layout help?

yoshio

New Member
Here's the system I'm building (note that I am still waffling on a DAC):
Computer>Airport Express>DAC>Realistic tube amp (SAF-12A, twin EL84s)>Axiom M3 speakers

All of this will go in my living room, which is about 10'x14', 8 foot ceilings, plaster walls, wood floors.

South wall - fireplace
East wall - wooden door, large windows
North wall - centered window
West wall - floor grate at the north end, vertical HVAC vent about 1' high in the center, large doorway at the south end

I'm attaching approximate drawings.

I have a neighbor on the other side of my south wall, and sound really carries through. It's probably just as well; the amp is not powerful. I listen to rock, folk, jazz, and classical.

I ordered the wall-mount Axioms because I'm cramped in terms of floorspace, and I have an unfortunately placed HVAC vent. I have two ideas for layout.

1. Use the room lengthwise. This is a bit tricky, because the speakers would have to go on what are essentially inset walls (by almost a foot) on either side of the (sadly, non-working) fireplace. I'm concerned that I'll either need to place them in the corners, or that they'll be so inset that the the sound will be partly cut off by the fireplace. Also, my neighbor is on the other side of that wall.

2. Use the room widthwise. This creates a lopsided listening area, because on the south side, the room extends several feet. I can't center the furniture because there is a door on the east and a large, open doorway on the west.

Oh, FWIW, the windows on the east wall open into a (mostly) glassed-in front porch; the one on the north wall opens to outside. Right now I have no screens, so none of these windows will ever be opened. There are no window treatments, and I'm not sure I'm going to put any up because the room only gets direct sunlight in the AM, and I'm never there.

Also, TV may or may not go in this room. I don't really have another place for it, but for personal preference I'd rather not have it in this room.

I'm a TOTAL newb at this, so please, nothing is too obvious to state.

Thanks for any thoughts or ideas!
 

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Could you take some pictures of your space? Especially the wall with the fireplace.

I'm curious about the HVAC vent and what's so bad about it. I guess it's in the wall, at the floor, 12" high?

I think your second idea with the system set up asymmetrically isn't a very good one. You should try to have left-right symmetry whenever you can.

Putting the speakers beside the fireplace might not be all that bad. Do they need to be wall-mounted if you put them in the insets beside the fireplace? I'm thinking you could put them on floor-stands so that their baffles are closer to the front of the fireplace. Then you could treat the insides of the insets with absorption, which would help a lot with the odd acoustics you would get from putting the speakers in those spaces.

I think acoustically your best option is to put the system on the North wall with your listening position in the middle of the room. But I understand that would probably mess up the usefulness of the room for anything other than audio.
 
room layout information

Could you take some pictures of your space? Especially the wall with the fireplace.

I'm curious about the HVAC vent and what's so bad about it. I guess it's in the wall, at the floor, 12" high?

I think your second idea with the system set up asymmetrically isn't a very good one. You should try to have left-right symmetry whenever you can.

Putting the speakers beside the fireplace might not be all that bad. Do they need to be wall-mounted if you put them in the insets beside the fireplace? I'm thinking you could put them on floor-stands so that their baffles are closer to the front of the fireplace. Then you could treat the insides of the insets with absorption, which would help a lot with the odd acoustics you would get from putting the speakers in those spaces.

I think acoustically your best option is to put the system on the North wall with your listening position in the middle of the room. But I understand that would probably mess up the usefulness of the room for anything other than audio.

RevMen, wow, thanks for the thoughtful response. I'll try to answer each of these questions, and I've attached a photo. Your sketchup model is awesome and seems to be about correct. I hope you'll forgive me for not editing it, but I'm really out of my element. I will take some time to learn it, possibly this weekend; it seems very cool.

1. Please see attached photo of the south (fireplace) wall. On either side, the depth of inset of the wall from the chimney is 15". The space on the left is 33", and on the right is 41. The actual fireplace is five inches wider on each side, and the mantel, which starts at 52" and is 4" tall, is about 10" wider on each side. Tight space, in other words.

2. The wallspace on the West wall with the HVAC vent is only 100", and you have the placement of the vent correctly. Because of the vent, I can't put anything against to or close to that wall that would impede airflow.

3. Putting the speakers on stands is a bit of a problem, but not insurmountable. Axiom doesn't make stands for the M3s, so I would need to figure something out, and they can't be very far forward, because of the door and doorway.

What would be ideal would be bookshelves that I could set in the coves, but the speakers would need to be above or below the mantel, I think, because of how far it sticks out. That would mean not at ideal listening height.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about acoustic wall treatments. A quick glance showed me commercial products, but it looks like it would take about three 2'x2' squares per side at $25 per tile (totaling about $150). That's pricey for me, but I might be wrong.

4. I think you are right about the North wall, but it's not just a question of the usefulness of the room; this is my front room, so there would be no way of placing, for example, the sofa in such a way as to not be in the way of the door and doorway and also be further than about 4 feet from the North wall.

I'm now beginning to think that the best location might be on the far corners of the mantel itself. That would keep them out of harm's way and possibly keep them far enough forward to avoid needing acoustic treatment.

If this makes sense, would I be OK with the wall-mount variant of the M3s, or would I really need the bookshelf cabinet?
 

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