Update on the Heron Hot Rods...

I causally spent last week working with the Heron Hot Rods’ placement. I found that setting them around 3 feet from the back wall, 8 feet from each other and slightly toed-in seemed to work the best. The Herons are very sensitive to placement. Even the slightest adjusments have a very obvious sound change. I found the depth increased as I toed-in yet it affected the width of the soundstage. I kept playing with this until I felt the vocal “locked” into focus. I also was aware of the soundstage and found a good width. Instruments are very easily to spacially pinpoint and they sound very uncongested. My slight bass boom seemed to disapate with this placement to (it was still there but I still hadn’t installed the spikes).

I experimented with bi-wiring the Herons and felt that there was merit to doing this. I ran my Belden CC wire to the hi inputs and ran a cheap 12g zip chord (all I had to use) to the low (the thicker gauge to handle bass). I found that the opened up a bit more yet there was an introduction of harshness (most likely die to the cheap zip chord). So, I decided to switch back to the single Belden CC wire for now. I’ll try the bi-wiring again in the future when I have the time to order a spool of Belden wire and then make an additional pair. I have the speaker wire connected to the low input (to help with bass demands) and jumpers going to the hi. I may try reversing this to see if there is an increase in clarity to the mid-upper frequencies.

Saturday, I installed the spikes. Since I am one person now (no more wife), I carefully tipped each speaker onto some pillows. I screwed in the spike and stood them up again. I got everything level and was ready to do some final adjustments (at least for now). I found that the spikes further helped my slight boom problem. The bass seemed a bit tighter. I had to make a few very, very slight adjustments with the toeing-in to lock-in the focus. Perhaps the less boom was revealing I could tighten more (it’s like focusing an image on a camera). The music also was a lot more open and less confined by the speakers. The Meadowlark Heron Hot Rods come with 4 port pucks (2 for each speaker). Each puck helps attenuate the bass frequency to help the speakers work with different types of rooms. I felt that putting a puck in each speaker more or less really settled the slight boom. The bass is much more dynamic and free rather than slightly muddy and boxed.

The Heron’s handle vocals incredibly. For example, Dylan’s voice on ‘Tweeter and the Monkey Man’ from the first Traveling Wilbury’s album sounds like he is signing in my living room. The music is spacious, dynamic, pounding away and his voice is in front of all this and very distinct, tonaly correct, and dynamic. It’s almost eerie how it almost seems like Dylan is standing there signing. Instruments have plenty of room in the soundstage and have a big, real quality to them. I can hear the spaces between the players and the space of the room (wow). Also, as strange as this sounds, I almost can detect the material an instrument is made of (wood sounds like wood). Piano notes/attack/decay are reproduced very well. I’m amazed at the what these things can do. Steve was right about his DCC titles. He’s said many times that when your system improves you will hear so much more inner detail to the work he’s done. The enjoyment factor will increase. This is very true. I listened to several DCC titles (plus MCA ones) on vinyl/CD and I was amazed…

Yesterday, I came home after a nice brunch with my mother and decided to relax and listen to my stereo UK first pressing of ‘Sgt. Pepper’. I was curious to hear how this would sound. I felt like I was listening to a different mix of an old favorite. It was incredible. I'm glad I was able to get these wonderful speakers to work in my living room. I didn't want to sacrifice the comfort and look of the room too much (I think that's an important ingredient of the whole listening experience too/comfort). I'm also happy that my Dynaco ST-70 is working very well with the Heron Hot Rods and has not shown one sign of running out of steam (Steamboat Willy)...

So, this week I should be receiving my Hong Kong Y&S tube pre-amp (“thingie”) and I’m looking forward to adding this to my system. Here we go again…

Todd

 

My 32 inch TV is dead center. I pushed the stand back towards the wall with a few inches clearance. My Target rack is to the right of the TV (close to the wall). The Dynaco ST-70 is to the right of the Target stand on a small home made platform with a pillow incorporated (thanks Tom Port). I understand that having "stuff" in between the speakers will affect performance but I wanted to keep my living room a living room (NY apartment). I feel that I was able to get the best performance out of my compromises. The speakers have a good deal of clearance from the other equipment (back and side) because of their location (almost 2 feet in front of the equipment "line" and several feet away). I'm getting a great soundstage, depth, bass, etc.. Luckily it seems to work. In time, I will be making a few adujustments when I get more used to the sound.

Do some calculations with rooms modes to increase/decrease bass response (even usually excites bass frequencies/uneven decreases/this seemed to be my experience). There's a room calculator link on the web. Do a search on Audio asylum for info on this and some links. I used slight off center placement to help deminish the bass. Luckily, I was setting up the whole living room from scratch so I could take some of these things into consideration. It's been a learning experience (still a lot more to grasp & learn)...


Todd