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Room is 12x20. Would speakers work best setup on the long wall or the short wall?
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of long wallers. See my setup in my gallery. Room is 15 x 21
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
I think it depends on several factors, most especially what speakers you're using. (i.e are the rear ported?) And the room geometrics. (Are there doors and windows that will affect the sound?)I have a 24' x 16' room, and I put the speakers on the long wall and it sounds great.
That being said, your room is only 12' wide. Typical speaker placement would put the front of the speaker a few of feet, or so, from the wall behind them. You'll need to pull your chair/couch away from the rear wall (behind your listening position) a couple of feet from the wall, or else you'll get some really bad bass smearing. (FYI: I learned this one the hard way! I had to completely turn my position around 180 degrees, as pulling the couch out from the wall, was not possible on one side of the room.)
So, if the speakers are a few feet out into the room and your chair is a couple feet out into the room, that means the speakers are only 6 or 7 feet away, which is a pretty small distance. (I've done the nearfield thing before, and while it works, it was not my cup of tea, in the long term anyway.)
If it was me, I think I'd try it on the short wall first. (Of course this might mean doing some wall treatment to avoid bad sidewall reflections.)
Some direct radiators such as Audio Physic and Duntech/DAL recommend long wall placement. In large part, I believe this is for reasons mentioned by markrohr - minimizing side wall reflections. However, your 12' width would likely place you head directly in front of the rear wall, not desirable relative to smooth bass response in my experience. Remember there are two major factors in room set up - speaker position and listening position.OTOH, dipoles like Maggies can be placed closer to side walls without problems and also benefit from even more distance from the front wall than direct radiators so short wall placement should work best.
So, after such general comments, like so many other questions posted on the Asylum, no absolute answer holds up and you will be best advised to try both placements.
It really depends. My room is only a little bit bigger than yours and due to the location of various doors and my dining room I need a long wall set up. With my setup there are a couple advantages. I am listening in the near field which slightly compensates for some of the bad reflections from windows and untreated walls. Secondly, my speakers are set quite wide apart which, with my speakers, throws a wide soundstage. Depth is sacrificed a bit, but overall it is not bad. If you can find the audio physic set up manual online this would be a good place to start experimenting.
You can see pics of my room at the link below.Nate
and you may get 12 different opinions.For what it's worth, I'm a long-wall guy. This placement in a large room such as yours helps to reduce the influence of side-wall reflections, which IMO really screw up the sound.
You can damp and nearly eliminate those reflections with appropriate absorbers, but generally not in a wife-approved living room.
You might try asymmetrical long-wall placement--meaning that each speaker is a different distance from it's nearest side wall. This can spread the resonances around a little more.
Meanwhile, lots of folks think otherwise, though I see pics of a lot of setups with the speakers VERY near the side walls. Unless the speakers are quite directional I think this ought to be avoided if possible. YMMV!
…at least 13 different opinions :-)I'm with Mark on the long wall setup. Also, take a look in the FAQ for the Audio Physic setup instructions. You can move the speakers out from the long wall and place the listening position hard against the opposite wall.
There is some argument on whether or not you will get problem comb filtering from reflections from the wall behind you if you're that close to it but I haven't noticed any problems. If you notice anything or are concerned, stick some sort of sound absorbent cushion or wall panel behind your head.
I've managed in a long wall setup in a room with a short wall of 11' and a long wall of around 22'. THe listening area was down one end, occupying half of the room with the other half being a dining area. Even though it was a very asymmetric layout, the long wall placement was necessary because of restrictions on speaker placement due to doorways and traffic flow problems that ruled out a short wall placement at either end of the room. As far as the sound went, it worked fine. I did have to use a bit of room treatment to break up a much stronger reflection on one side than the other which tended to shift the centre image a little to one side but that was really the only issue that I ended up considering a genuine negative in the setup.
This is pretty much exactly my experience though my room is 15' x 25' or so. I also have my speakers fully 1/3 of the way into the room which really seems to help eliminate some other room issues.I have my sofa all the way up against the wall, and I'm usually sitting with a nice soft cushion behind my head. To deal with the uneven side wall reflections I have a long narrow side table lined with large potted plants. This table also houses some of my lps.
Nate
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