread:
https://community.naimaudio.com/t/speaker-placement-guide/12721
Yes the sopra are excellent speaker and the sweet spot is amazing I am just trying to make it wider by sitting near field but the 7f seems to be working better.
If you move the head closer to one speaker it is inevitable that one channel becomes louder. How big the effect is necessarily depends on the setup distances. The closer you sit the bigger the effect is - the room plays a part but it’s also basic geometry that you can see by painting a triangle on a piece of paper.
However, with the same distance the sweetspot can be bigger and smaller, and more or less robust against small movements. Toe-in and other smaller changes in precise speaker placement can make a significant difference, a few centimeters can be all it takes to make it work better or worse. The Ballad of the Runaway Horse track by Wasserman/Warnes is often cited as a setup help because it has a well defined bass and voice in a nice imaging. I use a mono mix of Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side - being mono it has a well-defined center, and the bass sound has both deep notes from the body and higher sounds from the strings rattling against the fretboard, so it helps with adjusting in a way that makes physical sense (i.e., the rattling not be in a different spot from the deep notes due to room reflections)
If all else fails have a go at Sumiko Masterset, all you need is your system, ears, the horse song already mentioned, maybe a tape measure and a lot of patience. Oh and you’ll need to search the internet for the instructions but they shouldn’t, be hard to find. The claim is for a walk around image, I’ve not quite achieved that but I have got close in a couple of rooms, good enough that the sweet spot covered a three seater sofa.
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Thanks for info i am trying to cover a 2 seater zone for sweet spot. I’m sure I will get their eventually.
A laser measure for 25 euros was my best investment of the year for the money
(and 
for Sumiko Masterset)
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