Tweeter Height

[icehockeyboy]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but is it not generally the concesus that tweeters should be in line with one's lug holes?

If that is so, how come big speakers, or more accurately I suppose, tall speakers go against this with tweeters a deal higher than that? My Ushers tweeters are about 6 to 9 inches higher than my shell likes.....:scratch:

[hifi_dave]

Bob up and down a bit whilst playing your system. If the 'sweet spot' coincides with your seated ear height, then the design is correct. If not, then some work needs to be done.

[icehockeyboy]

Bob up and down a bit whilst playing your system. If the 'sweet spot' coincides with your seated ear height, then the design is correct. If not, then some work needs to be done.

Like what?
A couple of house bricks at the back of the ushers über heavy plinths to angle the tweeters downwards? :)

[hifi_dave]

Well, it depends if they are high, low or ideal.

First thing is to try and hear.

[sq225917]

Some tweeters are slightly smoother off axis and they will all have slightly different polars for horizontal and vertical lobing, unless they are super cool and on sphere shaped pods. So absolute level isn't important. What you might like to try is to make sure that the arrival time is the same for mids and tweeters at your seated position. Find out what the centre frequency of the mid/tweeter crossover point. Plug in an iphone or similar with a basic wave generator function on it, set to that frequency, 'there's an app for that!'

Press play, sit in your normal spot and as you move around slightly (like 5-15cm in any direction) you'll hear the mid and tweeters come in and out of sync as the relative position of your ears to any point equidistant from both drivers changes. Find a spot where this tone sounds most pure and you should be right in the sweet spot.

I have my speakers raked back a few degrees and my tweeters are off axis vertically by 5 degrees to the front panel and point about 10cm above and 10 out at either side from where my ears are. My mids beam right at my ears.

Worth tinkering with, all this stuff makes a difference.

[bobbasrah]

As a rule of thumb Craig perhaps, but that depends how the speaker is designed.
One design I know had the ribbon directly below the woofer which was inverted in the next version. The designer explained that the crossovers were not interchangeable despite using exactly the same drivers, and it was not just the resistance to the tweeter, so it is a bit more of a balancing act I suspect...
My home ones have the woofer topside at ear level, and it sounds unbalanced tonally if tilted one way or the other...

[icehockeyboy]

Well my Ushers do have that leaning back stance.......

[Stratmangler]

Well my Ushers do have that leaning back stance.......

That will provide physical time alignment.
Tilt 'em forward and you've just chucked chucked the baby out with the bathwater.
Methinks you're worrying about nothing and have too much time on your hands ;)

[RobbieGong]

That will provide physical time alignment.
Tilt 'em forward and you've just chucked chucked the baby out with the bathwater.
Me thinks you're worrying about nothing and have too much time on your hands ;)

:rfl:

[Thing Fish]

my spendors are naturally raked backwards. i tried leveling them and was pleased with the results. but recently set them back and was equally pleased. go figure...:confused:

[icehockeyboy]

That will provide physical time alignment.
Tilt 'em forward and you've just chucked chucked the baby out with the bathwater.
Methinks you're worrying about nothing and have too much time on your hands ;)

You are soooooooo right about the time thing! :)

And I wasn't worried, just curious ....that's all!

[YNWaN]

Tilting speakers back is used to time align the drivers, but it also alters the listening axis. As Simon wrote, most drive units have a different off axis response compared to on axis - manufacturers may take this in to account, or they may not... :).