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speaker placement?

A

Austin-Fi

New Member
Hi -

Just curious as to what thoughts you have on speaker placement in rectangular rooms.

Obviously, it depends alot on speaker type ... but in general, should speakers be placed on long wall or short wall?

Does deciding on either short wall or long wall depend on room size?

Thanks

BTW - the listening room I'm trying to decide for is 10x14
 
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Speaker layout.

Compliments of the Cardas website.

The basic recommendation is on the short wall, but in links on the website he gives recommendations for long wall too.

I did the short wall thing and I do believe it improved the sound. However, the layout really isn't practical unless you have a dedicated listening room.
 
My preference is for the long wall. My room is 12 x 12, so I chose the one wall with no windows or doors.

Get ready for tons of advice from AK!

Rick
 
There are a lot of very knowledgeable folks here who will have better advice than me. It all depends on what your running and volume (loudness) etc. My personal experience would be to place them as far apart as possible within reason. Obviously the 14 foot direction. As for distance from the wall. I run Dahlquists that require 3 feet from the wall. You'd probably want to be within 18 inches typically. simply experiment until you discover what works best for you.
 
One thing is almost universally recommended and that is the speakers and the listener should be close to an equilateral triangle in dimension spacing.

In other words if you sit 10ft from the speakers, the speakers should be about 10 ft apart, etc.

Speakers in the corners and near walls generally reinforce bass and sometimes make it too boomy, and also tends to hurt the soundstage.

Speakers out into the room generally produce more "pure" sound and better, more open soundstage, but it cuts down bass because there is less boundary reinforcement.
 
Interesting subject. All other factors being equal, I have found that some speakers seem to do better firing into the room from the long wall, while others sound better firing into the room from the short wall down the length of the room. There are so many influencing factors, including room reflectivity, room size, furniture placement, distance of speakers from walls and intersecting surfaces, speaker dispersion characteristics, ad infinitum, that you can go nutty trying to find the perfect placement. I guess when it sounds good to you, you've got it.
 
Yes, I kind'a figured that many influencing factors complicate the answer to my questions. I thought maybe there were some general rules of thumb.

I want to be able to listen to different types of loudspeakers from traditional cones, to horns, to dipoles, to homemade frankenspeakers.

Basically I have a 10x14 room to dedicate to stereo listening (one door and no windows).

room.jpg


I will try to enhance the room acoustics with strategically placed bass traps and absorption and reflective panels. Only furniture in the room will be a large club chair or small love seat.

That's why I'm trying to determine what wall will best meet my needs so I can design and build the bass traps and acoustical panels in coordination with speaker placement.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
What about systems that must be in the corner? I've always located mine next to a large TV and try to get the seating area equi-distant from the speakers as noted above in Posting #5. I have no idea how sound works when you put the speakers Kitty-corner, but it sounds good to me.

While on the subject: I might move some Classic speakers into my surround set up for a while...I know the center speaker needs to be shielded, but could I expect the front surrounds to interfere with the picture?
 
Well according to a room size calculator, and assuming the ceiling is a standard 8 ft, your room is close to one optimized size of 10’ 3” by 12’ 4”.

Your 14 foot wall is long, but a floor to ceiling heavy curtain on the back wall with the door, might be used to shorten it and cover the pocket the doorway leaves, as well as cut the reflection off the back wall.

Speaker placement is very dependant on the speakers, some need to be in the corners by design, some need to be on a wall by design, and many benefit from being off the back wall and away from the side walls.

A starting point I keep hearing is 3 feet from the side walls, but that has to be for a larger room. This would place you the listener at about 4 feet away, so I’d start at 2 feet, leaving 6 feet spacing of the speakers, and you about 6 feet away, assuming you are using the last type of speakers.

Don’t be afraid to play round with placement, and the toe of the speakers. I usually wind up pointing then just outside my ears, not directly at me, and not perpendicular to the back wall for best imaging.

That space behind the big curtain could cover the gear, record storage, or whatever.

