Don’t go too far down the rabbit hole else it may never end. 2mm here 1mm there….ummm not sure, back again.
If it’s satisfying you stick with it.
Good advice.
I just knew it sounded wrong to me. So there is hope.
I’ve spent a lifetime in engineering, it will be overdone and every bit the “extra” my kids accuse me of being, but then I’ll be all, (if it sounds good) the math is solid. Touch under penalty of a forced Rick Astley.
We don’t play around here.
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It sounds like you chose the wrong speakers for your room. Getting the best out of them is all down to position and how they interact with your room. Some prefer more space some are better suited close to the back wall some way it, some with heavy toe in others with no toe in.
Having listening position up against a wall doesn’t help either but not always possible to avoid. Just play around until you find the best you can get and live with position wise. DSP is ok but as you discovered not when you have analogue as well. I had this with my previous speakers and changed to much smaller ones to better control and position them within my environment. It took my a long time to settle on the best places for them. Funny enough they are roughly where I started with them. But now pay dividends and way better than the floor standers they replaced.
It might be wise to audition different ones at home to see if you find some more to your liking in your room. But always try them at home it’s the only way and only settle on ones that work where you need them.
You may in fact be correct. I went with a bookshelf and a subwoofer because the total volume of the room is by all definitions small.
Then I learn, bookshelf is a misnomer, no don’t put them in an actual bookshelf. Are you mad?!? So now they are on stands, again returning them to a net size equal to the tower 3-way I have mathematically ruled out as too much. I now also understand that they resolve differently, just the size is similar in comparison.
I pretty clearly still have a lot more to learn.
Do check your polarity and left is left and right is right throughout the system. You would be surprised how easy it is to reverse something and only find it months later
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How big is the room, where is your listening position? How far are the speakers from the side walls?
I strongly recommend trying out ProAC Tab 10 Signatures they are best near to the wall.
The room is 8 ft (2,4m) tall x 15ft (4.5m) wide x 18 ft (5.5m) long.
The speakers sit 4ft 2in (1.3m) from each side wall and 3ft 6in (1m) from the back wall.
I will keep those speakers in mind if I can’t get these to sound better.
Thank you
Other possibilities are room reflections. Curtains, rugs and large squashy furniture help. Minimalism is often the enemy.
On one side I have bay windows covered with drapes that are never opened.
the opposing wall, full bookshelves. Directly across from the speaker fronts I have another bookshelf and I hung 3 large picture frames.
Tonight I’ll hook up the MIC and sweep with REW. Let you all see what I hear.
I do like the balance/crossover I found by ear tuning my sub.
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What’s in-between the speakers , large objects in between can destroy the imaging TVs especially. If a TV is in-between try covering it temporarily to dampen reflections and see if it improves things. It does for me when I do this, but can’t be arsed to do it most of the time. Being coaxial speakers maybe not liking your room. My Tannoys I had before didn’t image as well as my non coaxial I had before. Try with different levels of toe in as well to help set a stronger center.
Whereas tannoys image brilliantly here. There are no easy answers.
I’m learning asking is the easy part.
I’m waiting on a book.
Decided a second sub was something needed too.
You all are bad influences. 
Thank you.
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There is definitely an issue with the SPL. The LS50 Meta are 85dB SPL 1W/1m sensitivity. On the low side, but not that difficult to drive. You mention that at “60% power” the SPL at listening position is 53.6 dBSPL at 8’. I assume you mean by this that the volume control is at 60/100 - correct? This really has no direct bearing on the output power - it is not linear. You are listening at 2.5m, so to a first order (ignoring room effects for the moment) there is 7.3 dB loss from 1m to 2.5 m, so a 1W input to the speakers should result in 85-7.3= 77.7 dBSPL, or perhaps 80 dBSPL with both speakers playing the same signal.
Note that this is RMS, but with music peaks can be 10-15 dB higher. Even so, a 1W RMS music signal could have peaks of 10-30W - still within the capabilities of your system.
How are you measuring SPL, by the way? If using a phone, the iPhone apps are quite accurate, but I have found the android apps can by off by over 10dB, as measured against an SPL meter. Keep this in mind wrt my suggestions below…you want to make sure you are measuring accurately.
Could there be a short or partial short or bad connection in the speaker wires? Check this, it it looks OK I would suggest turning up the volume, while listening to make sure there is no distortion, until you are getting at least 70 dB SPL at the listening position. At this point, your average power into the speakers is less than 1 W.
If this proves to be an issue, it sounds like there is a gain problem, not a power problem…or there is an issue with your amp/receiver. What is the source you are using to drive your amp/receiver? Is it possible this is a low output? Or bad connection between source and amp/receiver?
A few ideas and thoughts, hope it helps. This sounds like a hardware issue, and should be much easier to address than the imaging issues which are more room acoustics related…
Hope this helps.
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Just noted your noise floor is 27.2 dB (dBA or dBC? I suggest if possible to use dBC for these types of measurements, as dBA rolls off the low frequencies) This is quite a low reading, especially for somebody on a busy street. Could possibly be an indication of readings on the low side.
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I am using the 0-98 scale vs the -72-18db scale. apologies. I turn off all the front display on the amp as I’m not processing video. The application I use doesn’t do db apparently. I appreciate the math. I haven’t even looked at doing the math from that point of view. I just figured out what should be pushed seem weak compared to what I’ve done elsewhere.
I am measuring with an android phone. I’ll be redoing with an iPad very soon. Do you have an app you recommend?
The speaker wires were hand made. I’m cough frugal. During the learning process, bare copper wires may have been fed through pants without any red/black right/left indicator. A continuity test was performed both prior to and after attaching the plugs. I’m still not sure how to process that prior to feeding through, but the continuity check after works fine.
I’m hoping it’s the meter.
In my experience if you had the speaker wiring polarity incorrect it would be anything but flat and 2d.
It would have very odd spatial imaging with not much center and real out there far left/right effects.
Don’t ask how I know this…
Entertaining at times but hopeless really.
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Pulling them out from the wall the 2 additional feet has made a huge ← → difference. My son came through and sat down, spent about a minute and said, so the speakers are staying there? I asked why, he explained the change pretty astutely.
I believe my speakers are wired correctly. I goofed that up in their making so became acutely aware of their position. My sub may be out of phase. I still have no concept of phase outside power duty cycles.
I appreciate hearing many of you have endured similar learning experiences.
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I set my subs to normal phase and wire them at speaker level and tune the boom out.
Glad you are happier with the sound, your speakers are good ‘uns.
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Paul
I have spent many years and way too many dollars on finding what I now believe is extremely close to audio nirvana.
At least with my present gear, in my room and to my ears.
Countless speakers have rolled in and out until I unlocked the secret to sound in my system/room.
It’s not going to happen overnight but I think there are plenty of kind souls on this forum ready to help where they can.
It’s a journey.
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I read a lot of reviews. Covid afforded the time. Watched “all the videos™”.
Everyone kept holding “Introducing the XYZ and how does it measure up to the LS 50 Meta?”
After about a week of that I finally asked, hmm how do the KEF sound? I’m a smert one.
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