Using speakers in an open room - no wall behind them

[Human1]

Hi everyone, seeking comments and/or advice.

I'm considering upgrading my speakers to Kef R 3 Meta. Yeah I know there are a million threads about kef, but my question is about placement.

I live in an open loft apartment. They would go in a 10 by 20 room (8 foot ceiling), placed along the long part of the "wall". Problem is, it's not a wall, it's a loft/mezzanine, it's completely open to a large living room kitchen about 26 by 14 with 16 to 18 feet of height. Edit - I'm on the second floor

I can't really reconfigure things so I'm stuck with this layout.

I've read that these speakers like being close to a wall for reflections. I currently have an sb1000pro and could get a bigger sub, but don't really have space for a second one.

I don't think floor standers would really work in my spot, my listening position is in an adjustable bed to raise my legs or back (osteoarthritis) and I think the woofers would just be firing into the bed. I sit pretty close from 6.5 to 8 feet to my current speakers.

Would this placement be an issue? If so maybe monitors are better?

I don't see a point in buying these and mucking around with room correction if it's all just bad. I currently have dynaudio emit 10s, overall I like them, they get fatiguing from time to time, but I think that's because I like listening to music higher than needed in the summer with the damn hvac blowing (it's brutal trying to heat and cool a open high ceiling apartment like this, but I think I'm just more sensitive to ambient noise).

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[staticV3]

Would this placement be an issue? If so maybe monitors are better?

Proximity to the front wall only matters if you depend on the KEFs to provide good bass response.

When offloading bass to a sub, this no longer matters and free space behind the speaker is preferable due to less intense reflections.

 

[pablolie]

My system lives in a similar open room, which is actually pretty good for music listening, I also have cathedral ceilings.

But honestly that's why I believe in bookshelf speakers plus a sub these days. If you're going to outsource the lower bass to a sub... why have full-range speakers in the first place?

But that's just my opinion these days.

The key to me is to use a tool like Dirac to just optimize positioning - not necessarily EQ.

In a nutshell, your question shows you are approaching this with the right open-minded attitude, which will give you good results.

 

[Human1]

Proximity to the front wall only matters if you depend on the KEFs to provide good bass response.

When offloading bass to a sub, this no longer matters and free space behind the speaker is preferable due to less intense reflections.

Thanks staticv! Think a larger sub would help? I suppose I would find out myself if I ever pull the trigger.

 

[Human1]

My system lives in a similar open room, which is actually pretty good for music listening, I also have cathedral ceilings.

But honestly that's why I believe in bookshelf speakers plus a sub these days. If you're going to outsource the lower bass to a sub... why have full-range speakers in the first place?

But that's just my opinion these days.

The key to me is to use a tool like Dirac to just optimize positioning - not necessarily EQ.

In a nutshell, your question shows you are approaching this with the right open-minded attitude, which will give you good results.

Thanks for the feedback! Sounds good!

 

[dualazmak]

Just for your reference and interest....
Not only the precision (0.1 msec level) time alignment over all the SP drivers but also SP facing directions and sound-deadening space behind the SPs plus behind our listening position would be critically important for effective (perfect?) disappearance of speakers: #687 on my project thread.