I’ve been thinking about the designs on the older theaters, after the gaudy age and before the current crop. They often had curtains or curtain like treatments on the walls all around. I wonder if they were onto something with this.

It might be interesting to try if the materials could be had cheap/free. Maybe a custom curtain shop might have either castoffs or curtains that were made wrong. (I worked at a custom drape shop in HS for a short time, it happened fairly often, or someone orders and never pays…)
 
Stacked.



Just kidding, couldn't help myself. As noted, be ready for the rush of information, but your ears will be the best judge of placement.
 
outlawmws said:
Well according to a room size calculator, and assuming the ceiling is a standard 8 ft, your room is close to one optimized size of 10’ 3” by 12’ 4”.

Your 14 foot wall is long, but a floor to ceiling heavy curtain on the back wall with the door, might be used to shorten it and cover the pocket the doorway leaves, as well as cut the reflection off the back wall.

Speaker placement is very dependant on the speakers, some need to be in the corners by design, some need to be on a wall by design, and many benefit from being off the back wall and away from the side walls.

A starting point I keep hearing is 3 feet from the side walls, but that has to be for a larger room. This would place you the listener at about 4 feet away, so I’d start at 2 feet, leaving 6 feet spacing of the speakers, and you about 6 feet away, assuming you are using the last type of speakers.

Don’t be afraid to play round with placement, and the toe of the speakers. I usually wind up pointing then just outside my ears, not directly at me, and not perpendicular to the back wall for best imaging.

That space behind the big curtain could cover the gear, record storage, or whatever.

I’ve been thinking about the designs on the older theaters, after the gaudy age and before the current crop. They often had curtains or curtain like treatments on the walls all around. I wonder if they were onto something with this.

It might be interesting to try if the materials could be had cheap/free. Maybe a custom curtain shop might have either castoffs or curtains that were made wrong. (I worked at a custom drape shop in HS for a short time, it happened fairly often, or someone orders and never pays…)
Click to expand...


Groovy!. I went back to remeasure and the dimensions are 10' 2" x !4' 0" and the ceiling is standard 8' .... I was considering putting in some shelving on the chosen rear wall to help with dispersion so I like your idea of shortening the rear wall with the door.

BTW - what room size calculator are you referring to?

Thanks again!
 
JackVa1 said:
What about systems that must be in the corner? I've always located mine next to a large TV and try to get the seating area equi-distant from the speakers as noted above in Posting #5. I have no idea how sound works when you put the speakers Kitty-corner, but it sounds good to me.

While on the subject: I might move some Classic speakers into my surround set up for a while...I know the center speaker needs to be shielded, but could I expect the front surrounds to interfere with the picture?
Click to expand...

Speakers that must be in corners are pretty far and few between. The only one that immediately comes to mind is the Klipschorn, but I suppose there might be some others.

Personally, I don't like corner placement, but sometimes that's all one has to work with. Kitty-corner placement strikes me as not being conducive to good imaging or soundstage. But, if it sounds good to you then that's all that really matter, I guess.

To your sidenote, the requirement for shielding all depends on how close your speakers are to the TV and how powerful the magnets are in your speakers. Also, larger TVs seem to be more sensitive than smaller ones. Of course, if your TV is not CRT-based, (meaning LCD, plasma, DLP, etc.) shielding is no concern because those are not affected by magnetic field.
 
Austin-Fi said:
Groovy!. I went back to remeasure and the dimensions are 10' 2" x !4' 0" and the ceiling is standard 8' .... I was considering putting in some shelving on the chosen rear wall to help with dispersion so I like your idea of shortening the rear wall with the door.

BTW - what room size calculator are you referring to?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...


It is here:

http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Room_acoustics.html

But these are driven by resonances of the sound waves. That article has 3 room designs based on those resonances. Shoot the table does not translate well. so best to look it up. The list below has dimension calcs in chronological order based on design #, .


Dimension

Design #1
Design #2
Design #3

Width
1.14 x Height
1.28 x Height
1.60 x Height

Length
1.39 x Height
1.54 x Height
2.33 x Height
 
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