I drew these crude drawings by hand maybe I will try to redraw
them with the computer later
Localizing sounds from loudspeakers
and the effects other speakers
and reflections could have on the imaging.
Sound localization (where a sound appears to be coming from) changes
with frequency.
its much easier to tell exactly where highs are coming from than
deep lows because the wavelengths are much shorter.
If your
sitting blindfolded in a listening area the areas in blue are an
approximation of where the sound seems to be coming from in relation
to the single speaker.. This is very general, as bass goes lower it
is very hard to localize, we might have to color the whole listening
are blue.
Single speaker
With a single speaker its pretty easy to tell where the speaker is
and the sound coming from it will appear to come from the area in
blue
With a pair of speaker IN PHASE, its very common when both speakers
play the exact same sound the sound can appear to be coming from the
center.
If the same speakers were wired out of phase the
similar sounds from both speakers would cancel in the middle
possibly giving the illusion of a wider soundstage. Some sound
engineers have done this on purpose for certain midrange
frequencies.
I don't recommend this without lots of listening tests
Most of the
time when this happens its simply because the installer wired it up
wrong.
This is an indication of what might happen in a car
with the reflective side windows. This is only one speaker.
This is an illustration with 2 speakers mounted in
car doors or kick panels, it illustrates how the reflective front
window in the car may give a boost to the sounds in that area making
the soundstage sound higher than the speakers really are
Here is a typical pair of speakers in a car, the
imaging might be affected by the front window as well as the side
windows.
The IN CAR imaging is likely way more complex than these drawings
indicate, but hopefully it will give folks a foundation to build
their own experimenting with.
Run your own search for technical
books on Amazon.com!