Mezzo Utopia positioning

Posted by: Emil F on 02 March 2003

Last week I replaced the Electra 946 with Mezzo Utopia. The Mezzo is better than the Electra in almost every aspect.

One thing the Electra’s did better is the 3 d. sound. Maybe it’s a matter of positioning?

Room is 8m x 3,5m. The distance from the speakers to the rear wall /the shorter side with big window!?/ is 1,3m.

Please help, if you already had this bad experience:

- Any ideas for correct placing the speakers in order to have back the 3 d. sound;
- What is warm-up time of these boxes?

System is CDX2/XPS2/282/hi-cap/250 on fraim. XPS2 and fraim arrived yesterday. This fraim is really a very special thing!

Your comments on this matter, please?

Thanks,

Emil

Posted on: 03 March 2003 by Wolf

you have the system I want, I'm halfway there tho.

Posted on: 04 March 2003 by Frank Abela

Emil

Give it some time. The Fraim takes 3 - 4 days to settle down. The XPS2 takes a week to start running in.

For best results, I toe in the Mezzos a little (10 degrees?). It seems like you're firing down the length of this room. You would probably (?) get better results if they were shooting across! This way you have less out of phase side reflections which tend to have a bad effect on the imaging. Just a thought! The Mezzo is a lot bigger in both physical and sound aspects so it is more likely to energize the room more readily than the Electra, and this may be the cause of what you're experiencing. Also the speakers may be too close together for your distance away from them and that can cause a flat, confused sound.

Things to play with!

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Posted on: 13 March 2003 by Emil F

Frank,

Thank you for the good advices! Now everything is better. The Mezzo’s are doing fine job despite being on week 2 only.

The XPS2, on 2nd week too, is getting better and better. I just have to wait for the dedicated spur /4th week/ to break in completely. Maybe I need a better PSU for the 282, but decision can be made after the whole break in period. Any suggestions here?

Last night I checked the new fraim. The connections were very loose, so I had to retighten everything. What the fraim does to the sound is really a pleasant feeling. You can hardly compensate a fraim with other upgrades.

I would like to thank Tom Alves, Simon B and the other guys for the advises over the last few months. Tom, I’m just wondering how would your excellent naim kit sound with bigger /and better/ speakers?

Emil