I guess there are folks who are audiophiles and have the luxury of having a great space for their systems and a wife or significant other or maybe they are solo so there is no "wife factor" involved. They are the lucky ones concerning setting the listening and speaker positions up well along with all the sound treatments their rooms need. I believe this is a small group of people. Then I believe the majority of the rest fall into the category of trying to scratch out a space for their systems, too many duel purpose spaces or given a tiny space off in a corner or repurposing a bedroom but the furniture must stay, going into an attic space with all sorts of weird ceiling configurations or a basement with great dimensions for width and length but that column sure is in the wrong spot and a 6’-8" ceiling is kinda low isn’t it? The bottom line, I believe most audiophiles realize how important the room is and the acoustics of the room along with the positioning and only wish they could hit all the tics correctly but have to be satisfied with the areas they have control over, which might not be many. They do have nice speakers and great equipment that they spent way too much on with lots of tweaks and expensive cables and conditioners but just can’t get it to sound great. No where near what they heard in that fancy showroom. Oh well, we live with what we have.
Speaker positioning: why do audiophiles neglect this so much?
Went to a recent seminar featuring Jim Smith, well known author of the book "Get Better Sound" and hi fi set up guru.
The basic gist of the discussion was that the most important elements of a high end stereo installation are listening position and speaker positioning, in that order. The actual hardware (speakers, amplifiers, source, cables etc) are of less importance relatively speaking.
Yet it is clear from this web site and it's contents, that set up is discussed much less than the actual hardware.
When I look at the Virtual Systems page on site, I'm estimating that, maybe, 10% of the systems posted are close to well set up. Thus, hardly any of the featured hardware is performing close to it's maximum potential.
Shame, and why is it so? Not sexy enough to talk about system set up in depth? Lack of knowledge? Or is it simply too hard to do and too complex a subject?
Just my 2 cents ...
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Wise post! But most people spend money on costly tweaks and costly upgrades BECAUSE they dont understand basic acoustic power... The wife factor and a living room for most people cannot distract us to spelling the truth here in audio forums because it is an INCONVENIENT truth for most... Acoustic treatment and mechanical control is the key not the price tag.... Even with a wife and in a living room we need the truth not the market conditioning of our consumer habits....
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Good to have this discussion and all the responses. A few responders have mentioned that they do not have dedicated rooms, with a bit of lament. A dedicated room is not necessary, but dedicated music listening is. In other words you need to just listen to the music and not do anything else. As I have mentioned a couple times, for background listening, nothing really matters in the speaker positioning. If you are set up in a multipurpose room, it's best to not move the furnishings around. Everything in the room affects the sound. And if you move things around you need to adjust the a speaker setting to get back to the optimum sound. The Sumiko/Master Set method that I referenced in my first post is said to work with any speaker in any room. And thus it can be tried in a multipurpose room, some times quite successfully As to "Optimum Sound", there is likely a few definitions of that and with a lot of divergence. I will only say that optimum sound is the perfect summation of the two speakers to be as if they were one speaker. A good way to check for that is to listen to a mono recording, and mono recording will do. By definition there is equal music in each channel and each speaker. The two speakers will automatically sum together to give sound perfectly between the speakers, no matter where you sit in the room. If you do this with your speaker set and go to one side and the sound also goes to that side then you are getting more sound from the speaker on that side. That should not be and you do not have the speakers set for optimum sound. This is a good check because the mono recording can be a reference as to what you are trying to do with the speakers. |
Very well said @sharri 👏👏👏👏👏 |
I will add that not only a dedicated room is not necessary but music itself is not necessary, silence in any position is the only necessary fulfillment... But being in an audio thread i will repeat that a dedicated room acoustic is the only luxury...not the price tag of gear at all... Saying that we can enjoy music anywhere from any system even in an escalator is common place fact from which NOBODY can argue against... 😁😊
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