Speaker position-listening experience.

[Diabolical Artificer]

My living room is approx 5 x 5 yards square and 6ft high. It is an old house built in 1860-ish. My set-up isnt HI fi, A reasonable deck,a 50w Yamaha solid state amp,and a pair of Mission 720,s. So nothing to write home about. I,m in the process of upgrading.

Heres my question. How do forum members go about site- ing their speakers? Any guidance welcome. Andy.


My living room is approx 5 x 5 yards square and 6ft high. It is an old house built in 1860-ish. My set-up isn't HiFi; a reasonable deck, a 50W Yamaha solid state amp and a pair of Mission 720's so nothing to write home about. I'm in the process of upgrading.

Here's my question; how do forum members go about siting their 'speakers? Any guidance welcome.

Andy.

[dave cox]

IMHO, the bigest problems occur at low frequency. The paricular type of speaker loading has an effect on the 'best' position, eg. closed box, reflex loaded, transmission-line (not common) or horn loaded (even rarer).

Corners seem to be the worse place closely followed by placing a speaker with its back to a wall, this always seems much worse with reflex types.

I find a signal generator quite useful for finding any 'nasties' but you need to be sat in the typical listening position and you can expect some strange effects when you start to exite standing waves in the room. This is rather harsh on the amp/speakers so do it at a low level

dc

[chriswood1900]

Dave
With you speakers I would put them on stands about 10 to 12" high place them away from walls and corners a minimum of 8 feet apart slightly turned in to the listening position. Sit down and listen on a variety of music and see how they perform. If you have concerns or are not enjoying the sound the next stage would be to follow Andy's advice and start some experiments looking for problems with standing waves and unusual room accoustics. Some experiments with soft furnishings and curtains can play a big part in the sound and cost nothing but time. After listening come back with your findings and we can give further advice. Chris

[dseymo1]

If you want to do it (semi-) scientifically, try this.

[maninashed]

I'd ask the wife first,if I were you !
SWMBO limits the size of my speakers unfortunately, so I have a bigger set in my workroom.

[Diabolical Artificer]

Thanks chaps. dseymo1, that's an interesting article. I'll do some experimenting today and get back to you.

Andy.

[geoff999]

Is your room really only 6 ft high?

[Diabolical Artificer]

6 foot 2 inches, Geoff - it's a real pain as I'm 6'1" . All the light fittings get broken regularly. It couldn't be worse from an acoustic point of view.

Andy.

[Diabolical Artificer]

A quick update. I,ve lifted my speakers up by about 18". And moved them as far as possible away from the corners where they were. there is a huge improvement in clarity,the bass is less boomy. I,m off to Wigwam at Scalford Hall this weekend. i hope to get a few more pointers there,thanks for all your help,Andy.

[ppppenguin]

Here's some sage advice

If you raise the ceiling four feet... put the fireplace from that wall to that wall... you'll still only get the stereophonic effect if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard.

[Dave Moll]

Jeffrey, you beat me to it with that advice from the late great Michael Flanders.

[Boom]

I sit the 'speakers at ear height (when sitting down) and form a triangle the same distance from each ear. Fine unless two people are listening or you want to move about.

I recently bought a Logitech 5.1 setup using 7 really baby (2") 'speakers and a 7" bass unit. I was very surprised indeed at the quality.

[mrmagnetophon]

If you end up getting horn speakers, put them in the corners and tow them in as much as you can. For simple small speakers i would put them as: tweeter at ear level, 8 feet apart and in the middle of the room.
-Chris

[Station X]

tow them in

What?

[Diabolical Artificer]

I think Chris means toe-in as in a sidecar setup; at an angle in other words.

Jeffrey, I note your advice; how apt. Am I under surveillance? . My fireplace is smack centre of the room, my 'listening' chair off to the right. When in a central listening position one gets rather hot.

It's an old cottage as I said, very bijou. Lifting up the speakers has made a big difference. As they were it did indeed sound like listening in/from a cupboard.

Andy

[ianj]

I've played with my big floorstanders recently and toed them in, also moved them away from the wall a bit. Much better sound, isn't it surprising what a difference it makes!

[mrmagnetophon]

Yes, that is what i meant. It is important to have them turned in and not square to the wall as the sound will not project correctly.

-Chris

[Top Cap]

Height is also a very important factor, the general rule was to have them at a height whereby you could just see the top surface of the speaker cabinet. I experimented once by positioning myself at various heights and I did indeed notice a significant difference at various height positions. Once you find your preferred sound all you need to do is procure some stands to achieve that height relationship when you are at a sitting position. It would be interesting if any other members notice this phenomenon with their speakers.

[mrmagnetophon]

Typically it was said that tweeter should be ear level, now some speakers that is impossible, i know so with my klipsch horns.

-Chris

[dave cox]

Tweeter height can be complicated. Even if you have the polar response diagram for the tweeter, once it is connected to the crossover / fitted to the baffle the lobes could be pointing anywhere !!

Personally, I find it quite easy to find the best axial response position - just move your head around and the beaming effect will be quite obvious ! For my speakers (using kef T27's with 18db/oct filters) the best axial position is around 15 deg ABOVE the tweeter axis so if my tweeters were at ear level then they would need to point downward at about 15 deg.

dc

dc