Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSP8000 Recommend Axis Setting?

My 8000’s are about 8’ apart and 8.5’ away while my ears are probably even or an inch below the mid range dust cap.

I was using -1 but recently went to -2 and am starting to convince myself I can tell the difference.
What’s the recommended tilt? I’d appreciate what the pros recommend.

Wow, I wish my ears were this good. Genuinely. I move the tilt all around on my gear and can’t perceive a difference. Wondering if mines broken. I’m actually encouraged that you are having difficulty with gear of that quality.

0 Axis here..

Axis is to move the perceived sound stage up or down to match listening position, there's no right or wrong setting, just go with what you prefer. I prefer mine at +3 as I feel it opens out, giving more space and air to proceedings. My seating position would suggest -2 though!

Cheers

George

Hi,

My line of sight is a little lower ... it’s to the gap between the head and the bass cabinets and I settled on -2.

I’d like to have a -3 option, even if I only used it to confirm that -2 was right (for me, in my room).

As George says there no right or wrong here it’s a personal preference.

Regards,
Carl

That settles it, I guess... I need me some 8000’s. I’m sure (and would hope it to be so) that it is perceptible on the higher end gear. I understand it conceptually, and intellectually, but could never hear it on my gear.

Thanks for the feedback. I notice more high frequency information on -2 but I haven’t spent enough time on the setting to notice if it affected the soundstage yet.

I find my axis setting to be dependent on the recording being played. My setting ranges from -2 to 0.
My seating position would suggest a setting of -1 to be optimal. Just trust your ears.

I’ve had numerous pairs of Meridian speakers and never heard an axis effect. This includes 8ks, and a well set up trio of 7200.2 with a matching processor. Not for lack of trying.

I’ve tried to convince myself but failed. I may not have golden ears.

how about toe in and room placement? I suspect if the tweeter needs axis adjustment it would also need to be pointed at the listening chair however the demo I saw had the 7200's against the back wall, 6"out with no toe in and they sounded good. I'm interested in what users are doing to get the best balance from their system.

I've never held with the Meridian idea of speakers parallel with the wall behind. Designs with ribbon tweeters and a lot of HF energy may work well that way, but I've found the HF drop off and lack of imaging far too great a trade off to justify the aesthetics. Toe them in like any other speaker, and allow sufficient room at the rear and sides to avoid corner boominess. Avoid having them the same distance out from rear and side walls, ie if they are 2' away from the rear, try 3' out from the sides, if you have the space.

Also play around with the boundary settings (which need to be set on each speaker). I have mine on Corner, even though they are well away from the walls, as I feel it improves mid range clarity.

A very inexpensive tweak which I feel is worthwhile is the use of a pair of pencil erasers, one each lodged at the rear of each 8k head unit, to tip the head very slightly forward. It directs the tweeter more towards the listening position. It may be that it benefits my ageing ears/tweeters more than would be necessary with brand new speakers, but it works for me. Tweak courtesy of Fiddler (who founded this site).

Cheers

George

PS having reread your post and realising that you have 8k SEs, I withdraw my pencil erasers suggestion, as it seems sacrilegious! I have however noted previous users with the SE upgrade finding that they had to apply more toe-in to get proper image focus. Which suggests that the SE tweeter is more directional than the older unit.

IIRC I posted my experience a while back with the effects of Toe-in using side-firing woofers. This by far has the biggest effect on SQ and mid range balance.

It is all to do with how much bass is directed down the room vs across the front plane.

For me this is much more than any axis tweak or head angle.

It is a balance though between sound stage and tonal balance in the room.