nearfield listening to S7s in smallish room - rec'd ear height vs drivers?

[rhyno]

well, 24*16*10 isn't so small, but to get proper bass response had to pull them out quite a bit and the room only permits seating ~ 10' from front baffle.

once the spikes were installed & fully screwed in, front baffle basically coupled to the carpet, the bass went too deep and ill defined. backing spikes out and thus raising speaker height and now problem considerably reduced. BUT, now my ear height is level w/ the top of the upper woofer, so 5" below tweeter.

quick questions

what height ear vs driver is recommended for the S7s? (seems i need to be up quite a bit given mid is above tweet and proximity to front baffle).

thanks for the input

 

[Bodhi]

I have S5 Mk2's. From memory, the S7's tweeter is identical (or very close to) the height of the S5 Mk2's tweeter. Sitting on my sofa, my ears are roughly in line with the top part of the midrange drivers & the image height seems fine to me. My previous Infinity Renaissance 90's High Energy Emit tweeter sat higher in relation to my current speakers, but due to the Emit's excellent dispersion and off-axis performance, staging and imaging were excellent at the seating position.

Magico provide the following setup advice in the S5 M2's owner's manual fyi...

MIDRANGE—PLACEMENT IN RELATION TO SIDE WALLS FOR LATERAL PLACEMENT:
BEGIN BY DIVIDING THE ROOM WIDTH BY 14. INITIAL PLACEMENT OF THE LOUDSPEAKERS WILL BE AT 3 AND 11. THE DISTANCE FROM THE LOUDSPEAKER TO THE EARS HAS TO BE PRECISELY EQUAL. THIS MEASUREMENT IS CRITICAL. THE MUSIC FOR THIS PROCESS SHOULD BE A FEMALE VOICE AND PIANO. WE ARE LISTENING FOR THE IMAGE OF HER VOICE TO BE FOCUSED. THE RULE FOR THE TOE-IN IS TO PICK A POINT APPROXIMATELY 1 – 2 FEET (. M) BEHIND THE LISTENER’S HEAD. TOE THE LOUDSPEAKERS IN TO INTERSECT AT THAT POINT. IF THE SOUND IS TOO BRIGHT, TOE THE SPEAKERS OUT A LITTLE MORE. IF THE SOUND IS TOO DULL, TOE THE SPEAKERS IN A LITTLE MORE. REPEAT THE ABOVE PROCESS WITH THE LOUDSPEAKERS AT THE 4 AND 10 POSITION. THEN REPEAT, ONCE AGAIN WITH THE SPEAKERS AT THE 5 AND 9 POSITION.

POSITIONING—S5MKIIS IN RELATION TO THE LISTENER:
• THE SPEAKERS AND THE LISTENER SHOULD FORM AN ISOSCELES TRIANGLE.
• THE LISTENER SHOULD BE EXACTLY EQUIDISTANT BETWEEN THE TWO LOUDSPEAKERS. THE BEST WAY TO DETERMINE THIS IS WITH A PIECE OF STRING. PICK A FIXED SPOT AT THE LISTENING POSITION. RUN THE STRING FROM THIS SPOT TO THE FRONT OF THE TWEETER OF THE LEFT SPEAKER. REPEAT THE PROCESS FOR THE RIGHT SPEAKER. IT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO KEEP THIS DISTANCE PRECISELY THE SAME.

Given the S series tweeter's impressive off-axis performance, my sense is the above advice is more critical than firing the tweeters precisely at ear level. My friend owns S7's & they have a reasonably wide sweet spot. Certainly not like trying to dial in a pair of Vandy 7's.

Re: your issue with excessive bass with the factory spikes fitted. You might want to consider adding MPods which have constrained layer damping & screw into the factory threads. Owners who have upgraded say it's a worthwhile upgrade, though not cheap!

 

[rhyno]

update
summary: nearfield listening requires careful attention to height variables. AND, be sure the front baffle is at least an inch away from the floor / carpet.

so i put my listening chair on 4" blocks to better align it with the tweeter and got notably improved tonality as a midrange suckout went away.
still, i was troubled by the fact that the speaker had less overall clarity on the spikes than the wheeled casters (on carpet). backing out the spikes where they were not flat to the speaker (ie supported on the threads, not the base of the spike) helped, but this gave me maybe 1" clearance between the front baffle and the carpet.

experimented and put wood blocks (like kids alphabet blocks) in lieu of spikes, now there's maybe 2" where previously one. speaker is certainly less sturdy if you push on it but the baffle / build quality doesn't change and its still an inert (mostly) reference for drivers to launch from.

but the big thing is the bass articulation and overall clarity took a huge jump by getting extra air between the carpet and the bottom of the front baffle. --old quip that bass congregates at 90degree angles w/ walls? moreso with speakers. point being, if your speakers are resting on the floor without a little clearance (2" ) between floor and speaker, you're not hearing the whole package.

YMMV

 

[owen lawlor]

Just discovered these last night. Pretty, clever design that appears to be very easy to level and a lot higher than regular spikes. Probs a lot more solid than wooden blocks. I've found keeping Magicos as stable as possible helps dramatically with imaging.