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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2015 10:37:57 GMT
Where you site your gear can be a huge determining factor, so I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts. for instance: * where is best for speakers? Either side of a bay? Firing down the room? What about either side of a chimney breast? * is having the system or items of furniture between the speakers usually a no-no? * do you prefer to have the hifi beside the listening position, even if it means long speaker lengths? * what about racks? And lovers/haters here? its not just sonics to consider. Ergonomics and aesthetics are also a factor for me, sometimes competing with sonic demands. I'd be interested in hearing other people's deliberations/compromises on this too. Pics would make the thread even better
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Post by ChrisB on Dec 5, 2015 11:57:36 GMT
Mine is less than optimal at the moment - I've always tried to keep speakers and power amps well away from the rest of the kit and managed quite well. The last 3 configurations were all quite successful:
1) Nottinghamshire - The main part of the room was 13' x 15' with the speakers a bit into the room in front of a big bay window, power amps right back into the bay. The room was, in fact L-shaped so it had a little 8' x 8' area off to the left hand side of the listening seat. The rest of the kit and all of the discs resided in there. 2) Lincolnshire - 13' x 24' room with speakers about 1.5 metres from the end wall (please excuse the heady mixture of metric and imperial here!). Power amps were on shelves built either side of the fireplace. The listening position was a sofa 1/3rd of the way from the back wall and the rest of the gear was on racks sat on the hearth on the inside of a blocked off fireplace on the back wall. 3) Lancashire - When we moved to this house, we originally put the kit into a little anteroom which is through a door to the side of the main room. The speakers and amps were at the end of the main room, which is sort of wedge shaped - about 18 x 16' at its widest and 18' x 13' at its narrowest. This was the best set up, though the speakers could have done with a little more elbow room. Then it transpired that there was a damp problem in the little room and a few of my record sleeves were damaged, including some of my precious first pressing FZ albums. Time for a rethink!
Nowadays, most of the kit is on two racks inside a massive stone fireplace, with one more rack off to the side of that (holding one TT, CD player and one power amp). The speakers are either side of the fireplace, but pulled well forward of it and they fire across the room rather than along it.
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Post by zippy on Dec 5, 2015 12:25:06 GMT
I have tried the sophisticated approach using REW which I found to be extremely complicated and results for me didn't yield anything valuable, or that I didn't already know and couldn't fix (e.g. a bass hump in the frequency response).
I ended up doing many, many experiments by manually moving the speakers to see what improved, or otherwise.
In the end I surprisingly found that the manufacturers advice ( 1 metre from all walls, speakers central and equidistant from listener, speakers facing straight forward) yielded one of the worst results.
Trial and error has them a metre from back wall but only 20cm from side walls (and hence about 3.5 metres apart), toed-in by quite a lot, and firing down the length of a 7.5 metre room. In this position there's a slight loss of stereo image, and still a slightly raised bass, but overall as good as I can get them.
Note also not ideal, the hifi/TV cabinet is in the corner of the room, almost behind the left speaker - again not ideal (especially since it's too far away to read the displays) but nowhere else to put it !
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Post by John on Dec 5, 2015 12:46:34 GMT
My own set up is speakers 1.5m away from the wall. This works well with my present speakers They are about 3m away from each other I would like to have more space and be sitting a little further back I have my speakers ever so slightly towed in It just my own listening preference with them My Hifi rack is behind the speakers
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Post by MartinT on Dec 5, 2015 12:58:38 GMT
My speakers are not ideally placed, close to the front wall. My listening position is also not ideally placed, against the rear wall. I fire across the width of the room, which I've always preferred, and I have a lot of room treatment (TubeTraps in all four corners, a SubTrap, PicturePanels on the walls and a GIK panel over the TV screen) in situ.
When all's said and done, it sounds pretty good considering.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2015 21:49:00 GMT
Ii'd forgotten that sitting near the back wall isn't normally a good thing. I think I've always been pretty close to the rear wall due to limited room sizes, I do like to have some item of furniture between the speakers with the exception of Naim IBLs. I also like the system right beside me although it always means running long speaker lengths.
As I switch between pre/power amps and integrated amps, I can't really sit a power amp between speakers too often. I've also had mixed results with long pre/power interconnects. So far only a Perreaux preamp with Krell and Brtston amps showed no loss of liveliness with long leads. All the others have shown some deterioration.
