audio critical positions

Many of you are no doubt aware there are quite a few commercial recordings that allege they utilize entrainment to induce various brainwave patterns. Some of these say that they influence the production of brainwave states  measurably ‘like' various observed meditative, dreaming, or creative responses. Some more specifically claim to be able to induce and maintain deep sleep. If we assume some validity in these claims we can move on to a consideration of necessary mechanics. Maybe some of you know a little, or a lot, about this.

The instructions, for those I've looked at, are to use headphones or to position one's head between the speakers of a stereo playback system. Headphones are simple enough but the instructions for speakers are more open to interpretation.

I have some powered computer speakers of tolerable audio quality. I'm thinking they could be mounted on some kind of brackets affixed to the bed's headboard. A CD player could easily be plugged into their input.

The so far vague pictures I'm developing suggest that rotating the base (designed to set on a desk top) 90 degrees towards the wall at the head of the bed would make them easiest to mount. The speaker fronts would face inward, towards each other. I don't see any reason that rotation would be a problem. The "subwoofer" unit would probably go under the bed and be as least somewhat muffled by the carpet. That also seems unimportant.

Potential problems, if there are any, probably arise from the relative positions of speakers and myself. The units are only about 4.5 inches high. When mounted as suggested above, those dimensions would center the speakers somewhere around my ears, measuring from the top of my head, but they would probably be a couple inches or so higher than my ears, measured from the back of my head (which of course lies on the bed). Would this offset towards the front of my head be detrimental to achieving entrainment?

If I lie in the center of the bed, the speakers would be about 14 to 16 inches from my ears. This is obviously much further away than headphones. Should that make any difference?

What happens if I am not in the center? There isn't any balance control, so the relative volume from the two sides would be altered vis a vis headphones. Just how critical is that likely to be, if at all? Should I try to be no more than 1/2 inch off center or would 1 foot off center like as not work just as well?

[or]

Hi Andy

I have been producing my own entrainment CD's using CE2000, CEP, AA1.5 and AA2.  Also I have produced them using Brainwave Generator.

I have found the best results from listening through stereo headphones.

At least one commercial company claims you can listen to their product through speakers.  I am not all that convinced this will work all that well.  I am certainly not prepared to pay any money for such a CD or even for a  commercial CD you listen to through headphones.  

I can make my own and have had good results.  

Have a go at making your own using CEP or AA.


Charlie

AndyH - I assume you are familiar with the contents of this thread, since you posted to it.  I'm posting the link here anyway for those who might read these posts and not know that this other thread exists.

http://audiomastersforum.net/amforum/viewtopic.php?t=2746

If I'm remembering right from my reading a while ago - entrainment works by forcing your brain to process audio signals at both ears, where the signal at one ear is out of synch with the signal at the other (or something to that effect).  The farther you move the speakers away from both ears, the more likely it is that some of the signal intended for the left ear will pass through the air and over to the right ear, and vice versa.  That means that both ears will be processing some signals that are in synch with the other ear.  I'm guessing that this in-synchness lessens the effectiveness of the entrainment attempt.  Headphones increase the liklihood that only one signal will reach the left ear and a different signal will reach the right ear.