And that doesn't happen in a few seconds or minutes.

With three π's and four π's, this is true for the most part, but their placement dictates that to some degree. If they're in corners, it's nearly the same. If they are against a wall but walls on either side are very far away, then they have a cone where sound is good. They act like you're talking about. If they're pulled out away from walls, out into the middle of the room, then they seem to form pockets of good sound.

The one π, two π and two π towers are best when toed in to within 30° or so. Best listening is on-axis, and distance from them changes their character, not as much as movement off-axis, but more than the other models of π speakers.

That's how I would describe the models I'm most familiar with, in 500 words or less.

The setup: Single driver speakers -- the Fostex's I had at GPAF -- 8' apart, 3' from the back wall. Room open on the left, glass wall (windows) 3' to the right. Normal listening position 11' back. Normal toe-in has the cross 9' from the speakers.

With the 45° cross and at my normal distance, the sound stage is diffuse with little or no imaging. At 6', everything comes together. Wide, deep sound stage and very good imaging. The sweet spot is head-lock small. Moving in farther, the sound stage keeps expanding to the speaker width, but imaging becomes exaggerated left-right.

Back to my normal setup. I don't have any 5.1 or better audio and my surrounds are OK for movies, but too far apart for music. All of my listening is in stereo or 2.1 -- I have a sub crossed to the Fostex pipes at 40 Hz. Nice deep sound stage with a sweet spot about 2' wide aimed at the middle of a love seat. Both seats get decent imaging, but the imaging is very good in the sweet spot. The right speaker "disappears", but the left one always seems to draw a bit of attention. Most orchestral music seems to be left channel heavy, since thats where the bulk of the violins are. Small ensemble music seems to spread across the sound stage correctly. Of course, imaging is exactly what the recording engineer wants it to be -- a problem I have with the whole imaging fetish.

As I said, I listen in stereo almost exclusively. The room is a bit dry, but as long as there is decent ambiance on the recording itself, the presentation is acceptable. When guests come over who don't know or care about imaging and sound stage, I play Alison Kraus, Diana Krall or the like through the Pro Logic function of my HT receiver and run the receiver in 5.1. Now the music comes from everywhere and is diffuse, warm and fuzzy. That's what the great unwashed wants to hear. God save Dr. Bose.

Bob

BTW, do you have any idea what the technical specs are for the Sirius feed through Dish? It sounds pretty good, although obviously compressed in dynamics.

Bob