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Raising standmount speakers

My main system is in the media room and consists of Harbeth SHL5+ resting on stands that are 18 inches high (as recommended by Harbeth). When we were building the house this room was meant to be a proper media room. So we had the builder make a platform in the back 1/4th portion of the room to get the stadium seating effect. The platform is about 8 inches higher than the rest of the floor area. My listening chair (actually couch) is placed atop the platform. The problem is that in this listening position my ears are a little above the tweeter level.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to raise the speaker stands by 4-6 inches without breaking the bank or the aesthetics of the room. The room is fully carpeted by the way.

P.S. - please don't suggest removing the platform. We still plan to put a theater setup in there some day ... although, I'm running out of excuses to postpone the decision. I would much rather keep it as a dedicated 2-channel listening room, but the rest of the family is not too thrilled. The thought of just getting rid of the family has certainly crossed my mind though ...
128x128arafiq
arafiq's avatar
arafiq OP
1,693 posts
 
Thanks for some great advice! I want to emphasize that the sound that I'm getting right now is pretty damn good! But like most of you here I'm trying to eke out that last bit of fidelity from my speakers. 

I tried to tilt the speakers a bit today, but didn't notice much of a difference. Maybe I should leave it at good enough? I don't want to increase the tilt angle any further because TBH it looks rather silly and I'm afraid the speakers will be too unstable and might topple over at some point.

For now, I'm going to wait for used IcoAcoustics Gaia footers to show up in the use market. Really appreciate the wonderful advice and tips.
conlad
36 posts
 
arafiq: As someone else suggested above, shims should solve your problem, as they did for me before I bought purpose built speaker stands to replace some Ikea stools that I had been using. I’m talking about cheap plastic shims that you can buy at a hardware or home improvement store. Cost will be less than $10 easily, and you can vary the tilt angle to suit your ears. Please try this before spending $200 or more. 
larryi
4,081 posts
 
I would agree that tilting the speaker backward is the easiest and cheapest thing to try and will most likely be successful.  Any adjustment affects a number of variables so it is not that easy to know the outcome.  For example, getting a taller stand will not only affect the height/aim of the tweeter, it raises the woofer further from the floor and this will affect the floor bounce effect (the interaction of the delayed wave bouncing off the floor and the direct wave from the driver).

Changing/adding footers will also change the tuning of the system because it will affect how the speaker resonates or whether the speaker will impart more less energy into the floor itself which can act as a kind of sounding board.  It is not always the case that reducing resonance sounds better, so it is again a matter of trying out the change.  Harbeth speakers are designed by people who believe in working with the resonance of the cabinet rather than trying to kill as much resonance as possible.

Good luck with your experiments.
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