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Recommendations on Speaker Placement, floorplan attached
- Thread starter Samk1234
- Start date
Hipper
Addicted to Fun and Learning
You need to tell us where you will be when you listen.
Will you be sitting in one place - on the sofa say - or in a number of locations? Will you be listening to music as background or actually listening?
Will you be sitting in one place - on the sofa say - or in a number of locations? Will you be listening to music as background or actually listening?
F
freemansteve
Guest
Yes, either side of TV, or on wall separating main room from bedroom.
You'll only know by trial and error which sounds best, and images nicely...
You'll only know by trial and error which sounds best, and images nicely...
- Thread Starter
- #5
I will be sitting anywhere from the bottom wall to the top wall, on the left side of the kitchen island .
I will certainly have a listening position set up in a decent spot in front of the speakers.. but I'm trying to find the placement which spreads sound optimally throughout the living space.
A few have mentioned placement where the TV is. My concern is that this will narrow the listening area to just in front of the TV and the kitchen island?
My thoughts were to place speakers along top side or bottom side wall, which would disperse sound more evenly throughout the living room?
To make this possible, I was thinking to extend the bottom side wall a bit to the right, since it is currently "choppy" , there is not much wall to work with? Otherwise , to place it top side, I assume I'd have to remove the kitchen island, since it would be directly in front of the speakers and a hard surface to reflect off off.
- Thread Starter
- #6
My original thoughts were to place speakers along top side or bottom side wall, since it would disperse sound more evenly throughout the living room (as opposed to placing it with the TV, where the listening space would narrow to be just in front of the TV and the kitchen island)
To make this possible, I was thinking to extend the bottom side wall a bit to the right, since it is currently "choppy" , there is not much wall to work with? Otherwise , to place it top side, I assume I'd have to remove the kitchen island, since it would be directly in front of the speakers and a hard surface to reflect off off.
- Thread Starter
- #7
Yes I will definitely include a sub. However my concerns with setting it in front of the TV is that it will narrow the listening space to just that centre area of the listening room. Top side / bottom side would not get as much audio love, I assume. Hence I was thinking of finding a way to place speakers along the top or bottom wall.
To do this , my ideas were to extend the bottom wall a bit to the right, since there isn't much wall to work with currently at the bottom, or remove the kitchen island to make room for placement at the top
OK but you can have only one area with optimal sound.
OK. Flanking the TV/fireplace will optimize sound for the seating area (and the kitchen) and it will be heard clearly throughout, albeit not optimally at the dining table.
No. It will not narrow it. The optimal sound can only be where the speaker array is focused and it cannot be focused everywhere.
No. It would be the best placement for the dining table but not for anywhere else.
- Thread Starter
- #9
Maybe optimal is not the right term to use.
Let's say in one scenario I place speakers at TV, but I am not sitting in the centre area (im in the dining area, or along the top wall). In another scenario, I've placed the the speakers along top or bottom wall, but I'm sitting behind the optimal listening area (closer to the opposite paralell wall, but still centred to the speakers). Which scenario would you say is for the "alternative" listening positions? If it's the latter, then I would say the latter scenario is preferred because it gives me a broader listening area.
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??? By alternative listening, do you mean casual or background? If so, imho, it is irrelevant. Wherever you put the speakers, you will hear them everywhere in this space but you can only have one arrangement/seating for high-quality (optimal) soundstage and balance. Pick the place you want to have that experience and the rest will take care of itself. (I am assuming we are talking about stereo speaker placement and not surround.)
- Thread Starter
- #11
Thanks for the help and sorry for my inexperienced ramblings. Would you recommend surround placement in this space, if I wanted to maximize the listening area?
I am a commercial audio guy, so I would suggest some wide dispersion ceiling speakers for casual listening coupled with a sub. If you do it cleverly, you could use the same speakers for surround purposes (just choose "5.1 stereo" or whatever equivalent from the receiver for casual listening).
- Thread Starter
- #13
Can you help me understand the difference between casual and critical listening. It's been mentioned a few times so far, and I'm not sure if I fully understand
Hipper
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Firstly we need to understand how stereo works. Your ears are at the apex of a triangle formed with them and your speakers. Your ears receive the sounds from your left and right speaker then your brain creates a phantom image that appears to be between the two speakers - it's not really there, just in your head. This is how the music producer intended you to hear it. If you then move away from that apex your brain will then create a different phantom image. However this one will be distorted by the fact that you are probably different distances away from each speaker - nearer the left, further away from the right.
What this means is that the best sound you can get (for critical listening as some say) is when you are at the apex of the triangle. You may still get good sound in other positions but not the best.
You can check this out by setting up some speakers in that triangle and then listening, then still playing the music, walk around the room. It will sound different - bass particular but the rest too. It may not be bad sounding and perhaps will be OK as you concentrate on cooking or knitting or whatever else you do!
Of course there's a lot more to getting the best sound then just that triangle but I used that to try and answer your question.
A solution might be some sort of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) equipment. With this you have different 'presets' that optimise the sound for different locations. Again that's a simplistic suggestion. It's a lot more complicated then that.
There has thread on this sort of subject recently:
www.audiosciencereview.com
What this means is that the best sound you can get (for critical listening as some say) is when you are at the apex of the triangle. You may still get good sound in other positions but not the best.
You can check this out by setting up some speakers in that triangle and then listening, then still playing the music, walk around the room. It will sound different - bass particular but the rest too. It may not be bad sounding and perhaps will be OK as you concentrate on cooking or knitting or whatever else you do!
Of course there's a lot more to getting the best sound then just that triangle but I used that to try and answer your question.
A solution might be some sort of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) equipment. With this you have different 'presets' that optimise the sound for different locations. Again that's a simplistic suggestion. It's a lot more complicated then that.
There has thread on this sort of subject recently:
Whole Room SQ Optimization?
Hi. I’m hoping this topic is covered somewhere, and to educate myself on… For non-critical listening spaces, in which there is either no fixed listening positions, and/or limited ability to apply room treatment, how does one achieve the best “average” sound possible? Meaning…optimized for an...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Casual = background music or while guests are milling around.
Critical = sitting in the sweet spot (there can be only 1 really) and listening to stereo.
I would not. While going to a surround setup would improve the sound at the preferred listening site, it would be at the expense of the other parts of the room.
Yes. One solution would be to have a dedicated stereo setup for the important listening area, a separate array of distributed speakers for the rest of the space and the ability to switch them on/off.
If it is a man cave, then start putting them where ever until nirvana is reached.
Sort of a Neanderthal cave with a hifi.
If, on the other hand, you have a partner or a family… then the best laid plans of mice and men all go to hell… We put them where we are allowed to, and hopefully select speakers that be shoved back towards the wall because the Haus-boss doesn’t like the look of them too far into the room.
This is the reality of a domesticated man.
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