Speaker Positioning
Exact measurements become irrelevant when you don't have a bilaterally symetrical room. What? Since when? Exact measurements become irrelevant when you are deaf in one ear. As long as you have two working ears its the distance between them and the speakers that determines imaging. That's why we have two ears. Two eyes, depth perception. Two ears, localization. If you can't localize the predator then guess what? Hey, you! Out of the gene pool! |
Yuk-O Gene pool! No swimming for me... :-) BUT Only one mouth... Yet what gets used the most? Don’t seem proportionate. Does it? Rooms suck!!! Plane and simple. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> upnorthsound2 posts11-14-2020 7:38pmExact measurements become irrelevant when you don't have a bilaterally symetrical room. My system is in a 'sunken' living room. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Well there you have it.. you ever wonder why a prairie dog has a "mound", and conductor is in a "Pit"? One wants to see and not be heard, the other wants to hear but not be seen. A simple turn of the head, in either case, gives the results they want...Are you in a PIT, or on a MOUND? Do you want to see or hear? Just a question? Yea placement is everything... Not an average, as you infer... Think on that one for a while... good, Better. BEST... ay.. Regards... |
If you follow the Cardas formula, you may wind up with speakers way out near the middle of the room. Maybe not too practical if it isn't a dedicated listening room. Another method seems to work well for me. I've seen it called the "Allison Rule": "The Allison rule basically states that the distances from the woofer to the floor, woofer to the side wall, and woofer to the back wall should be as different as possible. To accomplish this, one would apply the following equation: Middle distance squared = shortest distance multiplied by longest distance." (Don't know where I found this, maybe in an Audiogon discussion) Once the speaker positioning is done, place the listening chair to form an equilateral triangle. Tweak to taste. This method is flexible because it allows you to swap which ones are the short and the long distances. For the woofer to side wall measurement, you might try starting with the Rule of Thirds. But even if you move the speakers farther apart than the RoT dictates, you still can apply the Allison Rule. |
Dynaudio's website has some information on speaker setup. It involves the 1/5 concept. The center axis of the front plane of the speaker should be 1/5 the distance off the back wall of the depth of the room and 1/5 the distance off the side walls of the width of the room. If there is a wall behind your listening position, then that position should also be 1/5 the distance off the wall for the depth of the room. This concept should get you out of any standing waves and put you in the ball park of the sweet spot. Of course you still have to listen and adjust to make it sound best for YOU. Happy Listening |
Well, yes and no. Some here say it is not possible, but set up 50+ pair of Magneplaners in every possible customer room you can think of and you learn a few things. With Maggies, placement is EVERYTHING! So, you learn by trial and error and experience where they need to be and even, in some rooms, how there is no place where they will be at their optimal placement. Keep trying until you get the sound as close to what you heard at the concert hall in your room. For Maggies, this typically involves making some changes to the surfaces in the room--adding traps, changing curtains, etc. Depends upon what you will "settle" for, I guess. I have been lucky enough to have had customers with excellent rooms who purchased the right hardware to bring Maggies to their finest possible sound, which, if you ever have a chance to hear, is so awesome you will swear off box speakers forever. It ain't cheap, and it ain't especially easy however! With boxes, just keep moving them around. Do you have the newer "tall" boxes? (Gee, wonder where they got THAT idea??) If so, you have a shot at getting it right as far as they go, anyway. Best of luck, and Cheers! Richard |
