[Andrew Haley]

Gary Eickmeier wrote:

The room is 21 x 31 ft, the speakers positioned 5 ft out from the front
wall, 5 ft in from the side walls, for an image model that has all real and
virtual sources spaced evenly 10 ft apart.

The sound is as spacious as it gets, has very sharp imaging, speakers
disappearing entirely and casting a sound field behind, between, and to the
sides beyond the separation of the speakers in a way that makes it seem like
the musicians are right there with you. This is a sat/sub system with the
IMPs doing the satellite part and a Velodyne F-1800 doing the subwoofer
chores. It is balanced, full range, spacious, and precise.

I have yet to test them against other high end speakers, but I don't know
what else a speaker can do better in any of the audible areas of speaker
performance. Frequency response, radiation pattern, and room positioning,
that's all there is, there is no more.

Questions? Comments?

Okay, I'll bite. I don't doubt that this arrangement would present a
huge soundstage. However, that first diagram, which shows laser-like
sound coming from the rear of the speakers is rather fanciful. In
reality, there will be a dispersal pattern which varies with frequency
and there won't be so much clean reflected virtual speakers as you
illustrate.

The other thing is that would worry me is that room looks extremely
lively, and I'm surprised it isn't plagued by flutter echo. Are there
some diffusers (books, etc.) on the back wall we can't see? I have a
somewhat smaller room which had similar properties, and the echo was
mostly cured by filling the back wall with books floor-to-ceiling and
some large pieces of furniture, neither of which your room has.

Andrew.