Proper Sound Staging & Imaging

[Dimensions]

Hey everyone, I have been researching this topic, as this is an area I lack knowledge. I found this article and it gave me a good basis of what the overall goal is for proper sound staging and imaging.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-1Uxn7C7RzgA/learn/learningcenter/car/speakers_imaging_soundstage.html

This seems to be a complicated subject at times as there are many different variables such as vehicle, mounting locations, type of speaker, etc. So experts, what are some basic rules to follow when setting up a great sounding sound stage? What are some tips and tricks you folks use when setting up a sound stage?

[mrd6]

I am by no means an expert here but I'll tell you the few things I have noticed over the years. Some may disagree with a few points though I guess.

1) By far the biggest improvement I have made to the sound stage and imaging in my car is time aligning all of the speakers. If you are serious about having a great sounding system I would say having a deck or outboard processor with this feature is a must.

2) As a basic rule, the farther you can get the speakers from your ears, the better your imaging will be due to the fact that they will more closely resemble a point source.

3) I have a loud substage because I think it is way too fun not to. But when I am actually listening to music that I want to hear reproduced accurately and in balance with everything else, I turn my subs down to the point where I could probably get the same volume from a pair of eights. This relates to imaging in that you do not ever want to feel like the sound is coming from behind you (where your subs are I assume). So I guess this is just make sure you have a balance in your music.

4) This goes along with 3 but to help keep the lower frequencies seeming like they are coming from in front of you, try to run your mids or midbass speakers as low as you can (frequencies not location) and try to blend them with the substage by using a more shallow crossover slope. Know your system's limits though so you don't blow your speakers.

5) Play around with things like speaker placement, orientation, angle, eq, etc. Like you said, there are a lot of variables for sq in a car and you just won't know what will work in your situation until you try it. Some installs have speakers on axis, others off, some reflect tweeters off the windshield or mount them behind the rear view mirror. Some people have better results mounting their tweets near the mids to get closer to a point source while others have the tweets up higher to raise the sound stage. You just gotta get in there, try it out, and see what you like!

[mrd6]

Oh and btw, there is a SQ section on here that you could look through and make future posts like this in instead of general audio

[Dimensions]

Thanks for the info, it was definitely helpful. I am aware of the SQ section on the boards, and felt it fit in here. Maybe i was thinking too general, and didn't realize i was trodding into a more specific topic. Is there a way to move topics on here? Should I find a Mod and ask to have it moved?