I'm only a couple of days from firing up a system in a new room, so it will be interesting to find out what differences I encounter. This one is pretty small, approx 14' X 12'6. Smal bay window which will sit in the mddle of the speakers. I still haven't decided where to site the electronics. Speakers will probably be a BT closer to ten rear wall but I will thankfully be able to set them further apart.
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Post by dsjr on Dec 5, 2015 23:17:09 GMT
Depends on room and general domestic circumstances. Firing across a room has been recommended to me, but when I had an exaggerated rectangular room (25' x 10'6"), it looked and sounded awful, the speakers eventually being a metre or so from one end but firing down the room. The current main system stuff is in a non-square little sitting room and if the image goes awry, it's usually my left ear playing up rather than a system or room fault, so I just have to put up with it
The daily used workroom stereo has the speakers on a computer desk, sitting on 150mm or so of Celotex panel. Totally wrong, but bass is clean with the old IMF Compact mk1's and their relative closeness means the sound is basically in mono when sitting anywhere other than directly in front of them.
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Post by MartinT on Dec 6, 2015 5:48:04 GMT
Celotex?
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Post by zippy on Dec 6, 2015 9:22:32 GMT
.... and if the image goes awry, it's usually my left ear playing up rather than a system or room fault, so I just have to put up with it
I forgot that aspect of the situation - with me it's my right ear that's weaker than my left HOWEVER I don't usually take any steps to rectify this - I've tried using the balance control to compensate but that seems to just make it sound 'not quite right'. I think my brain is somehow compensating for me..
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2015 9:38:30 GMT
Foam insulation sheet; usually foil backed. Celotex is a brand name, as is Kingspan.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2015 9:41:06 GMT
Depends on room and general domestic circumstances. Firing across a room has been recommended to me, but when I had an exaggerated rectangular room (25' x 10'6"), it looked and sounded awful, the speakers eventually being a metre or so from one end but firing down the room. The current main system stuff is in a non-square little sitting room and if the image goes awry, it's usually my left ear playing up rather than a system or room fault, so I just have to put up with it
The daily used workroom stereo has the speakers on a computer desk, sitting on 150mm or so of Celotex panel. Totally wrong, but bass is clean with the old IMF Compact mk1's and their relative closeness means the sound is basically in mono when sitting anywhere other than directly in front of them. Early Linn speakers (Kan, Sara and Isobarik can sound good firing across a room. Most other things an have tried haven't sounded right.
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Post by jandl100 on Dec 6, 2015 9:46:51 GMT
My speakers fire across the width of my 12x20 foot room. I always prefer that rather than firing down the length. Much better for imaging, imo, gives the speakers room to breath. I have a GIK absorbent panel behind the listening chair which places my head less than a foot from the wall. That makes a surprising improvement and is pretty much the equivalent of sitting several feet from the back wall. All other room treatment was removed with the arrival of my omni-directional MBL speakers - the panels etc just removed a substantial part of the magic. Lots of reflective hifi kit, screen and pictures scattered willy-nilly ... the MBLs seem to thrive on it! Here's a fairly recent photo.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2015 10:02:27 GMT
I think I may try a GIK panel, as I'm going to be sitting near a back wall again and I have a blank canvas in terms of room decor. Thanks for the tip.
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Post by dsjr on Dec 6, 2015 10:53:41 GMT
I was told once by an acoustic engineer that the listener should sit in the more 'dead' end of a room and the speakers/performers in a more 'live' end. One room he treated, a converted double length garage, was a bit 'odd' at first, but the speakers being played, from HB1's to ATC 100A's, all sounded excellent, the HB1's taking on an ease and clarity I'd never heard from them before, hopefully because they weren't being smeared up by the room.
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Post by MartinT on Dec 6, 2015 11:45:10 GMT
I have a GIK absorbent panel behind the listening chair which places my head less than a foot from the wall. That makes a surprising improvement and is pretty much the equivalent of sitting several feet from the back wall. Me too, with PicturePanels.
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Post by MikeMusic on Dec 6, 2015 12:06:42 GMT
Isobariks sound best backed up to the wall.
Sound awful away from the wall
Have to confess I haven't tried them away from the walls since the load of upgrades. but is a lot of work and preferably needs one of two willing lifters
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