Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Please list your Speaker types and Phase

I'm curious if anyone else (Analog or DSP) like Jez has found, has any speaker with negative phase in there setup. I'd like to create a table in the Wiki if there is any ryhme or reason.

I'll start.

10'6" DSP 5500 Left Front - Phase Positive
10'0" DSP 5500 Right Front - Phase Positive
10'6" DSP 5500HC Center Front - Phase Positive
05'0" DSP 33 Left Rear - Phase Positive Note#1
05'0" DSP 33 Right Rear - Phase Positive Note#1

Note#1: Since the phase test doesn't compare phase between front's and rear's I tested DSP33 rears directly against the front DSP5500's by moving a DSP33 into the center position. Not saying you need to do this. But please state if you did more phase checks than the default calibration provides.

See my signature for the rest of the equipment.
Analog folks should include Amps and what channels the amps are used for. For example:

Krell KAV 3 Channel Front, Center, Right
Krell KAV 2 Channel Rears
Krell KAV 2 Channel Sides

I know there has been much discussion on this, but I very much doubt there will be any correlation between speaker type and phase.

For me, all my speakers again have +ve phase after tweaking their distance settings (I know the theory that distance does not equal phase, but it does for low frequencies where phase anomolies are most noticed). My analogue sub was set with -ve phase until I increased the distance by 1 foot (after hearing M state that you should measure to its centre rather than leading edge). My centre D33 was also set as -ve (compared to the D5000s L/R), but is now +ve after setting L/R/C to the same distance (the C was set 6" further back before).

So for me, distance and I suspect room geometry have had a far bigger impact than speaker type.

I also have a slightly offset listenging position (I get the RH sofa seat, my wife the left, so I tune for my position rather than the average).

Playing a test tone at the Xover frequency was the most educational thing that I did on this subject, as just by moving your ears around the room you can hear the holes in the sound due to negative interference of the bass wave fronts. You won't hear that at higher frequencies as the holes are so small and because they are filled by room reflections.

Don't mean to be contradictory George - let's by all means collect some stats and see if there is any correlation.

FL + 10'6" 0.0 D5k
C + 10'6" -1.5 D33
FR + 10'6" -1.0 D5k
RL + 6'0" -2.0 D33
RR + 3'0" -2.5 D33
Sub + 12'0"-2.0 Rel Storm

DSP 6000 Left Front - Phase Positive
DSP 6000 Right Front - Phase Positive
DSP 5000HC Center Front - Phase Positive

My setup all analog:

Siruis DMX200 2ch-Front-Dynaudio Contour 4 -Phase positive
Classe CA100 1ch used- Center-Dynaudio Contour Center-Phase positive.
Primare A30.2 2ch Rear-Dynaudio Countour 1.3SE -Phase Positve
LFE ch REL Stadium3 -Phase negative.

Distances L,R,C,Lr,Rr,Sub
2,6m 2,6m 2,6m 1,2m 1,2m & 3,1m yes a have the front row in an arc.
Rears are at the sides of sofa as room limitations have me seated against a wall.

Mortod,

Let's just keep the phase / distance discussion in the other thread. I'm always ready to beat a dead horse :-) Let's just collect some data first and see what we have.

Mnyb,

Great idea to include distances. I'll edit my post.

How do I check Phase? the wireing is correct, levels correct, distances and delays all programed as per manual, Aspect ratio set 0.5 and it sounds great.

Cheers, Chris

Chris,

In the Calibration Menu (on the preamp) that does Pink Noise after it steps through each Pick Noise Level for each speaker, it does distance. After distance is has a series of Phase tests where it compares speakers against each other and you flip phase back and forth until it sounds "right".

It's fairly easy to tell what sounds "right".

The easiey is to set it to + then move your head side to side. The sound will wander as you move your head if it is not in phase. When in phase the sound will tend to stay put.

Not sure if 565 has the phase test built in. If not Avia and Video Essentials I believe had one.

On the 861 and some other preamps you can do it from PC config program as well.

My list

All Wilson Benesch except the sub

FL Discovery +ve
FR Discovery +ve
RL Arc +ve
RR Arc +ve

Stentor sub +ve

Cliff

PS Seem to recall that the 565 does have a phase test, at least the latest firmware

Front L&R DSP8k @ 3.5m +ve
Centre DSP5kc @ 3.5m +ve
Rear DSP5k @ 2.4m +ve

Thx George,

OK, I have tried some phase settings. At the moment I have Main and Centre in + Phase.

The rears are set to - phase now. Previously they were +.

My first impression on CD is More full Bass!!!!
Very clear midband.
I will leave it like this for a while, then retry the - phase rears as +, and we will see.

Sub is + Phase, I noticed no differance when changing + to -, so left it +.

Cheers, Chris

Doing phase test between Subs and Small speakers might be difficult because of the few frequencies in common to compare phase with.

Chris,

Do you have a typo in there? You said you have it Negative now and will try Negative later.

Did you end up changing it from what you had?

Post Amended George,I hope its clear now.
The handbook says phase is very important with Ambisonic and Super stereo.

I will listen there as well.

Cheers Chris