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Room placement for Vandersteen Treo CT

I  am considering Vandersteen Treo CT's for purchase. In doing some research on them I read they are very sensitive to room placement in order to achieve their best performance.  I've some limitations on where I could place them in my listening room. My listening room is approximately 13'x22' with a cathedral ceiling roughly 16' high from the floor in the center of the room. eight foot high where it meets the front and rear walls.. The speakers will be located on the front long wall equally spaced from the center of that wall. There are a fair amount of furnishings in the room, furniture, built in bookshelves, a library table etc. 

My first questions is, what is the closest I could place the Treo's from the wall, I think "Johnny from AudioConnections" said, you might be able to place them as close as "seven to fourteen inches" from the wall, but I can't find the reference. Somebody else said wall placement was okay as it would reinforce the bass output, which the Treo would benefit from. I thought you were supposed to not put ported speakers near a wall, but these being bottom ported  maybe it doesn't matter.

The second question is, what would you guess to be the minimum distance they need to be from one another?  I have a four foot wide flat screen television centered on the front wall. I would love to be able to place the Treo's on either side of the flat screen, with the outside edges of the Treo's being seven feet apart, but am afraid this might be too close together.  I could place them another two feet or so apart, but the speaker on the right side would then partially block the view of a built-in in 120 gallon aquarium which would not be ideal, but doable.

What do you think?  I would appreciate your experience and guidance here. Thanks

Michael

skyscraper
skyscraper OP
829 posts
 
That's good advice to differentiate between quantity and quality of bass. I'll keep it in mind when I'm listening to speaker demos this week, hopefully. I've got to organize all these good tips I've been getting. Maybe cutting and pasting a cheat sheet to carry with me. Thanks again,

Mike
audionoobie's avatar
audionoobie
360 posts
 
@tomic601 Ray Brown Soular Energy, yes! I just discovered that one recently. Sounds fantastic!
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
+1 on the quantity vs quality discussion.  So many love these high end speakers that offer gobs of bass, but not layering or differentiation of notes.  They THINK it does, but so many top speakers don't. as the cones break up quickly and are out of phase way too often. 

It's the same thing as letting the person giving the demo keeping the volume controller.  DON'T do it!!  They will goose the volume on certain passages to make the speaker they want to sell sound better.  It's BS and unfair to us.  Louder sounds great in the store, but not so much once you get them home and wonder where all the dynamics are at YOUR listening levels.  This is why the Vandersteen's stand out for MY ears.  They offer the micro and macro details that many others don't so you can play them lower and still get the details.  no smearing etc... Phase correct to me is so important as that's what live music gives us. 
skyscraper OP
829 posts
 
Ctsooner, I did control the volume at both dealerships I auditioned speakers at today. Mostly because the owner/staffpersons there handed the remote to me at the beginning of each audition. I did raing and lowering the volume and listening bot inside and outside the listening room.

It seems some speakers address phase coherence electronically within the crossovers, such as the Magicos, while others like the Vandersteen do it by speaker placement/arrangement within the cabinet design, I asked about that today having read a reference to that in one review.

Audionoobie, I'll have to run that Ray Brown down. It must be good, having earned multiple recommendations here.
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
Awesome stuff.  keep us posted on things.  I spoke to Jonny and Richard on my Quatro placement recently. I have MS and can't physically move things, so I rely on having friends come listen and help (son in law is strong like bull).  

I'm going to purchase a 3" piece of granite (three 1" pieces epoxied) and have them finish the edges and then I'll change the rake of the speakers (I think Richard said it would be 4 extra spacers on the spikes for a 3" lift).  I am going to move mine out from about 4" or so to about 16" I think I measured to see if that does anything to the sound.  Once I find the best position in my room, then they will stay there forever on top of the slabs.  It's good to have a great dealer who cares after the sale as much as during as well as a company who will even take calls from a schlep like me, lol.  Oh, I don't fly or build airplanes, other than balsa wood ones....

Hey, wait, Richard MAKES cones out of balsa wood.....I guess we do have something in common along with Tomic!  ;)
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