Dedicated Room

Here is a link to a thread where I asked about long wall speaker placement.

Speaker Placement in Narrow Room

I ended up placing speakers against short wall, but my room is wider. I think that you could make a good case for listening in near field with speakers on long wall. What happens to your sound when your speakers are placed close to the rear wall? Placing them on the long wall will require that they are close to the wall. Placing them on the short wall will probably present room treatment challenges.

If you need 220 then yes, run a 220. I know that many power amplifiers can take advantage of the 220, but you are pretty much stuck listening in near field and I can’t imagine needing more than 120V 20Amp. I don’t know what the PS Audio power products are like, but if you are willing to put big money into power conditioners then you should be able to get the large current draws on peaks through an isolated channel on the conditioner. Look at the specs on the Shunyata Everest, or the equivalent product from Audioquest. The point here is that if you run 220, you will probably be looking at conditioners for 220 and 120v. I know that many here will tell you to plug power amps directly into the wall, but for me, using the Everest was a big plus.

Room treatment is something that requires watching lots of video and reading many threads. There isn’t going to be a definitive answer. People usually treat area behind speakers and first reflection. Don’t forget flooring, listening furniture and ceiling.  Absorbing behind your listening chair will likely be necessary and challenging, with speakers on long wall.

If at all possible, make the dedicated room wider.

BTW.. Love the Holo May KTE and Aurender products.

Take a look at the AM Acoustics Room Mode Simulator to help you.  Ideally you'll want to keep your speakers and listening location (including subs) away from the lowest mode locations for the smoothest response. 

Your problem is going to be that either way, your listening location is going to have to be close to the speakers. If you put the speakers on the long wall, you can't be more than 9' away.  If you put them on the short wall you'll have to stay close to keep the imaging and room from being too big of an impact.  I would choose the speakers on the short wall because that lets you have more space behind your listening area to put diffusion on. 

Also, with space this tight you really should treat the ceiling. GIK Acoustics is the first place I look.

What is limiting the width of the room??  

Thanks a lot guys. Good info there. The limiting factor is my better half needing me to cut it off at about 9 feet. I could possibly get 10 feet but that’s about the best I could do. I would love 12 or even 14 for sure.

By the way, those speakers do prefer well closer to the wall but I would say they are best at least 2-3 feet away from the wall.

After you fully educate yourself, you might be in a better position to negotiate with your wife.  In my case, I gave my wife something that she always wanted and she ignored the credit card balance.  So, don’t just give up before the game is even on.  The room is probably the single most important element of a good system.  I would suggest that clean power would be at number two.

I’m all in. Here goes. 

As above.  The room is critical.  If you could get the room to 12 feet, then you would be in much better shape to place the speaker off the short wall.  Start with the Cardas placement rule:  speakers out one third into the room, listening chair at the two thirds mark.  Treat first reflection points and the back wall wall behind you with absorptive panels and use diffraction behind the speakers.  Fine tune from there.

Thanks for your suggestion. That makes a lot of sense to me too. I’m working on that extra 3 feet. 

One more question. Has anyone ever put the speakers out away from a corner of the room so one speaker is left of a corner and the other is right. In other words they ar diagonal but well out away from each side wall. Would that be feasible?