Merry Christmas!! Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” has al lot of depth and High information. The children chattering an chorus are far behind the speakers, the angry man is a bit higher and close, and the helicopter 🚁 comes through the ceiling Sadly, not all the speakers are capable of doing that kind of magic

My best recording for soundstage and imaging is the 2 record set of Die Fledermaus issued by EMI, amount starring: Anneliese Rothenberger, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, etc. Just after the overture the 2 girls are moving in, to the right and while talking, move to the right of the right speaker, move in front of the right speaker and then slight to the right of the centre where they start singing spaced apart. That is the part that Adele tried to get time off because of her sick aunt and Rosalinde refused to give her leave. Then Alfred start singing from far in the left rear side high above the left speaker(so there is hight) while moving forward and then opens a door and suddenly he is in the room. The whole scene plays before you like a circus. This recording is the best in my collection for soundstage that I ever experienced. I have the 2 CD set as well that EMI issued in 1997 for the 100 years of sound recording...the records sound better than the CD's.

Merry Christmas Paul. I’m really enjoying your videos, many thanks,Ron.

I am sure others have already mentioned. Such a neat and organized facility. It suggests a strong company culture and employees who care about their products, their people and their work environment. Merry Christmas!

Adding a better subwoofer has given me height and better depth. To raise the subwoofer upward my chest has also helped me out. I use a solid enough guitar amplifier stand that provides me an optimal tilt for my subwoofer.

Based on the Sumiko Master Setup instructions that I've read, you'll want to adjust the "rake angle" exactly like what Paul describes. It doesn't take much, lift the front of the speaker maybe a half-inch.

Paul is spot on imho. If you know the recording has the vocalist standing, that's your reference track. Start with one speaker in the middle to adjust your height carefully. I used 1cm planks under the speaker until I got it right. You can measure that distance without the need of tilting. That being said, in my experience the tilt adds some extra time with placement , BUT it does some serious magic on your bass response. I think the tilt itself avoids standing waves by geometry.

Our hearing is quite amazing considering how we manage to perceive a soundstage of 360 degrees with only two eardrums.

I remember a Sony receiver I had back in the 80's that had great height replication. I was listening to 'Dance to the Music' and was very impressed with the sound stage. There was a cold air return vent high on the wall in front of me and I said to myself 'if that organ comes in and sounds like it's coming from that vent it would blow my mind; and that's exactly what it did. I was extremely delighted with that receiver but it quit working after a couple weeks so I returned it and got another one. It also failed to work within the same time frame and I had to return that one too but I felt there must be a defect in it's design and bought an Onkyo receiver instead. I have never experienced that sound stage with any other receiver I've owned since then. I don't remember the model number of that Sony receiver but I'm pretty sure it had a "9" in it. Perhaps it may be something you may be interested in researching. I enjoy your videos very much. Unfortunately I have downsized and don't have an audio room anymore and reduced to a bedroom and a sound bar and reluctantly content with that situation.

My original speaker position for my Paradigm Studio 60’s was against the wall and I had a small center channel below my flat screen TV. Basically the set up many people have. I have pretty powerful amps. An M&K subwoofer in the right corner. The sound was good but I always felt the sound stage was way too low. Lack of depth also. Came across Paul’s vid a few years back recommending to pull the speakers away from the wall. I finally decided to give it a try. Wow! Everything improved. Depth and Image and even raised the soundstage. The height level went from my feet like in the upper level section at a concert to a more knee/waist level area when sitting down on my sofa. Very pleased but not fully there. The center channel position bothered me. I felt this was the cause of the still too low height level. I decided to move the small center channel and place behind my flat screen TV and fire it upward. Not as big of a wow but a noticeable improvement yet again. Raised the sound stage height to around upper chest near face level. On some good recording it’s even above my head. 👍 Thanks again Paul! Merry Christmas! 🎄

Height typically comes easier with array tower speakers. The amp also makes a huge difference. Mine the singer is center stage but everything else is proper placement but like the walls do not exist and at an open concert. Smaller speakers tend to have that effect of height going up halfway up the wall. The problem is the singer might be center but the other music is not as expansive as it should be. How good you can make it depends on materials used and room set up. Some speakers have adjustments on them whereas others you have to try to fit to the room only. Not all speakers are good for certain rooms. The Von Schweikerts can be awesome but typically do good way off the wall so in smaller rooms not a good fit for most.

Merry Christmas Paul to you and your family ❤️

In addition to the recording, proper room treatment plays a huge roll in height information. Check out Acoustic Fields products. Their listening room with proper treatment gives the illusion the room you are listening in is much taller that it actually is.

Thought provoking video. I never thought about tilting speakers. Perhaps the auditory information that provides subtle clues to space are quite low in volume. To get this low level detail to stand out midst the big stuff you need very good resolution. Everything matters. And by that I mean iff your source can produce it, everything else in the chain can destroy it. Literally just filter it out. So IMHO everything can contribute to production of the spatial illusion.

Merry Christmas to Paul and to Paul and good night! 🎄⛄

My 4 foot tall Infinity's are leaned back but even so the best seat in the house is about mid to 2/3's speaker height. When I had smaller boxed speakers I sat the speakers on tables. Just sounded better.

The writer was very clear about having the loudspeaker book and CD!

Isao Tomita had instrumented height within his spacey music genre.

