For maxed-out staging, my final install had moved the monitors still farther away from the front wall, albeit with somewhat less proximity than I practice down the hallway as shown next.
Proper time alignment bakes in as real potential with Martin's analog crossover of zero digital latency. This asked very nicely for equivalent free-space sub placement. Regular households probably can't get away with it. So turn reviewer. Make just enough to convince the fam that it's an actual job. They might cut you some slack. If not, get a real job with a dedicated anything-goes boss room. Or settle for a shallower soundstage. Most do. Nothing wrong there. It's just a hobby. Back to folding our bass dipole style. In this execution the triple-slot box is curvaceous, its stacked Ply build extra rigid, its quad wire-suspension footers virtual floatation off the floor, its banana quad an excuse to power each woofer with its own amp.
Granted, I do play offensively broken record on the matter. Just so, this active bass section's individual adjustments and demonstrably reduced room interactions mean that true 25Hz performance with compact monitors visually and sonically appropriate for a smaller room comes into sharp focus—far sharper than passive speakers net under identical conditions. This system hams it up a bit. The one shown above applies the same general concept with more budget ingredients. My main system scales up beyond even this one. If there was just one thing I learnt in two dozen years on this job—hopefully there's more for another day—it's this: actively filtered stereo 2.1, ideally with a RiPol sub, is the best real-world solution for superior bass in untreated rooms. It's why I spent the past five years converting my four main speakers systems accordingly. Only my desktop remains stereo 2.0. There naught else is needed or sensible.
The white arrow points at the XO², a 2x200W TI-based class D amp with power supplies, attenuators and frequency selectors all in dual mono.
Just then a misplaced remote for my usual Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box II crossover had its output stuck at -38dB. Using Martin's XO² instead meant Stereo 2.1 Lite so merely filtering the sub whilst running the mains wide open. Granted, the XO² sports a recommended frequency setting for the Vox3 monitors. Still, it limits quasi cardioid benefits to just the 1st octave. To do Stereo 2.1 Proper and run my new sub to ~120Hz as planned would require cutting the monitors mirror-imaged. For that my mysteriously absentee remote had to beam down again from the 7th moon; or this dbx 234xs ring my bell a few days later. How could a chunky metal wand just disapparate? Blame Chai Baba the cat?
