it’s just my instinct that you won’t get any improvement by moving the speakers to the middle. However 2,5’ from the wall is not much. With your room dimensions I would keep them 3.5 feet from the side and 4.5 feet from the back walls. This is from my experimenting with placement, and again, instinct. There are real experts here, I am not.
Listening position/speaker position
I had a friend visit this weekend for some extended listening. I generally trust some of his suggestions, and his hearing may be better than mine, but I am 61 and don't have any hearing "issues." Also, in the interest of full disclosure, my friend and I are competitive with each other so there is always the possibility that he is busting on me.
I am very happy with my setup and my sound----the room is quiet, the system is quiet and I have low distortion, plenty of punch and volume, without sacrificing any detail. I have Revel 228be speakers, a McIntosh MC312 amp, C53 preamp, Pass XP-17 phono stage, Technics SL1200G TT run with an AT-art9xi MCC.
Anyway, my listening room is approximately 26' x 15' with less than 8-foot ceilings, plaster walls, wall to wall carpeting, lots of cushy furniture, and it's perfectly rectangular. I have my Revel 228's positioned on the narrow end of the room, a couple feet from the side wall and about 2-1/2 feet from the back wall. The listening position is about 10 feet from the speakers, or just shy of the midpoint of the room. My critical friend was suggesting that by having the speakers at one end of the room, I am asking them to "fill" a 26-foot room, despite the listening position being near midpoint depth. He suggested that I put the speakers in the middle of the room and move the listening position against the wall, so that the speakers are only tasked with filling half of the room. He also implied that I was under-powered with the MC312 which doesn't sound valid..
Obviously, the only way to know if I would get sound improvement would be to swap sides in the room, but his suggestion sounded so odd that I thought some of you with more experience might have an opinion.
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@tvad I agree with your Jim Smith recommendation. In general, using his 83% formula (width vs distance to the speaker) has worked incredibly well for me, and I feel a fantastic starting point.
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Just to be clear the front wall is the one you are facing, the rear wall is the one behind your head. If you are listening 11 feet from the front baffles then your speakers should be about 9 feet apart measured from the center of the front baffles. Try your speakers 5 feet 2 inches out from the front wall measured from the center of the front baffles, then move you listening position 11 feet back from that. This will "rough you in" then tweak as needed. Be patient, take you time and the results will be rewarding. But your friend is off base from his suggestion. Good luck. |
I owned the 228be and McIntosh 462 (picture under my profile). The only thing that matters for power is listening distance and sensitivity, Not room size. At 10’ you can’t be using more than 5-10 watts at ear bleeding volume. the 228be lacks bass extension and need some room gain without subs. If you move them out from the wall you will lose some bass unless you move them 8’ into the room. That is just based on 1/4th wave cancelation. I also have a large room. 26’x30’ with openings that effectively extend the room to 40’ in length. I have tried the speakers 8’ into the room with my seats 10’ back. This still left 12’ behind me. This was a very good sounding setup but does not work for my video and I moved them back to 4’-ish feet off the wall which works well with subs highpassed but would cancel 60hz if not high passed…. anyway, moving speakers is free. You will lose bass between 3’ and 7’ off the wall. Once you are over 8’ the bass will come back and the soundstage will be better (deeper). At that point it is just a matter of balancing room modes and nulls. |
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