Brik placement

Posted by: dave simpson on 07 January 2002

Hi Guys,

Whats your opinion on best Brik seperation? I'm about 9 feet back from my briks with 9 feet of separation between speakers. However I just reduced the speaker separation to 5 feet (measured inside cabinet edge to inside cabinet edge) and gained quite a bit of coherency in staging without much of a loss in stage size.

I've never played with separation much and would appreciate all ideas.

thanks in advance,

dave

P.S. Briks remain parallel to wall and within 1.5 inches from rear wall.

Posted on: 07 January 2002 by jcc

My room is 22'x13' and before I found a new home for them, mine sat 6.5' apart and 10 feet from me along the long wall. Can't help you with less than the above, due to the fireplace in the middle. Tryed up to 8' and liked them better at their minimum distance.

Like you they always sounded their best as 'close to the wall as possible' (no toe)

Cheers,
jim

Posted on: 07 January 2002 by dave simpson

..are enjoying me house;) Thanks for the tip Jim! Sounds like our ratios are close. So far, so good. I'm not missing the bigger stage (nor it's hole in the middle) with the 9 foot spread but really enjoying the rock-solid center channel image and the way the ambience ties in on both channels. It was kinda weird to hear something drop stage left, then go silent until the sound wave appeared in the right speaker... not anymore though. More dynamic and better bass also.

think I'll leave well enough alone now...

dave

Posted on: 07 January 2002 by dave simpson

"C'mon dave, you know that Briks are best placed on a large stack of Mana."

think I'll leave well enough alone now...

dave

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by Dave J

Isn't 1½ inches from the rear wall a bit too close? I've been working on placement (my room is 12'x 14') since the weekend following introduction of an Ikemi and 3 inches seems to have opened things up a bit.

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by dave simpson

Hi Dave,

I'm sure it varies room to room, but general rule of thumb is basically as close to the wall as connectors will allow without touching. I've tried 'em 3 inches out and brought them in 1/2 an inch at a time and found (in this room) as close to the wall as I can get them sounds best.

regards,

dave

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by kan man

Dave, Dave & Jim

I was just wondering if the amount of bass produced keeps growing as you move them closer to the wall. Is it fairly linear or does the amount fall at certain points. I've never tried them closer than about 4 inches and that was far too much bass for my liking so I moved them further out into the room.

Regards
Steve

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by dave simpson

My experience in this particular room has been non-linear with incremental movement. Bass isn't the only aspect affected either. You might want to try them all the way against the wall (nothing touching of course) and see what happens.

regards,

dave

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by kan man

Hi Dave
Will do sometime. At the moment I have too many room problems to get them working properly - mainly a suspended floor that is nowhere near rigid enough and I don't really have a long enough available wall either. I've concluded that I either have to empty the room and do some floor strengthening or move house. For the moment, I've humped them upstairs into a spare bedroom and bought another pair of Kans to console myself.

Note for anyone kitting out a dedicated music room as I did recently. Remember to strengthen the dam floor before fitting a dedicated spur, redecorating, having new fitted carpets and putting everything back. Not a problem with Kans but Brik bass flaps the floor around like crazy and this really kills the sound. Doh.

Regards
Steve

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by Mick P

Chaps

My room is 21ft x13ft and my Isobariks are 7ft apart measured from inside to inside of speakers.

They are immediately on the sides of a fire place on the long wall and fire across the room.

At the moment they are mounted on Linn stands and sound good. I have some s/h Mana stands due for delivery and I am hoping that they will improve things even further.

They are pushed back against the wall because they sound better as well as looking less imposing.

I notice that NBL's although 3" taller are more narrow but slightly deeper. This means of course that if the Isobariks fit into your room, the NBL's will also fit, which is a considerable comfort factor.

I really like the briks but the NBL's are a another leap ahead. I often wonder if owning a brik leads one to owning a NBL.

Regards

Mick

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by Don Atkinson

Mick P says At the moment they are mounted on Linn stands and sound good. This is a typical Mick understatement. I heard them on Sunday and they souded bloody great!. BTW, these are not my briks, which I still have!

Mick sits about 10 to 11 feet from the face of the speakers and this puts his head about a foot from the rear wall. I sometimes think the distance to the rear wall can be important, and whether you have a high-back chair or a low-back chair.

Mick is currently running his speakers via Naca4 cables (mine) until he gets a new canon plug for his Naca5 cables. This means we can look forward to a detailed description of Naca4 v Naca5 as applied to 1986 vintage Briks! Well done Mick!!

Mick, NBLs would theoretically set you back about 10 times what you coughed up for your Briks. Of course only you could decide whether they would sound 10 times as good or deliver 10 times the enjoyment. I should steer clear of advice from Vuk or Stallion, since it might be somewhat conflicting!!

Cheers

Don

Posted on: 08 January 2002 by dave simpson

"I really like the briks but the NBL's are a another leap ahead. I often wonder if owning a brik leads one to owning a NBL."

Mick... I'll be able to answer that question once you give me a report;) I have a feeling you wont miss the briks though.

Steve.... get that floor fixed! Damn the decorating, She who Must be obeyed already knows you are a hi-fi geek;)

regards,

dave

Posted on: 09 January 2002 by Martin Payne

quote:
Originally posted by Mick Parry:
I really like the briks but the NBL's are a another leap ahead. I often wonder if owning a brik leads one to owning a NBL.

Mick,

yesterday I heard a NAP500 utterly demolish a pair of 135s on NBLs. The 135s had been off for a couple of weeks, but they don't get *that* much better when they warm up.

If you are considering spending NBL-type money you really MUST demo the NAP500 as an alternative way forward.

Of course, you demo the NAP500 with Isobariks, you demo the NBLs with 250 or 135s, and then you decide you need both. I know two people it's happened to, although they were using SBLs which really don't belong in an ultimate system.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 10 January 2002 by Mick P

Chaps

My Briks are running for this week only on Naca 4 because I accidently snapped the XLR connector off the end of the Naca 5.

Don asked is there a difference in sound between the two and the answer is yes. The Naca 5 is much better. It just lets more of the music through and it's more alive.

Whilst the Naca 4 is good, I seriously suggest that if you are running with Naca 4, that you bin it and treat yourself to Naca 5. You will not regret it.

Regards

Mick

Posted on: 11 January 2002 by dave simpson

Hi Mark,

Don't worry about the slight toe-in existing. Your walls are far from "flat" so perfectly parallel to the back wall is probably impossible.

The rear panel cabinet "bracing" spikes (and their nuts)on Mana DMS stands should only be finger tight.DO NOT use the Mana spanner on these nuts at all. Turn the spike with your fingers until it just touches the back of the speaker cabinet and tighten the spikes' nuts the same way. if you tighten either item any further you will lose bass, the tune and get a very funky frequency balance.

hth,

dave

Posted on: 11 January 2002 by Steve G

It seems to me the best place to put Briks would be behind something, curtains would be good. Man are those things ugly...

Regards
Steve

Posted on: 11 January 2002 by dave simpson

LOL... you know, you're right. They wear about as well as the 70's color scheme for Burger King. But damn if they don't sound fine!

regards,

dave