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Diagonal setup of system...

The other day I had to move my system to clean around the area. I carefully marked where everything was before so that I could put it back the way it was. In order to get to some places on the floor, I had to move the entire system over to a corner. I decided to hook it up to listen to music while I cleaned the area. To my surprise, my system sounded better than it did with a conventional setup, side to side. The system was setup diagonally, sub in the middle, in the corner and mains on each wall. Any reason for this? I am thinking of keeping it this way.
matchstikman
bomarc
501 posts
 
Standing waves, which are a function of room dimensions more than speaker placement, are probably not the main factor here. What you've really done is changed the inflection points (where the sound bounces off the walls) and the arrival times of reflected sound.

Why do you think some of us keep saying that speaker-room interaction is more important than any other component of a system?
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Bomarc, standing wave are caused by reflected waves that interfere with incident waves, diagonal placement can reduce destructive interference by change of reflection time of reflected waves in a diagonal setup. That said, I don't know if he had any room problems with standing waves, he didn't say, he just said he thought it might sound a little better on the diagonal. Any reduction of harmonics to second order will smooth out his sound.
matchstikman OP
205 posts
 
I am brutally stupid when it comes to things like standing waves and the like. I just hook it up, do this and that and hope it works. However, I have been doing some research on diagonal setups and I don't seem to find nearly as much info as I can with regular setups. I have lots of questions. Where can I find more information on this?
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
I am going for a diagonal room setup in the room I'm going to place my audio system/home office. Robert of Ridge Street Audio suggested I should go for such a setup in order to keep my speaker cables short and acoustics sounding right given my quasi nomadic lifestile.

Here's a technical paper on diagonal room setup:

How to set up a room with no treatment

There's also a place where you can buy cheap room acoustic treatments; I've seen them advertised here in Audiogon:

http://www.foambymail.com

I suggest you buy a little laser pen and two small mirrors.
gs5556
1,235 posts
 
You may want to search through the Stereophile archives. One reviewer (can't remember who) swore by this setup.
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