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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
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,830 posts
 
My Treo CTs are in a 13'6" wide, 18 ' long room.  I tweaked their placement for over a year till I got it just right.  So here goes:  in my room the speakers are 26" from the side walls to the outside of the cabinet measured at the top of the speaker.  They are placed 32.25' from the front wall to the top back of each speaker.

I did not have to optimize for bass power as I have two 2wq subs.

If you want to know how to set them up to optimize bass response call John Rutan at Audio Connection in Verona, NJ.  The only person more schooled in Vandys is Richard Vandersteen.  He will happily advise you!

All the best!  You selected a great pair of speakers.  Let John help you optimize their performance!

PS In my set-up there is a ¼" toe in.
skyscraper OP
827 posts
 
Joey54, thanks for suggesting the manual download. I figured out the answer between it and the site FAQ section. Mr. Vandersteen said the speakers were designed to go within 12" of the wall, and it appears no closer than 1/3rd of the distance between the side walls if I understood correctly.

Mental and hifiman51, appreciate your quick input and help in solving this issue.  

Mike
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,410 posts
 
I have 16 ft ceilings in a large space for my Vandersteens.   Understand that speakers are designed with 8 ft ceilings in mind.  In the end, it worked out fine, with the speakers less than 3 ft from the back wall with a slight toe in.  Be mindful that the speakers are sensitive to having the tilt back  be exactly the same to take advantage of the time alignment.
jackd
1,054 posts
 
I strongly agree with Stringreen on his last post.  One of the things that is most prevalent with Vandersteen owners that are dissatisfied with the sound is that they fail to take the measurements required to get the speakers rake angle relative to their seating position correct.  Each Vandersteen speaker that I have owned tells you in the manual what that speakers tweeter center is if the speaker is placed level.  If your center of ear seating position is different then you have to adjust the tilt to account for it. 
gdnrbob
4,428 posts
 
You've gotten some good advice, so far.
I will second/third having Johnny's opinion regarding placement.

For me, my Treo's are in a rather unusual spot- at near the middle of two rooms (roughly 18x11, speakers at 9 feet in along the long wall and about 7 feet apart). Though not ideal (Hey, I have to live here), I get great sound reproduction, and they look great, too.
Lastly, I would say Vandersteen speakers aren't hard to position, but a good installer like John Rutan will make it work.
Bob
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