tilting speakers back

[Covenant]

The only thing that has disappointed me about my transmission line speakers is the soundstage, definitely not as good as my previous Vandersteens. I was thinking about this last night and remembered that the Vandies were angled back. This was stressed in the booklet.
Just as an experiment I stuck a couple of coasters under the front corners and could immediately sense a different mental image of the relative positions of instruments and singers. I need to experiment a bit more but I am sure that this is the right approach. I reckon many people with floor standers should try angling them back a few degrees.

[Puffin]

I do this with the top baffle of my open baffle speakers. Surprising what a change this makes. I think it is something to do with phase co-ordination or maybe some other voodoo:D

[Ali Tait]

The higher the frequency, the more directional, so it can be worthwhile playing around with this.

[danilo]

Hey! whatever pleases.
Don't remember Vandies being tilted though. But then I haven't been in a room with any current Vandy product either.
Thiels were angled back.
If not designed for this... ad hoc tilting can seriously mess the presentations.

[The Black Adder]

indeed, my olde Monitor Audio benefited from tilting back. Worth a go.

[Reffc]

Tilting speakers back alters both the lobing fields and the time alignment. With some speakers it can bring slight improvements, with others it messes up phase and does odd things to lobing patterns.

Sound-stage performance is related in part to off axis performance and tilting speakers back is likely to make this worse in most cases as it means that you are listening more off axis.

A small amount of tilt wont do much arm and if it sounds better, it is better! (sometimes the right solution is the simplest!)

Ensuring tweeters are elevated to ear level is one of the first things I advise most clients as a start point for improved resolution and imaging. If tilting speakers back makes things sound better then it may suggest that the tweeters are too low in the first place?

[cargar]

Ensuring tweeters are elevated to ear level is one of the first things I advise most clients as a start point for improved resolution and imaging. If tilting speakers back makes things sound better then it may suggest that the tweeters are too low in the first place?

+ 1 Totally agree with this advice, having tweeters at ear level makes a big difference.

[Ninanina]

I always found that tilting the Klipsch back a bit helped them somewhat :)

[Yomanze]

Done right, tilting can work great. It is a reason why the Royd Minstrel images so well, and also time aligns the drivers & tweeters if the tilt is done properly. Thing is with these dinky floorstanders, is that sitting on the floor worked well with them too. :D

[Reffc]

Done right, tilting can work great. It is a reason why the Royd Minstrel images so well, and also time aligns the drivers & tweeters if the tilt is done properly. Thing is with these dinky floorstanders, is that sitting on the floor worked well with them too. :D

That depends entirely on whether the time alignment has been electrically compensated for though Neil (as with most designs). If a speaker is electrically compensated then tilting the baffle has the exact opposite effect and introduces a phase shift between drive units ;) (assuming that the tweeter is already at ear height). Knowing the degree of tilt for time aligning is wasted unless you also know the electrical (rather electro-acoustic) phase relationship described by the transfer function of filter and drive units. Some designs like the Royds and indeed my Raptors use a tilted baffle to time align the point of emission but the crossover phase has to be carefully designed to maintain that correct phase relationship at the point of crossover frequency. Simple filters (single pole) will be 90 degrees out of phase at crossover, double pole will be phase correct with one driver polarity reversed but only if physically aligned to begin with (otherwise they have to use electrical compensation. etc etc!)

[Zoidburg]

The only thing that has disappointed me about my transmission line speakers is the soundstage, definitely not as good as my previous Vandersteens. I was thinking about this last night and remembered that the Vandies were angled back. This was stressed in the booklet.
Just as an experiment I stuck a couple of coasters under the front corners and could immediately sense a different mental image of the relative positions of instruments and singers. I need to experiment a bit more but I am sure that this is the right approach. I reckon many people with floor standers should try angling them back a few degrees.

Hi Jerry, what IPL's do you have? I also have a set of them and really like them. I notice your not far from me so if you fancy a comparison of the 2 give me a shout.

Ben

[Covenant]

Hi Ben,
The ones I have are the S2TLK CD3.0 Ribbon (snappy name heh?)They are silver wired and on oak plinths filled with sand.
It would be great to compare-which ones do you have?

Sorry, just read your sig. Are yours older ones as I dont see them listed on Ivan's wesite?

[jandl100]

I like to be different. I tilt my MBL speakers forwards. :)

[Zoidburg]

I think mine must be at least 5 or 6 years old by now but I'm not sure tbh. They have the ribbon tweeter and are also on spiked plinths tho and I'm betting there not a million miles from yours. I'd be very interested in hearing another pair as iv never seen any in the flesh other than mine.


Hi Ben,
The ones I have are the S2TLK CD3.0 Ribbon (snappy name heh?)They are silver wired and on oak plinths filled with sand.
It would be great to compare-which ones do you have?

Sorry, just read your sig. Are yours older ones as I dont see them listed on Ivan's wesite?

[walpurgis]

I like to be different. I tilt my MBL speakers forwards. :)

Is that 'cos you listen laying on the floor Jerry? :D

[jandl100]

Is that 'cos you listen laying on the floor Jerry? :D

No, but the hi freq drive units are above sitting-ear level.

[Firebottle]

Or put some concrete slabs under your chair Jerry :eyebrows:

[jandl100]

Or I could use a couple of these to raise my hearing height a bit :thumbsup:

https://tenforfive.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/ear-trumpet.png

[Marco]

Is that 'cos you listen laying on the floor Jerry? :D

You wouldn't believe what he gets up to on the floor... That shag-pile carpet of his could tell many a tale! :eyebrows:

:bonk:

Marco.

[struth]

You wouldn't believe what he gets up to on the floor... That shag-pile carpet of his could tell many a tale! :eyebrows:

:bonk:

Marco.

Yeah getting your piles shagged can really put a crimp on your day;)

[cargar]

Yeah getting your piles shagged can really put a crimp on your day;)

:rfl::rfl::rfl: