The way I position my speakers is I put on one the left side and the other on the right side. Works every time.
Speaker placement Quandary
Where to begin here? My question is that in my experience with speaker placement I "think" that it is best to have your speakers well out into the room to achieve the best in soundstage width and especially depth? For example my Legacy Focus XD's are 6.5 feet into the room from front baffle to front wall. I messed with them quite a bit but never went closer to the front wall than that in fear of losing that well spaced out soundstage or emphasizing bass.. Imagery seems rather good as well. The "sound" comes from deep into the front wall not near the speaker plane. I see many listening rooms (in forum members setups, you tube, etc) that seem to follow this thinking and I also see some rather sophisticated expensive high end systems (in dedicated rooms so no WAF effect) that have their speakers just 1-2 feet off the front wall between the rear of the speaker. Is this an element of a different preference in listening? Wouldn't the soundstage become flatter? Is there some tonal advantages to this? I realize some speakers are designed to be closer such as some Wilsons and it seems many the the B&W's end up like this. I understand that locating speakers is room dependant and a huge variable too.
My speakers weigh 140 pounds each and I have them sitting on Via Blue decouplers so I cannot move them by myself and replace them on the footers, so I have not tried to move them closer to the front wall. Additionally they are rear ported and as I understand it's best to keep them away from the wall.
As many of you have probably experimented with speaker placements, what have you found that gives you that nice expansive soundstage and imagery in your rooms?
Also is it more an issue with room modes too?
My room is 14w X 18L x 7H My speakers are 6.5" out, 39" off side walls and 8 feet apart measured from center of front baffle.. My listening position is 9.5 feet (Of the side triangle measurements) from the front baffles and I sit about 4 feet off the rear wall. I have side wall treatments, rear wall diffusion, front wall diffusion and bass absorption.
I am not really looking for placement suggestions unless you see a real flaw here. I just wonder how so many different configurations work so well regarding less distance between speakers and the front wall? Thoughts?
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There is no single right answer when it comes to best speaker placement. Each case is unique. It usually requires some experimentation to get best results. It is always the case typically that distance from walls and corners determines bass levels. Soundstage and imaging is typically related to speaker sound radiation pattern. Good speaker reviews will measure that and it is useful to help identify what placement in a particular room might work best. The SPL levels in the direction of walls are important but have to be managed carefully for good soundstage and imaging. Omnidirectional, bipolar and rear ported designs will tend to require more distance to walls for best results compared to others. |
Nice system! My dedicated listening room is similar in size to yours, and I have my speakers placed almost exactly as you have yours. I have smaller 2-way towers that would benefit from some bass reinforcement if I moved them back a bit, but it comes at the price of a less deep 3D soundstage and not quite as good at pulling off a complete disappearing act, and that’s not a worthwhile trade off at least for my tastes. The only thing I’d consider if I’m you — and I’ve gotta try this too in my system and as the very wise @ghdprentice mentioned above — is to reduce the height of the equipment stack to about half what it is now. My stack is directly between my speakers and a bit over 3’ tall, and visually it’s just in the way and I’m sure doing me no favors sonically. Like you, and for similar reasons, I’m not willing to relocate my equipment to the side as much as I’d like to, but hopefully some day as I’d really love to eventually make that happen. That’s all I got FWIW. |
@mijostyn Exactly. The sweetest imaging is when the speakers disappear leaving a 3D tangible image in the space in front of the speaker plane. |
@OP - Ideally use an SPL meter and a set of test tones from 30-125 Hz to look for any major anomalies. If there are, then judicious experimentation with positioning, toe in, and the amount and placement of acoustic treatment in the room may yield improvements. It's not axiomatic that moving the speakers closer to the wall than 6.5 feet will result in a less open soundstage or excessive bass - depending on the room, it can do the complete opposite. Taking some measurements and repeating them will greatly speed up the process. Movements of three to six inches at a time are all that's needed. |
- 44 posts total