I got some time and did some experimenting with different speaker configurations.
For reference my room is 13’x 21’x 8‘-11’ vaulted. Carpeted, mostly bare walls with 3 big chaise lounges. Equipment in my signature.
First Test:
C M80 10.5’ 50Hz 0 degrees ear level
L/R Mains M80s 11.5’ 40Hz 26 degrees ear level
L/R Height QS8s 11.5’ 100Hz 45 degrees 8’ high
L/R Wide M22s 8.5’ 80Hz 60 degrees ear level
L/R Surround QS8s 7.5’ 100Hz 120 degrees ear level
C Back VP150 6.5’ 80Hz 180 degrees ear level
I ran auto setup and Audyssey but only in the three listening positions. They detected and calibrated all speaker positions. The M22s and VP150 were set to 60Hz but I manually adjusted them to 80Hz.
I demoed the my usual suspects. Star Wars III, LOTR FOTR, Master and Commander, Appleseed, Kaena The Prophecy, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon SACD 5.1, The Bangles SACD 2.0, Boston SACD 2.0.
First thing I found was that you do not need to rerun Audyssey to switch between using the height and wide speakers. Just changing listening modes does this. I settled on comparing Dolby PLIIz (8.1), Neo 6 + Audyssey DSX (8.1) and Neo 6 (6.1). With height speakers hooked up I could not select Dolby PLIIx or PLIIx + Audyssey DSX so I chose Neo 6.
Neo 6 (6.1) - sounded about the same as PLIIx. Didn’t notice any immediate difference in running only three calibration point rather than the full eight.
Dolby PLIIz (height speakers) (8.1) - subtle but noticeable vertical expansion of the front soundstage sometimes. A sort of “wall-of-sound” effect but only with ambient sounds not a noticeable difference in passages w/o ambience. Worked great for movie scenes with echos, wind, waterfalls. A very nice effect that blended seamlessly with the QS8 surrounds filling the whole room with ambient sounds not just the sides and back. Very noticeable when missing.
Neo 6 + Audyssey DSX (wide speakers) (8.1) - more noticeable effect of expanding the front soundstage. Not all scenes benefited but many more than benefited from the height speakers. This effect was quite seamless between the mains and surrounds even when sitting in the nearest listening position the soundstage didn’t collapse to the wide speaker.
The effect worked very well when something was moving on or off stage left or right however it didn’t add anything I noticed to front to rear pans. However, one possible issue is on screen objects occasionally sounding like they are off to the side of the screen the same way it sounds if you have an HDTV and put your L/R mains say 12’ apart. Bigger soundstage but sometimes the sound isn’t exactly following the on screen action.
Second Test:
I just swapped the positions of the M22s and QS8s so the QS8s became the wide and the M22s became the height speakers. I reran Audyssey and it made the same settings as before so again I switched the M22s and VP150 to 80Hz.
Neo 6 - same as above
Dolby PLIIz - much less noticeable benefit from the M22s up high. The QS8s are much better suited for this role in my room.
Neo 6 + Audyssey DSX - also much less noticeable benefit. Still more than the height speakers in this test but not nearly as good using the QS8s as wide speakers as it was using the M22s.
Music:
Dolby PLIIz - nice improvement to ambient music. Degraded quality of the front soundstage for SACDs either 5.1 or 2.0 with no noticeable benefit.
Neo 6 + Audyssey DSX - expanded front soundstage but just sounded to wide at least for studio and small stage recordings. Didn’t degrade the front soundstage but no noticeable improvement either. Can’t comment on concerts as I forgot to try it.
Summary:
No need to rerun Audyssey to switch between height and wide modes.
Can’t select Dolby PLIIx + Audyssey DSX when height speakers are calibrated. However, PLIIx + Audyssey DSX is selectable if no height speakers.
M22s worked best as wide speakers while QS8s worked best as height speakers.
Height speakers subtle but nice enhancement when ambient sounds present.
Wide speakers make more of a wall-of-sound effect and enhance more scenes than height speakers. Effect is mostly good but can pull sound away from on screen action. Mostly helps off screen side pans but didn’t do anything for front to rear pans. Note someone not using QS8 surrounds may notice more benefit from front to rear pans using wide speakers.
Each effect is nice in it’s way but neither is a clear winner to me yet.
Ongoing test:
I reconfigured putting the QS8s back on surround back duties and put the M22s in as wide speakers and recalibrated using all 8 positions. I’ll continue to experiment with more material especially games to see if either format offers any clear advantages to me over the other.
Cheers,
Dean
