Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Stereo image location

I sure have been enjoying these M60's. It's been a very long time since I've had the time to just sit down and listen to some music. With my oldest daughter taking guitar lessons, we're having fun listening to the variety of guitar instrumentals in my collection.

But I've noticed something and I wonder if anyone else has too. This is an HT room, with a 7.1 setup, all Axiom. As such, I have my lazy-boy positioned in the middle in front of the TV, with the 60's as the mains. When I listen to music, I find I am usually in the chair, reclined quite a ways back - maybe even lying down. When I listen in 'pure stereo', where only the 60's are involved, I find that the image floats in front of my face - some distance out, but always in front of me. When I'm looking horizontally, the bulk of the image is smack-dab between the speakers as you'd expect. But when I'm lying back, it is hovering in space, almost at the ceiling, above the plane of the speakers.

I've been experimenting with the various 'pseudo-surround' modes of my Pioneer A/V receiver, and if I use any of these modes where other channels (particularly the center) are involved, the image snaps to the front and when I'm laying back it sounds like it is at my feet. But go back to stereo, and it moves back up in the air in front of my face as I look at the ceiling.

Does that make sense? Does that sound goofy?

Doesn't really matter - it sounds awesome - I just wondered if anyone else has noticed this.

-Brian

Makes sense. When laying down, the ratio of direct sound vs. reflected sound that reaches your ears changes, so your ears tell you the sound source is closer to the ceiling.

I'm gonna cry here.....for what I've lost!!

In my old house with M3s as mains, I could sit in "my" chair and listen to stereo and have all the instruments fan out in perfect relation to where they were when the piece was recorded. Recording permitting. Some were on the front porch(with the door open) and some were to the side in the diningroom. Some were behind the TV in the garage with the wall removed. The lead singer stood "right there" at the plane of the TV and the back-up singers wore different color dresses. I sat seven feet from the plane of the speakers with the speakers about eight feet apart and the instruments were in an arc roughly 13 feet across.

It was magical. I didn't realize it at the time but the lay-out of that room and the dimensions of the room must have been near perfect.

My new listening room sucks.

In reply to:

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My new listening room sucks.

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Hey, Buddy.

Now you're working MY side of the street!

Hi Neighbor!

I've been on the same side of the street for at least two years now, just never quite put it so succinctly and with such animosity before.

I think it's worth repeating though....

MY ROOM SUCKS!!!

......my picture isn't quite as pretty as yours was.

But the results are the same

Since completing my own, private home theater room, I have been listening to a lot of 2 channel stereo. I use my M22s and a HSU STF-2 subwoofer with my HK 525 set to "Surround Off". Even though the center channel is not in use, it definately "feels" like the vocals are coming out of the center. This is a good thing, right? My speakers are spaced out about 4 feet.

From the center between the speakers? Yes a very good thing!! As long, that is, as that's where the singer was positioned during the recording!

I have a CD that in my old house placed the singer right on top of the table set up next to the entertainment unit.

It was almost weird, there was some stuff on the table so that in partial darkness, you could almost see him sitting there singing!!

(on other selections he was back in the middle! Not as much fun, but more normal!)

Imaging is one thing these Axioms do flawlessly. One of my favorite experiences with it was listening to the CD that my daughter burned from a movie on DVD a few years back of some country music that she thought we might like.

We were listening to it one afternoon while the kids were in school(cuz she called and asked how we liked it....oops)so we were listening to it and I was placing the instruments for fun and all was cool til we got to a piano part. I was having trouble focusing on it. It just wouldn't hold still!!

When we next saw her she asked about the tunes and I explained my difficulty. Good sounds, otherwise!!

She called a few days later.....the piano stayed put, but the camera orbited it!!

How cool is that!!?