Center image help.

[Fricasseekid]

So I have a strong left and strong right, very focused too. My center stays put and even male/female vocals hang out in the same space. But it's not as focused as I'd like. My center is always just to the left of and under my rear view but the parts of the stage in between, left center and right center, tend to get lost. I think it's because my center image is too big. I thought maybe its because my t/a wasn't dialed in tight enough. I set t/a by ear using pink noise (Doppler method) and music (looking for center) and come to roughly the same settings. But someone recently suggested to me that it may be an issue with level matching. My driver side full range does seem to stick out a bit at times but could that cause my center image to be diffused?

What should I try?


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[chithead]

Would swapping the phase of one or more drivers help?

[Fricasseekid]

I already swapped one of my full ranges. It helped a lot.


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[claydo]

I struggle with this as well, especially with my hearing trouble lately, but before that started, the best way to really get that tight "focus" for me was with l/r eq. The only problem is when you get this focus, and a real tight stage, it seems to vary from recording to recording. When you go to the next recording you may need more touch up to get it sounding the same. I get caught up in this conundrum even in casual listening.......its maddening. For me, this problem usually exists in the 2k to 8k range........don't know if its differnent engineers working their magic behind the board, or other factors, but it leaves me shooting for a more broad stage, kind averaging things out from track to track.,

[Fricasseekid]

Well right now I'm running tweeterless and my fr-89s start to drop around 4k and really lose output above 6k. Maybe that's problem?


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[claydo]

I wouldn't think that would bother your stages focus, as long as the aiming, or reflections aren't causing them to taper off differently from side to side.

[Fricasseekid]

Well I let REW calculate all my eq adjustments for me. It measures and calculates biquad filters on 6ch. of p-eq for each individual driver and then another 6 ch. per side.

The only eq I've done by ear is the adjustment of the 7 band on my HU, and that's just for tonality/listener preference.


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[claydo]

Well that just leads me to believe that your ears are better than your mike.

[Fricasseekid]

Possibly. But setting a graphic eq by ear is a lot easier than 36 bands of parametric eq with adjustable slopes and q factors. That's pretty intimidating.


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[claydo]

Word, but group them together as "bands"......ie; upper midrange or mid treble, select a fairly narrow q, and center them up as a 31 bander, then go to work. I agree that's a lot of eq power, but its essentially the same as a simple graphic if ya treat it as such. Once you get yourself happier with the sound, and more familiar with the tools at your disposal, then you can start into using the full power of such a complicated eq to fix the lil things.......I think you'll only be intimidated if you try to use all that power up front, without a basline tune.