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How to position speakers in room 8 ft wide but 35 feet deep?

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Jick

(i)

It's not really a room but I live in an apartment and this is a studio type so my listening area actually includes the kitchen but not the bedroom which is actually much smaller.
I plan to sit around 7-8 feet from the speakers. Should I toe-in the speakers? How far from the side walls should they be at the minimum? If I put them too far from the side walls they might be too close together and give me zero soundstage whatsoever.
I have been previously using the other way which is 35 feet the width and 8 feet from front to back, but while it gave me a wider soundstage, it was much more boomy sounding.
I am doing experiments up to now but I am interested in what opinions you may have on how to take care of this thing. My speakers are Dynaudio Audience 40s with 29 inch stands.
Also, does my room configuration rule out a sub?
Jick

Follow Ups:

Re: How to position speakers in room 8 ft wide but 35 feet deep? sean driscoll 00:41:42 02/08/01 (0)
i have been pondering this....put your seat along the center of a wide walland then move it out 4 feet towords the center of the room if you are able , put one speaker at the center of each short wall pointed to the center of the room...then increase volume untill you hear both as a perdect soundstage centered on you . all troubles should be solved so easily :)
Re: How to position speakers in room 8 ft wide but 35 feet deep? orejones 14:56:28 02/01/01 (0)
It seems that you are getting advice enough on speaker positioning, to which I won�t add much.
But there�s a caveat: with such a long room, you�ve bought more than one ticket to have some strong flutter, if your ceiling is flat and clean. To check this out, place yourself in the same place where you are going to place your speakers, and clap your hands loudly: if you hear a certain metallic tone, that�s flutter. Don�t worry: a thick carpet, of decent size (the bigger, the better) placed behind the place you�ll sit will cure it. And another one, between the speakers and you, will help them sound better.
Luck, and enjoy the music!
I ditched this experiment and solved my problem ... Jick 20:16:27 01/31/01 (1)
8 feet is way too narrow and when I did listening tests, no was could I get a precise vocal from the middle. Stereo separation was well compromised.
So I'm just back to putting the speakers against the long walls which is much better, except for a little boominess. Putting port plugs sucks the life out of the bass totally, so anyone got ideas on room teatments? Perhaps I can put my speakers 12 to 18 inches from the long wall but but put some kind of rug behind the wall, right?
Jick
- Re: I ditched this experiment and solved my problem ... Carlos 20:20:34 02/01/01 (0)
  I have a long/narrow room too.
  Sometimes bass boominess is caused by overlapping resonances.
  Measure the distance from the center of the woofer to floor, back wall and side wall. Those measurements should be as different as possible, no distance should be a multiple or even an even sub-multiple of the other. For example, 20 inches distance from woofer to the back wall and 40 inches from the floor is a NO-NO.
  If possible, use assimetrical placement, at least make the distances to the side walls unequal.
  Repeat the measurements for the bass reflex port, if present.
  Also, use a Radio Schack sound meter and a Stereophile test record at around 70db, C weighting, fast, to look for the speaker position that has less bass resonances. I prefer the analog meter.
  Good luck
Re: How to position speakers in room 8 ft wide but 35 feet deep? rcrump 16:03:33 01/31/01 (0)
This is pretty simple, use the 1 width to 1.15 depth scheme and put the speakers on a short wall 7' apart and 4' or so out into the room and then place your listening chair so your ears are just over 8' from the speakers and point the speakers so they aim just a touch behind your head......This will get you going and you will want to play with the distance from the rear wall, but keep the other dimensions the same.....
Re: How to position speakers in room 8 ft wide but 35 feet deep? Slant 13:43:30 01/31/01 (1)
Tricky situation! In order to get some soundstage and reasonble depth I would try not to run simply parallel to either wall. As an example from the right corner of the room, the back wall being called the short wall of the room, position one speaker about 4 feet from the back wall and 2-2.5 feet from the side wall. Now considering using 8 feet as your distance from the line between the two speakers, the distance the speakers should be apart is about 6.5 to 7 feet.
Now cut a piece of string about 9 feet, and put one end of it on the center point of the tweeter on the speaker already positioned, and swing the 6.5 to 7 foot arc usint the string and position the center of the other speaker on that arc at a point 2-2.5 feet from the other wall.
I hope this isn't too confusing, but it seems like the only way to develop some sort of soundstage while giving the room needed between you and that soundstage.
For a tremendous amount of serious info on all aspects of acoustics get the Master Handbook of Acoustics by F. Alton Everest. Its available at Borders and probably other book stores as well.
Best of luck!
- Re: How to position speakers in room 8 ft wide but 35 feet deep? Jick 14:04:58 01/31/01 (0)
  I kinda get your idea but space constraints and a big couch make it hard to do something that is not parallel but a little diagonalish in form. What do you think if I put my speakers quite close to the side wall, say 12 inches and do some toe-in? If I do toe in, by how many degrees?
  Thanks so much for the information.
  Jick

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