Hi again
@Zambo
I've been thinking a little more about your particular case. 14 feet speaker separation is way too much for proper phantom scene recreation. So I would recommend you to adhere to 7 to 9 feet distance suggested originally by SL. 15 feet to each loudspeaker is also way more than optimum. Please, try 6 to 8 feet and for sure the holographic properties will begin to show adequately. The distance to front wall is what defines the depth properties of the LX521. I mean that if your distance is 4 feet you will have approximately 4 feet phantom scene depth. Consider my own set up, I have 8 meters (26 feet) to the front wall, so imagine how can it sound when all that space to the front wall is populated by multiple virtual sound sources corresponding to instruments or voices. This is what is unequalled by any other speaker I have experienced: the ability to fill the room at any depth and at any width, and even height perception, with pin point virtual sources corresponding to the placement of the microphones around instruments in the recording venue. I purposely quoted height perception because the LX521 precision is of such caliber that it allows to clearly distinguish in a duet if one singer is taller than the other one singing to his sideway. And this has been corroborated by more than one astounded fellow at my listening room.
On the other hand, think about this, the closer the LX521 is to your ears (within limits) the more you are increasing the direct to reverberated ratio. With this transducer is of utmost importance to set up distances long enough to allow the precedence effect to take place (Haas effect), thanks to the fact that the reflected sound is a spectral replica of the direct sound. The bigger those distances the easiest the listening room acoustics to disappear from the acoustic horizon. When this happens, then the acoustics of the recording venue superimposes the local acoustics and dominates the listening experience. So, in consequence you only perceive the encoded acoustics in the recording and the teletransportation trick magically happens even if you don't desire it to happen. If the encoded acoustics corresponds to a moderately dead ambience (like the typical recording studio) then the musicians seem to be placed on your room at different positions, but enveloped with the studio acoustics, which may be more or less similar to that of the listening room. But when the encoded acoustics corresponds to a symphony hall, much different to the listening room, then your room disappears and you are placed psychoacoustically in the original venue with all the sound sources in front of you, spread over a three dimensions space.
In your actual situation with your LX521, the measurement is what it is, no matter which speaker you use. It is probably not a problem of the speaker itself but a very gross setup problem. When the direct sound of the speaker arrives to your ears, the reflected waves probably have arrived earlier and this is suboptimal in every sense. You should register RT60 measurement, spectrogram and decay times also.
Recently I have assisted to two demos, one of ATC SCM100 and another one to Kef Blade One Meta. The result, I couldn't be most dissappointed. I really thought the Blade was going to blow me and reveal like an endgame speaker because I have watched Erin's review and the magnificent Klippel measurements, so I felt predisposed to be blown away. What a horrible sound it produced. I felt very annoyed by such a stomach revolving bass and ultra detailed and thin high frequencies. Any resemblance to a real instrument playing in the room was absolutely absent, let alone there was basically no soundstage anywhere to talk about. But people around me seemed to like it a lot (!). This leads me to think that people should go more to real live events at symphony halls, be it symphonic, soloist, lyrical or chamber music. If that's not your favourite musical genre neither acoustic music, well, then why a LX521?
This situation also makes me question what is the excellence in measurements valid for. There is no way to measure how a set of transducers will excite the innards of the ear-brain cognitive system. So, this refutes the theory that only listening on a periodic manner to acoustic live music keeps your database to date and positively allows the comparison of reproduced sound to that elusive reality. Only honestly recorded music is the recipe to feed a system like LX521 and be rewarded with true realism at your home. Feed it with Dire Straits, Depeche Mode, The Cars, Michael Jackson and almost any similarly recorded content, like in Erin's Spotify playlist for example, and you will only receive garbage sound. I'm not talking now about musical qualities, only about sound qualities. It's necessary some kind of sensibility to talk about and listen to music, not just "listen to that rasp-rasp-rasp sound how distinctly it sounds". Just a reconsideration, from here on out I will stop watching those crappy YT channels, no matter anechoic data presented or not. I will employ the time to listen to more music instead.
The LX521, and I will add as is set up in my room, is the only system I have heard to date which is capable to completely reconstruct a coherently recorded voice and piano in my room, with the absolute credibility of a real singer and a real pianist performing in front of me at about 8 m away from the listening position. It's even more, it let me feel being in the hall with the artists. Please, play this short song and discover if your system is up to the task.
Maybe you own a gem and you still don't know it.
I would only take the in room measurements as a guide to optimize the positioning in the room, not to alter its response. SL solved his part.
Best regards
hometheaterhifi.com
