For some of you following the initial thread of “Magico M3” installation… The journey continues and it started with taking acoustic maps- measurements of the initial setup…
If you remember the setup looked like this.
“Pretty to look at but Peter Mackay’s (practioner of sonic sorcery at Magico) initial feeling was proven right about trying to reposition the entire system. After spending some time with the gear my own aural senses finally kicked in and all seemed to indicate there was something happening at the lower end which was suboptimal.
“Obviously, I needed to backup my hearing with numbers. yes, Obviously!
Now enters a fantastic piece of acoustic measurement software (REW – Room Equalization Wizard by John Mulcahy: www.roomeqwizard.com) and it was time to consult a member of the REW wizard roundtable to navigate the waters properly – the acoustic gent who lives in the land where there is considerable taming and tuning of bass smear, many species of chaotic reflections and their erstwhile cousins, diffusion and absorption. Matthew Poes really, really cares that everybody has a good room to go with their chosen gear – that’s Matthew Poes of Poes Acoustics/Audioholics and you’ll find plenty of his wise discourses on YouTube. REW measured that initial setup and the pictures tell the story…”
As you can see, there are plenty of issues, much of ‘em glaring and lurking away at the left end. Granted some of them can be improved by the pair of QSub15s I’m waiting on but you cannot argue with the Physics of space and sound and expect to win out. Better to go along with Mother Nature and coax her to do your bidding in a cerebral and humble way.
Well, at the direction of Peter Mackay, I slid ACE hardware furniture sliders under the M3s and slid the right speaker to its new berth, then the system components followed and, finally, the left speaker. I then placed my old absorbers (for now) behind the system to block the windows, placed two rows of Stillpoints Aperture II panels at first reflection points, two more at the corners behind the speakers and two more behind my head.
Voila!
The Egyptian and Mayans would be impressed – all that took me a good 7 hours by myself! After some more repositioning and letting my own OCD thrive with lasers and other measurement paraphernalia, I landed up with the following vital statistics :
* Room Length : 24’
* Room Width : 17’1”
* Room Height : 8”
* Speaker back to Wall : 6’
* Speaker to side wall : 4’
* Inter tweeter Distance : 8’11”
* Toe Angle guesstimate : 25-35 degrees
* Listening Position to Tweeter : 10’5”
I’m sure Peter Mackay (Magico) & Jason Tavares (Adirondack Audio) will have a field day and change it all for a better sense of Sonic Nirvana when the pair of QSub 15s are integrated. But, how does it all sound now? Firing these bad boys along the long end of the wall!? Really!?
Well….I am still traveling fast and furious, at almost Tachyonic speeds on Route Optimo-Integration (integration of QSub15 subwoofers, new REW measurements, re-placement, measurement, acoustic treatment and final measurement and placement) but the interim report is that the speakers are breathing a lot lot better, the bass seems tighter with a lot less reverb and boom, the mids seem to be better separated, the highs are spatially better isolated and the overall soundstage seems to be, so unfortunately, a tad smaller than the state of Texas!
The material I keep using to hear things are from my ever evolving, sonically diverse and restlessly chaotic kitchen sink playlists and you can partake of it here…”
Tidal: https://tidal.com/playlist/8ec2a448-021f-4b78-a3be-70351feb8a93
Qobuz : http://open.qobuz.com/playlist/5878016
May Sonic Nirvana smile upon us all!