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AUDIO FORUMS >> Room Treatment >> poll, Listening Room Arrangement
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Message started by Brian on 05/23/14 at 04:58:35

Title: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Brian on 05/23/14 at 04:58:35

In a rectangular room,
Are you sitting across the width of the room from your speakers?
Are you sitting facing your speakers along the greatest length of the room ?
or Are you sitting across the diagonal of the room from your speakers?

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by beowulf on 05/23/14 at 05:54:32

Is the ceiling slanted? :D

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by seikosha on 05/23/14 at 15:12:05

Although I'd prefer that the speakers were firing down the long dimension of the room, it's not usually what sounds best in my experience. In my rooms, the speakers are on the long walls firing down the shorter dimensions.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by beowulf on 05/23/14 at 16:40:30

+1 to seikosha, but my setup is due to room layout more than preference ... I guess I could have put the speakers the other way however my HDTV could have only gone along the wall in a certain way and I wanted my speakers to sit along either side of my TV, so I had to stick with a certain way.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Brian on 05/24/14 at 04:12:51

It seems like working across the room would be better than lengthwise because getting the side walls further from the speakers ought to help sound stage width - somehow. I am not sure quite how.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by marky on 05/24/14 at 10:18:30

Quote:

- somehow. I am not sure quite how.

I dont think the "pros" know how either. When you see dedicated treated rooms they usually look symmetrical rather than mathematical. So the theory here is, I hope, get all the sound treatment gear you think you`ll need or afford or think the better half will put up with and place it tastefully, giving the rear wall a healthy dose, something in the corners behind the speakers ( always point the speakers from the corners wherever you put them ? ) and the side walls one or two strips of something to break up the patterns. THEN you can position the speakers to suit.
I come by this method simply because if you put something here then the sound will also hit there. This is borne out by those little, expensive traps made of hi-tech material, very hi-fi jewelry, that claim to do wonderful things. Where do they put them ? Anywhere. They sit there waiting for certain frequencies to come to them.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Brian on 05/30/14 at 00:46:19

121 views of this Poll thus far, but only 3 votes. Are those of you who are viewing but not voting not doing so because you are not yet committed to a particular speaker and chair arrangement?

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Brian on 06/12/14 at 21:50:24

It is interesting to me that no one is setting up along the long axis of the room.
I had an idea that across the width to give the most possible distance from the speakers to the side walls might be best, but even so, I thought lengthwise was the most used arrangement.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Lon on 06/12/14 at 21:56:41

In my prevous home I had it set up that way, but have no choice for a similar set up in my current home.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Brian on 06/13/14 at 03:08:01

Lon, do you have an insight or opinion on which arrangement sounds best?

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Lon on 06/13/14 at 11:22:02

No, not really. . . because in my experience the rooms have been so different, and I've gotten great sound either way. I would guess that it may be a case by case, room by room, thing.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Brian on 06/13/14 at 13:41:36

Thanks, Lon

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Acetone on 11/14/14 at 22:40:45

11' x 16' x 8' room my speakers are on the 11' wall. 5' in & 28" from side walls. Tekton Lores. :)

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by 4krow on 06/18/15 at 23:35:56

Forever ago, I tried the diagonal approach. It would seem pretty cool conceptually, but all I know is I now use the longest wall to place the speakers on, and listen that way. I still have to use room treatment to get the best performance, but it works out admirably.
As an aside, I was in the giant foyer of a new church measuring for blinds yesterday. They will have an impossible acoustic problem. Not sure what made it so bad, but it is baaaad. At least the sanctuary is better. Big rooms and big problems.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Lonely Raven on 06/20/15 at 04:59:35

Typically larger rooms are better. If there is some nasty slap-back echo going on there, then they need to at least damp that.

I have problems hearing people talk in crowded rooms...just all the noise, plus the reflections and reflections and reflections - everything sounds like white noise to me, completely drowning out what the person I'm with is saying. So I pay attention when I walk into every bar/club/restaurant. Some of the best for conversation, more comfortable businesses hang acoustic panels like flags from the ceiling. Acoustic baffles like this are amazing for large and/or loud rooms.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Lon on 06/20/15 at 11:10:37

Interesting, and yes I know that those sort of panels help in those places. My hearing is still good though I guess, I don't have trouble hearing people in those sort of situations where I know others do. We're all different.

Anyway after spending years in near-field listening in a small room, I'll not choose that set up again. . . both acoustically and psychologically (which is important for listening) I prefer "room to move." And haven't needed room treatment in a dwelling to hear.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by Archie on 06/20/15 at 17:51:16

Steve wrote an interesting paper on setting up diagonally.

My room is a huge rectangle (17x35) with high sloping ceilings. I'm set up on one long wall. I don't seem to have any weird acoustical effects but I also don't get holographic imaging. No sound treatment either. I think like many, my set up is based more on necessity than choice. I didn't design my house around my sound system.

My situation suits me well since most of my listening happens while I'm doing other things. Getting the room filled with music is more important than how things sound in one particular place.

Title: Re: poll, Listening Room Arrangement
Post by hdrider on 06/22/15 at 21:39:27

My speakers (Omega 7XRS) are set up on the long wall (19' x 13'.5'' open beam ceiling pitched to the crown) and it is out of need to appease my bride of 35 years who has her degree in Interior Design. We just finished having hardwood flooring put in through out the house, and it is going to be very interesting when I set the system back up. Months ago when this started, I fore warned her of what it would sound like and the measures that she will have to endure so far as treatments go. Interesting times we live in...Happy listening, Chris.