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Room help

I'm new to this.  I have of late been fascinated reading here about the room as one, if not the principal, component of a well tuned audio system.  More recently I chanced upon a discussion about irregular rooms perhaps lending towards the best sound.  

Well, I have an irregular room.  It is approximately 15' x 27' with an 8' ceiling.  It has a trapezoidal cross section (sitting on the top floor of my home under the eves), has a dormer and a staircase up from the lower level at one end.  At one end the wall is brick and the other three are plaster.  Carpeted.

I have my listening area set up on one end of the long axis (oriented transversely along the short axis of the room if that makes sense) .  The speakers are 9' apart and 8' from me.  Few feet from the front wall. Today I rotated everything 90 degrees so that now the speakers are facing out along the long axis of the room.  The speakers are still 9' apart and 8' from me.  But the back wall is now some 18' behind me instead of 4'.

The sound is much better.  I've been listening for hours (with a pause for food, saying hello to visiting relatives, assuring my wife I'm still alive, and such).   More "spacious" is the best word I can use to describe it.   The soundstage is bigger.  

However,  this layout is much less pleasing from an aesthetic standpoint (please don't judge me harshly on this).  Soooooo.... my question is: Is there a way to recapture this improvement in some way while maintaining the original orientation of the room (across the short axis of the room)? 

Thanks for reading and I eagerly await any responses.

likat
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audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,018 posts
 

The long wall is usually a good place for the speakers in a room such as yours. I have a similar situation but in reverse (if I’m reading your post correctly) whereas I can’t use the short wall due to asthetics and such and the fact that there is a wood covered Lally column separating the room. I find the system just so happens to sound better this way in my room. I might add that the room is fully finished in drywall, and fully carpeted, with a gigantic sectional couch and countless throws, pillows and blankets. There is no wall on the right side, open to rest of the room. It’s a pretty good mix of absorptive and reflective materials. Still working on a few diy treatments...the only thing I can recommend to you is maybe pull those speakers closer together by about a foot...and tow them in so that the axis of both speakers crosses just in front of you at your listening position. It may or may not improve Soundstage and central image. I use Tannoys and they are big proponents on serious toe in. A more radical toe in will decrease the effect of room boundaries to a degree.

 

likat OP
17 posts
 

Thank you!  Yes, my speakers are usually along the long wall.  Moving them to the short wall however really opened up the sound.  When I move them back in a few days I will play around with the toe in.  I should have mentioned I am using Monitor floorstanders.  They tend to produce good bass response so I think they may respond very well with a generous  toe in.  

likat OP
17 posts
 

Ok, maybe I have answered my own question,  Or at least am having a pleasant conversation with myself.  But I'd love it if someone helped me work through this...

Is it possible that the spacious sound I get when my system is set up along the long axis is because the back wall, which is brick,  is so far behind me (about 17 feet) and the reflected bass is not there to muddle things?  In this case when I go back to the short axis where the back wall is 4 feet behind me would the use of bass traps help me achieve the same effect?

 

erik_squires
16,042 posts
 

I'm not sure we can replicate this exactly, but start with diffusor panels behind you and between the speakers.

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