ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hello
I was wondring if there were any suggetions about placment for beolab 5.
toe in, tips for calibirations, and so on......
pierre
From my standpoint, as one of the inventors of ALT, it's really pretty easy. If you can, keep your speakers more than a meter away from walls. If you can't, it's not a big problem, but playback won't necessarily have quite the illusion of depth you might like.
When we first created ALT at Sausalito Audio, we designed it so that optimum frequency response was at 30° off-axis, so you would have had no toe-in. Bang & Olufsen, however, decided to optimize response on-axis, so you should toe the BeoLab 5s in so that the lens is directly facing toward you, the listener. Because the response is so consistent horizontally, whatever errors you have will be essentially inaudible.
The calibration is utterly straightforward – you just push the button on top and let the speaker do its thing. By calibrating you are simply correcting the speaker for the power response encountered at the speaker's position in your room. This often is misunderstood by some BeoWorlders, who seem to think the calibration is a way of "voicing" the speaker to sound "best." Sometimes, they even "game" the calibration to change tonal character by calibrating in some other space (outdoors, for instance).
If you wish to "voice" the speaker to fit your preferences (which I think is a perfectly natural and very musical thing to want to try), I recommend you buy a good parametric equalizer (five bands would be good), put it in line between the preamp or receiver you are using and the BL 5s, and start experimenting and studying the rich, fascinating and musical world of timbre adjustment. I recommend that you don't try to use calibration to do these things.
Finally, if you want to get really picky, buy yourself a Sound Pressure Level meter and verify that your sound levels are exactly matched at your listening position. This includes getting levels at each speaker "stored" in the Beo4 and trimmed somewhere earlier in the signal flow to be identical (with .5 dB, at least).
Good luck with all of this. Most important, enjoy your BeoLab 5s. They are so worth it!
Best regards,
Dave Moulton, Sausalito Audio
MrDMoulton:From my standpoint, as one of the inventors of ALT, it's really pretty easy. If you can, keep your speakers more than a meter away from walls. If you can't, it's not a big problem, but playback won't necessarily have quite the illusion of depth you might like. When we first created ALT at Sausalito Audio, we designed it so that optimum frequency response was at 30° off-axis, so you would have had no toe-in. Bang & Olufsen, however, decided to optimize response on-axis, so you should toe the BeoLab 5s in so that the lens is directly facing toward you, the listener. Because the response is so consistent horizontally, whatever errors you have will be essentially inaudible. The calibration is utterly straightforward – you just push the button on top and let the speaker do its thing. By calibrating you are simply correcting the speaker for the power response encountered at the speaker's position in your room. This often is misunderstood by some BeoWorlders, who seem to think the calibration is a way of "voicing" the speaker to sound "best." Sometimes, they even "game" the calibration to change tonal character by calibrating in some other space (outdoors, for instance). If you wish to "voice" the speaker to fit your preferences (which I think is a perfectly natural and very musical thing to want to try), I recommend you buy a good parametric equalizer (five bands would be good), put it in line between the preamp or receiver you are using and the BL 5s, and start experimenting and studying the rich, fascinating and musical world of timbre adjustment. I recommend that you don't try to use calibration to do these things. Finally, if you want to get really picky, buy yourself a Sound Pressure Level meter and verify that your sound levels are exactly matched at your listening position. This includes getting levels at each speaker "stored" in the Beo4 and trimmed somewhere earlier in the signal flow to be identical (with .5 dB, at least). Good luck with all of this. Most important, enjoy your BeoLab 5s. They are so worth it! Best regards, Dave Moulton, Sausalito Audio
You'll find pages and pages here.
Thanks for this. All the calibrations Info wasnt new to me, but the toe in was. I will try that later this evening.
Has anyone tryed to connect the speakers to a powercondtioner?
Pierre
Yes, mine are connected to a Belkin PureAv pf50. I cant tell if it make any differences but at least I got rid of some electrical spikes with my previous system. So it should be good for the electronics inside I think.
Maab why didnt you like Dirac? I use it myself and thinks it is a big advantage with much more clean bass and better tonality. You could perhaps have a much better room then I do.
Hi Maab,
Yes the program is designed to reduce the volume level by 7 dB. Because it is "forbidden" to boost levels when you manipulate the signal. To get maximum sound quality you can only decrease levels where you need to.
So it is not only Dirac that does that, all room correction softwares reduces the input signal. But for me it gives so many advantages that this "problem" is over looked.
Wilderwein:Hi Maab, Yes the program is designed to reduce the volume level by 7 dB. Because it is "forbidden" to boost levels when you manipulate the signal. To get maximum sound quality you can only decrease levels where you need to. So it is not only Dirac that does that, all room correction softwares reduces the input signal. But for me it gives so many advantages that this "problem" is over looked.
Dave,
I found your comment on the ALT system very interesting. Does this apply to the Beolab 3s as well? Should I toe in my BL3s to my direction. Any other suggestion as to placement of BL3s (sorry all, I recognize that this thread is about BL5s but I thought that the above answer by Davie Moulton might interest owners of other speakers too).
Yes the bl5 is an amazing speaker, but the room you put them is in most cases not when it comes to reproducing audio. I am a bit confused that you did not what Dirac did for you. What kind of mic did you use? Did you do the measurements in sofa, chair or theatre mode?
My personal experience is that the Beolab 3 will benefit if toed in. Look at my other thread with the answer from Geoff Martin
http://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/7486.aspx
Regarding BeoLab 3s, toe-in is a good question.
In theory, yes, toe them in. In practice, it doesn't seem to matter a lot, particularly when you use them as I do, close to the listener. In the studio, I have them on each side of the meter bridge of my console, a little more than 1 meter away from me, with NO toe-in (mainly for appearance reasons – remember, also, that I may have a client sitting next to me and whatever toe-in I have isn't going to work for the client). On location, I set them up on whatever table is available and toe them in.
If you have them away from you (say more than 2 meters in a typical room, I guess I'd toe them in (and that's what I do in my living room, with the home theatre install with an Avant).
I hope this answer helps.
Dave Moulton, Sausalito Audio LLC
Wilderwein:Yes the bl5 is an amazing speaker, but the room you put them is in most cases not when it comes to reproducing audio. I am a bit confused that you did not what Dirac did for you. What kind of mic did you use? Did you do the measurements in sofa, chair or theatre mode?
Ok, can you post pictures on the measurement graph? If you have the time I would recommend you to try and measure in a wider area. But it is also possible that you cant get it to work in your particular room.
Wilderwein:Ok, can you post pictures on the measurement graph? If you have the time I would recommend you to try and measure in a wider area. But it is also possible that you cant get it to work in your particular room.