Stereo setup tips

He pointed out that many enthusiasts , even those with 5. There's nothing wrong with that. After all, it's an illusion of a musical event, a performance that originally was recorded live or in a studio that we're hoping to create in our living room.

If two channels are enough to complete that illusion to a listener's satisfaction, then stereo is just fine. Certainly huge numbers of us grew up with stereo—multichannel surround sound at home is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of recorded sound—and setting up just two speakers is a whole lot easier.

Now, that is eccentric! I've passionately advocated the enhancement in realism possible with many jazz, classical and live concert recordings played back in 5. But I'd certainly admit that not every stereo recording benefits. Lots of studio recordings of rock or pop music, for example, often seem better delineated, simpler if you will, played in two channels.

Further evidence that I needed to redress any hurt caused stereo listeners by my surround setup article arrived in a post on the Axiom message boards this week:. I decided to use the screw jacks spikes at the front of the M60's to angle them up a bit. What a difference! I also found that angling them in slightly towards the center had a positive impact on my listening enjoyment.

The writer went on to praise Axiom's sound quality and the exceptional value for the dollar that his system provides it is a 5. The goal of good, two-channel speaker placement should always be a smooth, consistent, and unbroken soundstage across the front, with a sense of front-to-back depth when it's present on the source recording; many dry studio recordings have no depth at all.

Ideally, you should get a sense that some instruments extend beyond the left-right physical borders of the speakers. With careful setup of speakers with wide and consistent off-axis radiation, and a good recording, you may hear cymbals and other percussion instruments positioned somewhat beyond the speakers. The soundstage should usually not be limited to a 2-dimensional space between the speakers.

You want to avoid the sense that you are getting sound from two boxes at the front of the room. They only have the ability to "serve" a page from our site and put items in your cart. All finished with your chat session?

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Intro to home stereo systems Love music? If you're not playing it on a genuine stereo system, chances are you could love it a lot more. Meet Jim Richardson Close. Most stereo systems include three things: A stereo receiver or amplifier A matched pair of speakers At least one music source This article will help you choose a home stereo system that suits your lifestyle and your listening space.

A turntable and a pair of powered speakers make a great compact stereo system. Comments 35 Read comments. Mark - I also have a Tivoli radio, and I must admit I had never thought of using it as a powered speaker, but I do think it's possible.

The Music Hall Mini phono preamp has a 3. Hope this helps! That said, it's a darn good one, and you can get it for a pretty good price if you snap up the one that's left. Pat - I'm assuming these speakers with RCA connection are self-powered, so I'm not even sure you need an amplifier if that's the case. Without knowing more about them, it's hard for me to make a solid recommendation.

It might behoove you to contact an Advisor who can glean the details of your existing equipment and make a truly informed recommendation. Thanks for asking! Fresner - I've looked at the manual for that receiver, and it sounds like the decoder is something you have to select to set up your surround sound preferences.

If you're using the Yamaha in stereo mode for music listening, I think the default "off" is what you want. If you're watching movies and you want to use a specific type of digital signal processing like DTS, you can use the "program" button to cycle through the menu options until you find the type of processing you want to apply.

Where should you place it? How's best to connect it? And are upgrade paths available to you? If you're wondering where to start with your brand-new stereo amp, or haven't even got that far and are wondering which type of amp would be best for you yet, let us run you through the basics The former is the most simple, convenient and space-saving option, packing both pre- and power amplification into one chassis.

This means everything has been tuned together, saving you the work that goes into matching separate amplifiers. Two-box amplifiers, on the other hand, involve splitting pre-amplification input selection and volume control, fundamentally from power amplification go on, guess. The idea is to keep the sensitive preamp circuitry and the delicate audio signals flowing through it away from the electrically noisy high-current power amplifier section. Having separate power supply sections helps to improve the sound too.

So this way you double your component count but, as long as your pre- and power-amps function together sympathetically, you should enjoy better performance. Invariably they will have been tuned to work well together. If you plan to go off-piste and mix-and-match, be aware some pairings will work better together than others.

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Create account. Reset your password Fill in your registered email, and we will send you a link to reset your password. Required Invalid Email. Required Invalid Email Required. Mic University. Creating a stereophonic image with two microphones depends on the directional characteristics of the microphones, their angling and the distance between them. The aim is to create a level difference, a time difference or a combination thereof.

From psychoacoustic research [1], we know which values to aim for. The art of it — and the science — is to create the right distribution of the sound between the loudspeakers. Other parameters like timbre and envelopment also are important.

However, we will only look at the level and time that creates the right distribution across the standard loudspeaker setup as shown in fig 1. Additionally, a combination of the time difference and the level difference can act together. In fig. Once quantified, this information can be combined with the directional characteristics of the mics in a two-microphone setup. Then, it is possible to determine the optimal positioning of the microphones for a stereo recording.

As mentioned, stereo recording is not just a question of reproduction at hard left or right. Otherwise, angular distortion will occur. This is visually explained in fig.

The following information is based on the work of Michael Williams [2]. Setups for stereo: AB Fig. AB stereo recording is based on a spaced pair of omnidirectional microphones. On the boom, the microphones are mounted normally, keeping the housings in parallel. The distance from the center of the thread to the centerline of the microphone boom can be read on the bar at the outer side of the two holders respectively, fig.