Sopra 2 Setup and Burn in

I found that placing them apart at 9ft gave the best imaging with around 9ft-10ft back , as for toe in I found  5-10 degrees was best where you can still see the inner sides of your cabinet, also I had my spikes opened up from 6-8 spins from fully closed

You really need to wait for the burn in process to complete before you start experimenting,  for me the Sopra'2s took about 250...300 hours.

After which I found for my room, approximately 18inchs from back wall and just a fraction of toe in, but it is very much room dependant ...but congratulations and many happy days listening.

I found the Sopra 2 very room dependant also and positioning in the room. They take a while to run in, they did for me, at the moment they are sitting about 7ft apart and 12inches from the back wall.

I have a small rectangular listening room, placing them at the thin end (which felt natural) there was little bass, along the main wall down the side (of my room) they were much better, better bass response.

Google 'cardas', use that setup routine. My experience of Focal is they sound much better in French rooms (more space, much thicker walls!)

Thanks for the feedback. Speakers are now at about 150 hours burnt in and sounding very nice. Things probably started to round into form around 72 hours and ever improving since then.

As for positioning... I have them about 8 feet apart... about 15 inches from the back wall, 28 inches from the side wall. I've experimented with zero toe in, about 20 degrees of toe in, and about 10 degrees of toe in. At present I've got them at 10 degrees where they will stay until I reevaluate again at about the 400-500 hour mark.

Zipperheadbanjo posted:

Thanks for the feedback. Speakers are now at about 150 hours burnt in and sounding very nice. Things probably started to round into form around 72 hours and ever improving since then.

As for positioning... I have them about 8 feet apart... about 15 inches from the back wall, 28 inches from the side wall. I've experimented with zero toe in, about 20 degrees of toe in, and about 10 degrees of toe in. At present I've got them at 10 degrees where they will stay until I reevaluate again at about the 400-500 hour mark.

Re evaluate at 400-500 hours.....happy days 

The right speaker has now completely disappeared into the soundstage... so I think it is optimally positioned. The left speaker... so close but it's just not quite there. I think it may need a very subtle tweak (I figure about 1/2 to 1 inch according to my measurements). But it is so close that I am going to wait until the 400-500 hour mark... just in the event that it's a burn in issue and not a positioning issue.

There is one thing I am starting to notice (or it is age and ears related) is a very velvety smooth delivery, my sound staging hasn't hit that melting stage but the playback has taken on a chocolate smoothness and overall rounded smoother playback, or so it feels, all the rough edges have been sanded down. 

I know what you mean, they continue to get smoother and warmer , these really are exceptional speakers...

Dan43 posted:

There is one thing I am starting to notice (or it is age and ears related) is a very velvety smooth delivery, my sound staging hasn't hit that melting stage but the playback has taken on a chocolate smoothness and overall rounded smoother playback, or so it feels, all the rough edges have been sanded down. 

How long have you had your Sopra's Dan?

Zipperheadbanjo posted:

Thanks for the feedback. Speakers are now at about 150 hours burnt in and sounding very nice. Things probably started to round into form around 72 hours and ever improving since then.

As for positioning... I have them about 8 feet apart... about 15 inches from the back wall, 28 inches from the side wall. I've experimented with zero toe in, about 20 degrees of toe in, and about 10 degrees of toe in. At present I've got them at 10 degrees where they will stay until I reevaluate again at about the 400-500 hour mark.

400-500 hours at least!

Focal's need a very long running in time, give them a few months minimum.

Zipperheadbanjo posted:

Dan43 posted:

There is one thing I am starting to notice (or it is age and ears related) is a very velvety smooth delivery, my sound staging hasn't hit that melting stage but the playback has taken on a chocolate smoothness and overall rounded smoother playback, or so it feels, all the rough edges have been sanded down. 

How long have you had your Sopra's Dan?

9 months. I'm not sure I have them singing at full capability even just yet, I run some speaker run in playback HiRes files now and then also.

It must be a nice system to see too. Would you share a pic or two Zipper? And what happened to the D30R by the way?  

Chag -

Hi Chag... I just posted updated pics on the system pics thread a few days ago. Just go to the most recent entry and then work backwards a page or two until you hit the big orange sopra 2's :-)

The D30R's (+ cash)  were provided to my dealer in exchange for the Sopra's.

Hi Zipper; I know, how could I have missed them? Impressive and looking great in your listening room. I now do like orange speakers. 

Chag -

Remember the speakers don't necessarily have to be symmetrical - especially if your room/furnishings are not symmetrical. You can have one speaker further from the back wall or one speaker more toed in than the other. It is how they interact with the room and what they sound like that counts!

Dozey posted:

Remember the speakers don't necessarily have to be symmetrical - especially if your room/furnishings are not symmetrical. You can have one speaker further from the back wall or one speaker more toed in than the other. It is how they interact with the room and what they sound like that counts!

Great point Dozey. I've decided to leave well enough alone until I get to the 400-500 hour mark. Then I'll consider tweaking positioning... or not... they sound pretty darn good now where they are.

Zipperheadbanjo posted:

Dozey posted:

Remember the speakers don't necessarily have to be symmetrical - especially if your room/furnishings are not symmetrical. You can have one speaker further from the back wall or one speaker more toed in than the other. It is how they interact with the room and what they sound like that counts!

Great point Dozey. I've decided to leave well enough alone until I get to the 400-500 hour mark. Then I'll consider tweaking positioning... or not... they sound pretty darn good now where they are.

Interesting suggestion,  I hadn't considered that either,might start experimenting myself.... 

If you are interested, there is a 50 minute video on the web (at //audiosex.pro) of a guy in the US who preaches the "Art of rational speaker placement" and has written a book on the subject. I found it very interesting and it has got me tinkering with speaker placement again.

Symmetry is important for correct time alignment and phase coherence., and speaker boundary interference response SBIR. Correct acoustic treatment is vital to ensure the constructive/destructive interference is minimized and comb filtering if the speakers are not the same distance to the speaker. So many people here focus on tweaks and upgrades which are costly yet fail to understand room acoustics and how important that is.

Dozey posted:

If you are interested, there is a 50 minute video on the web (at //audiosex.pro) of a guy in the US who preaches the "Art of rational speaker placement" and has written a book on the subject. I found it very interesting and it has got me tinkering with speaker placement again.

That is 'audiosex.pro ? Sounds more like a site for a different kind of 'tinkering'... 

I was a bit dubious when I clicked on it, but it looks to be a fairly boring hifi site!