This is one of my pet subjects ... more work has got to be done on this ... but the fundamental problem is not the height but also range ( distance from the microphones to musician )

Same problem here. I got it by increasing the distance of stereo triangle (all distances)

Could you comment on spatial and soundstage challenges of electrostatic speakers

I’m grateful that my son speakers project height pretty organically they don’t seem to over emphasize in an all unnatural way

My martin logans 11a speakers always have a height image. No tweeks. Just a great speaker.

Many box speaker designs reproduce vocals that are low. Panels, like Magnepan or Martin Logan, produce proper image height.

You might want to check for height by listening to Coil's Something. Although the effect is artificial it's impressive as you should hear the swooshing sounds not only above your speakers but also reaching out above your head.

Like stereo has two speakers for left and right ( basic format) another 4 would be needed to create a " vertical stereo " effect ... Dolby Atmos could be changed to provide this information ...

Merry Christmas all! My system images well. I love asking listeners to close their eyes and point where they hear certain things. They freak out every time.

ive got a question ive got a surround sound system with a av receiver there is no where to run the cable for my left surround speaker with out it looking bad is there any way to make it wireless for one speaker

One of my high-end set-ups was with CLS speakers and the image was high, now I got just an ordinary setup, and the image to me was way too low with my floor-standing loudspeaker, I had to jack them up afoot off the floor to get a higher image, now its to to bad.

If someone is speaking to you from above, then your ears identify that the sound is coming from above. Well, the microphones are the electronic replacements for your ears. The microphones capture what you would have heard, if your ears were in that same spot in the room. As long as microphones and the rest of the recording equipment is quality designed and manufactured, then what the microphones picked up and sent to the recording equipment... it will all be in the recording. Then, the rest is up to your playback equipment and your room and how you set it all up.

The elephant in the room is “what is his system, what is the height of his speakers, room dimensions, speaker placement and seating position?” If he has something like low height Klipsch speakers and sits too close, he’ll never get any acoustic height information.

the cardboard box behind looks like it has a face and 2 little feet, how cute.

if a pair of mics were placed above & below one-another, then we would experience height better. mic pattern-matching for intent & placement is prerequisite to delivering spatial information if / as desired by the artist, producer & engineer.

Stereo microphone it’s on thing, the orientation or position of the microphones it’s another situation, to capture depth they must be in an angle +45 degree -45 degree, hard to explain but it’s there!!

Dear Paul, you've my respect and I learned a lot from you but you got this one quite wrong: If the direct sound is in phase between mid and tweeter, the localization will be at tweeter height so you’ll be lifting your centre stage. This can be optimally (for the LP) done with digital correction (you can watch my tutorial on excess phase inversion). Tilting the speakers back and forth would ruin the speaker drivers' dynamics (they are designed to stand level.) and would still almost never get the image height up in smaller rooms.

Changes in height during recording cause changes in channel-to-channel phase relationships, which when reproduced by a good-enough system will give audible cues. It may be rare, but it happens, and it is repeatable. I've heard it on a couple of recordings. (Don't ask what they were -- I don't remember.)

MERRY XMAS!!!

My speaker can create a mega-space, sounding like a enormous concerthall! It’s all about Wall boundering… speakers should be integrated to room…

Little speakers will not give you height. Great imaging and depth, sure. Large speakers, especially towers, tend to be much better for height, sometimes sacrificing the pinpoint imaging though. These are generalities of course, not absolutes.

Speak to deterioration of a speaker by playing loud, ie rock music a lot.

I recently raised my speakers from 25.5 inches to 30.5 inch bye adding a wooden box is higher better they sound better!

I don't think tilting is going to be the answer in this situation he said "waste height" that would be a lot of tilting back not forward probably over 15°and that could make the speaker unstable. Best solution is the place on a 6"cement block/breezeblocks not concrete block, a lot better acoustic dampening. then possibly tilt it forward maybe 2 to 5° that should work out no CD needed there you go 😘😂 Ideally you want it about the middle of the woofer towards the surround, or centre of the mid-range driver at ear level.

What you describe Paul is very interesting, however the main thing is that the production wanted to present that height. You can tell us what recordings you know that one can "know" or "experience" that "height". Because if the production never wanted to present that type of scenario, it will be very difficult to achieve it. Thank you.

Rake the speakers

I can only offer a theory based on my experimentation. I know that this sounds a very ‘unaudiophile’ move. Try putting a second pair of much smaller speakers on top of your existing speakers and aim them upwards and see what that does.

You cant get height info with two channel - boundry or not.

*heighth is not a word* *height*

Typical microphones cannot record natural height cues and stereo speakers cannot reproduce natural height cues from a recording. Natural spatial cues Head Related Transfer Function HRTF and Interaural Time Difference ITD locate the speakers. Microphones may pick up sound directly from the source and sound reflected from recording environment wall, ceiling, and floor surfaces. Later reflections added to the direct sound produce constructive and destructive interference comb filter flange effects. Two ears are able to hear different directions, horizontal azimuth and vertical elevation, by natural HRTF and ITD cues and separate the reflections from the direct sound; microphones cannot. Two ears hear the natural HRTF and ITD cues that spatially locate the speakers reproducing the comb filter flange effect created by the microphone that adds the direct and reflected sound from the recording environment to one direction. Reflections of speaker sound in the listening room reinforce the natural cues that locate the speakers in the listening room.