A Zu / Tekton / Omega Speaker Positioning Thread


Friends,

I'm a couple of months into ownership of a pair of 10-inch fullrangers, Zu Omens in this case. In extensive play with positioning, I've managed to get incredible tone out of them, the best I've ever heard -- but great soundstaging still eludes me. Specifically they fail at creating images outside of the speakers. On a recording of Bill Berry's Ellington Allstars, for example, my old 2-way monitors placed a trumpet 2.5 feet to the outside of the right speaker, and a sax just to the left, still outside the speaker. Now it's just two _great-sounding_ horns emerging directly from the right speaker.

We may be up against a reality that the limitation of 10-inch fullrangers is the inability to completely disappear, but let us have a discussion of best practices when positioning these guys.
cymbop

Showing 5 responses by cymbop

Iramirez, can you let us know your distances driver-to-driver, to ear, and to sidewall? You're getting images outside the speakers when called for, right? Many thanks for the input.
That's really encouraging, Schw! Does your listening position form an equilateral triangle or are you farther/closer than that?
Also great to hear, Mikirob. For everyone's benefit, how about we share the following distances, measured from the center of the driver:

Distance out from front wall, width between drivers, driver to sidewall, and driver to your ear. Then comment on toe-in.

Right now my drivers of my Omens are 45" out from the front wall, 96" apart, 29" from sidewalls, and 102" from my ears, toed in so that the drivers would intersect just behind my head. The center fills in pretty well, but images that should exist outside the speaker pretty much reside at the driver. Moving the speakers inward from the sidewalls still doesn't get them to project the images outside the speakers when called for.
Ah, the 4.5's have a driver that's half the size of Omens or Lores. Makes sense that they might to a far better job with the disappearing act. I'll listen to "Cowgirl" and "Down by the River" tonight for comparison.
Gopher, this thread is aimed at helping to get that magic back. The harmonic density I'm hearing from the Omens coupled with their _speed_ is an incredible combination; if I can get the imaging right I'll be in heaven.

So for you, what specifically changed with the new configuration? Sidewall distance? Pullout from the front wall? Seating position?