Speaker Positioning Help and Hello from a Newbie..

Hey all,

I'm a newbie here with a basic question. First off, apologies if this has been covered before, I've had a look around and couldn't get what I needed quickly so I thought I'd bug y'all and say hello at the same time

I just recently bought a set of the upgraded original Amazing's. These have the honeycomb woofers but are fitted with the 60" buzzing ribbons. (What, they're not supposed to buzz?)
I've been driving them with a pair of Odyssey Audio Mono's with the 'Glass Ceiling' updates. But they were loaners and this week my 'permanent' amps arrived so it's time to get more serious about positioning the speakers. My amps are the Spread Spectrum Technologies Ampzilla 2000's and I use a Supratek Chenin preamp.

The problem I'm having with the speakers is that I can't get them to throw a convincingly wide soundstage. The sound seems trapped within the confines of the speaker frames. I get reasonable front to back depth but no horizontal stage, at least not what I'm used to from my Apogee Caliper Sig's, Maggie 3.6's etc.

My room is 19' x 29' and I have them on the 19' wall. They're not spaced equidistantly due to the room layout, so there's more space to the right hand speaker than the left. That said I don't have any other constraints. Presently I have them 72" off the front wall, left speaker is 31" from the side wall measured at the base. There's 67" between frames, measured at the bases. Chair is 142" back.
I've slung these around somewhat randomly, just to get a feel of how large the changes can be. They've been as close as 36" from the front wall and I've moved them closer together in 2 or 3" steps. I have toe-in set at 1" off horizontal, though I've also experimented with much more toe-in, at up to around 8".

Every little move seems to change aspects of their sound, but not the horizontal stage width.
Of course I've checked phase/polarity and tried reversing +/- just for the heck of it.

Is this a normal characteristic of this speaker, or do I need to keep trying? If the latter, can anyone share a tip with me so I can shortcut the process of trial and error?

Many thanks,

Rooze

If you can't get them to image properly, It's almost always a room aspect. Personally, I would recommend 8 to 10 feet apart at that listening distance, then adjust toe-in to suit. The further from the walls, the better off you are.


and...WELCOME!

Don't forget to adjust the lean back angle to, IIRC, 7 degrees.

This will get you close- then final tweaking and room treatments.
http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring

NOTE: use tape on the floor once you get the initial placement of each speaker- it will save as a good reference for tweaking.

Have fun! well worth the effort--

edit-
one more thing....if your speakers are not sitting on spikes- get some--
example (if you do not have enough "meat" for the thread in type:
http://sewelldirect.com/Speaker-Spikes-8-pack-.asp?gclid=CPD3-O_GqbQCFQf0nAodDDkA8w

Thanks for the input so far.
I haven't had much time to tinker over the last couple days so progress has been slow. I've tried various toe-in settings and the toe-in offering the widest soundstage seems at this point to be 'no' toe-in. Though it also brings out a rather sterile and clinical sound with the speakers setup flat.

10-12' apart seems like an awful lot, and I'll need new speaker cables to try it! (A project for the New Year).

Happy Hols to all!

Rooze

10-12' apart seems like an awful lot

...not if you want the imaging and soundstage these speakers were built for and can deliver.