Perfect Speaker Placement - Put next to the back wall as much as possible.

[sangbro]

Hello,

I happen to find an good article about the ideal speaker placement.
(Easiest version without numbers & formulas that I can’t honestly understand )

I’d like to share.

Personally I find two things interesting.

1) Only use 40% of the room area (38% rule)

2) Put the speaker as close as possible to the back-wall (next to bass trap)

Of course, minor adjustment would be required depending on speakers.
Still, I think this is helpful to figure out the very first step.

http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room-setup-speaker-placement/

https://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

Happy listening.

p.s. what should I do with half of the room left... :?

 

[Chromatischism]

I will share my experience with this.

I pushed my Buchardt S400's very close to the front wall to eliminate all dips in the bass response, then equalized the peaks with Audyssey XT32. The result was excellent. This was probably getting better bass than in many people's setups, even compared to tower speakers. I don't have the measurement on this computer but if you'd like to see it I can dig it up. However there was a downside.

The midrange sounded a bit stronger and less clear. It was too direct sounding and eventually I grew tired of it. I did some research and decided to go in the other direction to see what would happen – I pulled the speakers out a few feet into the room. I encountered some problems in the bass as expected when you don't put bass sources against walls. However, I was able to mitigate some of it with EQ again so what was left was minor. But the result in the rest of the spectrum could only be described as eye opening. I was not expecting what I heard. Everything in the midrange through the high treble sounded absolutely pristine. Clarity and imaging like no one's business.

Now, being several feet out, this became more of a mid-field setup as it formed a 7.5 foot equilateral triangle. It is a more intimate setup but it is way more enjoyable to me.

So why the improvement, if bass takes a bit of a hit? I hypothesized that the cabinets were doing their own singing and when placed close to walls created reflections that were combining with the direct sound.

In my continued learning in this hobby I eventually confirmed that is what is happening with most speakers. Erin's polar radiation patterns clearly show just about every speaker radiates in a 360 degree pattern until you get up really high in frequency. So pulling them out into the room means those rear waves are traveling a lot farther and thus are reduced in amplitude by the time they reflect off the front wall.

There is also the fact that the speakers were closer to me. I think both matter.

As to your question of what to do with the back half of the room? Make it your office. It's tight but that's what I did.

 

[dasdoing]

or put it far, but you need a big room: http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/speaker-placement-boundary-interference/

my sub is inverted (membrane as close as it can get) at the front wall and I confirmed that this prevents many dips

 

[Chromatischism]

I would add that absorption across most of the front wall and to the sides up to where the speakers reside can soak up a lot of this and allow closer-to-wall placement without adding mid and high frequency reflections. Result is clarity, imaging, and bass free of modal problems (with EQ, of course).

Or, just put them IN the wall with backer boxes surrounded by insulation and skip the absorption.

 

[Chromatischism]

Also...I should state that I have not taken measurements of my own front wall to corroborate this is the cause of what I was hearing; but it makes sense when you look at polars like this. Look at the back of the speaker:

Source: @hardisj
https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/

 

[watchnerd]

Hello,

I happen to find an good article about the ideal speaker placement.
(Easiest version without numbers & formulas that I can’t honestly understand )

I’d like to share.

Personally I find two things interesting.

1) Only use 40% of the room area (38% rule)

2) Put the speaker as close as possible to the back-wall (next to bass trap)

Of course, minor adjustment would be required depending on speakers.
Still, I think this is helpful to figure out the very first step.

http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room-setup-speaker-placement/

https://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

Happy listening.

p.s. what should I do with half of the room left... :?

I've tried it.

It did not sound as good as where I have the speakers now (1/5th into the room), in the living room.

However, it the office, in the near field (<1 m), using studio monitors with a "wall" switch, it works great.

 

[Harmonie]

I can't imagine speakers against the wall, unless that wall is part of the speaker cabinet itself.
I'm having the image of a guitar or better, a contrabass played against a wall ...
Such speaker designs are maybe specifically designed for smaller rooms to add a market share?

My speakers are almost 1m away from the front wall, but that's almost mandatory with electrostatic panels.
But they are hybrid with it's woofer on the bottom and bass wise, it doesn't bother me at all .