Tweakers' Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on September 14, 2011 at 13:28:52

In Reply to: RE: "What is the general theory on speaker placement in relation to windows?" posted by Japesgalore on September 14, 2011 at 02:02:16

"My question actually focused on whether, having heard a worse sound when the speakers USED to be in front of the window, which may have just been the result of poor speaker placement, is it possible for me to dial in a position that is better than what I have now?"

You're the only person who can answer that, and you'll need to experiment to do so. I would say that you can almost certainly get better sound with a long wall placement than you did the last time you tried it, provided you put a bit of effort into experimenting with different placements. I can't say whether you will prefer that result to your current result. The sound will change in several ways and "which is best" depends a lot on personal preference since some of the changes will be in how soundstage and imaging are presented, plus you will end up sitting closer to the speaker plane which also has an effect on presentation.

It's hard for people to get perfect symmetry in many rooms so all you can do is to try and experiment a bit with setup and placement. No one can give you a recipe for achieving the best result simply on the basis of what you say in a few posts here. Rooms are variable and so are personal tastes. You have to experiment a bit with setup when changing things if you want to get the best results, there's no way around that.

Can you get a better result than you got last time with a long wall setup? Almost certainly if you put in some effort. Will you prefer it to what you're getting currently? Only you can answer that. Is it worth the effort of trying the experiment? Definitely yes if you like the results more. If you don't like the results more then whether or not it was worth the experiment depends on whether you think you learnt enough useful things about your system and how it works with your room to justify the time and effort you spent. You may end up going back to the short wall placement but changing the current setup in some way because of something you learnt in the process and getting results you prefer more than you prefer your current results. That would also be a positive result that could well be worth the effort involved.


David Aiken