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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: Help me position my speakers in a crazy room! posted by leftistelf on January 2, 2002 at 00:23:41:
Looks like a worse version of my room - mine is smaller and only open on one side.I had problems relating the layout to the pictures so I'm not quite certain where your speakers currently are, so I'll try and describe what I would suggest.
First, I'd use your 14' x 17' area with the glass walls on the left and the speakers against the solid wall at the top of your diagram. The open area is to the right as you face the speakers and that's the same as in my room.
Now, the tendency is going to be for the left speaker to sound boxy in comparison to the right which has more space around it. The solution is to fake the space. Keep the speakers as far from the wall behind as you can. Put a bass trap in the left corner behind the speakers, and absorbing panels along the left wall. Unfortunately that loses you the glass which I assume is a window, and the view too :-( You don't have to put panels along the whole of the left wall but definitely cover the first reflection point on the wall. These can be free standing panels standing a few inches out from the wall and you can build them yourself using Jon Risch's instructions (see Tweakers Asylum), and you can do bass traps the same way. If there is a door in the corner where I'm suggesting the bass trap, use panels there also to leave space for passage. You could also use room lenses - DIY also and easy - along the glass between strategically placed free panels since they offer fairly minimal visual obstruction and would retain some view but you definitely would be better of with one substantial panel at the reflection point.
The alternative would be to rotate things 90 degrees to the right and put the speakers along the short wall opposite the glass wall. Use bass traps and panels as before and you can reduce the problems of reflection from the glass wall which is behind the sitting position by spacing room lenses along the wall. Sit a fair bit forward of the wall in that case to allow the diffusion time to develop. While you need to keep a bit of space between the left speaker and the left wall, you can put the right speaker right up against the right side since it's open and there will be minimal reflection problems on that side. While your width is only 9', if the left speaker is around 2' from the wall you can still have about 6' between the speakers by putting the right one up against the side. With the 29' length, you can pull the speakers out a fair way in front of the wall - even 6' or 7' may not be a problem and put the gear further back toward the wall so there's absolutely nothing in the space directly between the speakers.
In both cases you could consider putting some absorption along the wall behind the speakers.
By judicious use of absorption along the solid walls and some added diffusion, you should be able to minimise the sonic differences caused by the asymmetry in speaker placement. Taming your bass problem is going to be a bit harder because you can't get bass traps into all of the corners since some are out in far field in the open space. Probably the best suggestion I can make there is to make sure the speakers are as far out in the open as possible since not only will that help in terms of the asymmetry of the room, it will also minimise corner reinforcement of the speaker on that side. What you can also do is move the speakers to where you plan on sitting and have them facing where you plan to put them. Put on something with very low bass - at the limit of your speakers extension, and walk around the corner area where you plan to place one speaker listening to the bass, looking for areas where it's at its maximum and minimum. Place that speaker at a point where bass was at a minimum and then work out the other speaker placement from that. See how it sounds and, if necessary, fudge the speaker placement towards the nearest spot where you got strong bass if necessary. Between the points where you found the maximum and minimum reinforcement, you should be able to find a spot that suits.
Consider Susan's suggestion about furniture very seriously. You've got spaciousness galore so eliminate clutter, give the sound room, and visually flaunt the space. Turn what you think is a disadvantage into a visual highlight. It'll lift your spirits and that'll make things sound better too - mood is important!
All the best,
David Aiken
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Follow Ups
- For Leftiself (and Susan) - David Aiken 13:36:03 01/04/02 (2)
- Re: For Leftiself (and Susan) - Susan 14:53:37 01/05/02 (1)
- Re: For Leftiself (and Susan) - David Aiken 23:37:54 01/05/02 (0)
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