quote:

Originally posted by ST:
Hi everyone,

Just a few notes - not from a DJ but as one who has spent than a more than a little time dragging L1®s around in a show sized space listening to different combinations of L1®s in mono and stereo.

First observation: Both can sound great.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Richard:
Think about your average event, especially where people will be during the night. In a typical stereo set-up, the only people who get balanced, true stereo are those precisely in that sweet spot, a certain distance from each speaker. Everyone else is getting either more left channel, more right channel or a mish-mash of both channels.

I agree that only the people in the sweet spot will get true stereo, but when I run prerecorded music in stereo through two L1®s there is a HUGE sweet spot.

This is because (just look at the bold parts)

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Richard:
With a mono source that has incredible dispersion patterns (like the L1), everyone gets ALL of the left channel and ALL of the right channel, at an (almost) equal volume and without (minimal) interference patterns.

The degree to which this is applicable depends on many many things like: the source of the stereo material, how it was recorded, the size of the area you are servicing, the acoustics in the room, the distance between the L1®s,. The factor that is somewhat unique to this discussion is the distance between the L1®s. That's a matter for some fine-tuning and you get to do that with your ears.

Please understand, I am not advocating that people run in stereo. I am saying that IF YOU WANT to run STEREO, a couple of L1®s is going to be great.



Here are some rough sketches for discussion purposes. I believe that these are extremely conservative, and that your real-life performance will exceed what is suggested here. I just wanted to look at the relative performance between one L1® , and two.

The view is from behind the wall behind the L1® s.


Single L1® — mono


Two L1®s twenty feet apart — dual-mono
The darker blue area represents the area where the two sound fields overlap.


This also suggests that if you were running stereo instead of dual-mono the stereo "sweet-spot" (dark blue area) is going to be extremely wide. You don't have to be between the loudspeakers to hear both Left and Right channels.


Two L1® s with the original single L1® field superimposed
The dark blue area shows the sound field of the original L1® . The lighter area shows the extra coverage you get by having two L1® s 20 feet apart as compared to a single L1®




By the way, the actual benefit of running dual mono (the extra coverage you get) with two L1® s spaced 20 feet apart, is about 10 feet on either side of the sound field of a single L1® .


The view from the other side
(Still very conservative projections)

Blue is the coverage with one L1® .
Purple and Orange is the extra coverage that you might get with two L1® s 20 feet apart.



Note: The sound field will does not stop abruptly as might be interpreted by the diagrams above. It should continue, fading off gradually, well beyond what is shown here . The purpose of these diagrams is to consider the relative advantages of having two L1® s in dual mono mode compared to a single L1® and to show the sweet spot for stereo. That sweet spot is the overlapping areas. So the sweet spot in this last diagram is the blue area. The purple and orange areas are where you would likely only hear one side. Please note: The 'cutoff' will not be nearly as abrupt as it appears in the picture.

Original discussion

Chris-at-Bose documented some testing done at Bose with several different configurations in stereo and mono.

Listening Test in Stereo and Mono