As I'm sure Pat realises, it is all more complicated than this with respect to delay etc. 10ms is a very tiny delay which may slightly thicken the music if you were doing it with two sets of speakers pointing at you, one delayed and the other not. But there are other more significant effects at work with traditional loudspeakers. Firstly, the sound radiating backwards from the speakers will contain very little of the higher frequency information since this is all beamed forwards from the speaker. In the tweeter range (say above 3.5kHz) you will probably be at least 25dB down if you are 90 degrees off axis. So as far as a reflection from the rear wall is concerned (up to 180 degrees off-axis) you can pretty much forget it. However in the bass frequencies (say sub-200Hz) the sound is far less directional and you will have little loss at 90 degrees and although there will be some loss directly behind the speaker there will still be plenty of bass energy there. Which is one reason why the bass tends to be the obvious problem when speakers are too close to rear walls, whereas the problem in the treble and upper mid frequencies (which affect imaging) is more often the result of side wall (or side cupboard!) reflections since they are receiving sound at perhaps 45 degrees off axis.
This directional higher frequency effect is another reason why toeing in speakers can often improve imaging/ treble response. By toeing in the speakers you are making the side walls more off-axis to the speakers than they were previously and therefore you are reducing the amount of higher frequency sound that is hitting the walls and able to refract from them. The same effect can be achieved by using acoustically absorbent materials on the walls, of course. Again these will have differing effects at different frequencies. Andrew -- Andrew B. ========================================================= SB3-> Benchmark DAC1 -> ATC CA2 pre -> ATC SCM50ASL active speakers... nice! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Andrew B.'s Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2619 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22717 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
