Where to place speakers in a tricky room?

[Harryharryharry]

My new house has an open plan kitchen/ living room / dinner and I'm struggling with speaker location.

Room changes
- The TV will be mounted on the wall it's in front of, a bit higher than it currently is.
- There's going to be a long sofa as wide as the main window, in front of the radiator so I can place speakers on the floor.

Hang horizontally from the ceiling?
- The best idea so far is to hang horizontally from the ceiling, some Genelec 8331 or 8341 perhaps (keen to hear other horizontal options!).

Would this work? Are there any better options?

I will be using Dirac so that will help somewhat.

I'll also have a sub somewhere but that's easier to place.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cote Dazur]

Put the TV on the wall over the fire place.
Put your existing speakers on ear level stands on each side of the fire place. Drapes for the window. Job done.
No DSP "magic" will ever justify Genelecs in that room.

 

[Harryharryharry]

TV definitely isn't going to be above the fireplace.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Harryharryharry]

I was struggling a bit with the price of the ones. What do you think to some Kef LS50 wireless 2s or potentially LSX from the ceiling where I marked @Cote Dazur ?

The mounting options are more limited with Kef, it would be better to have them horizontally space wise but that would probably take some custom bracket.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Where you place the speakers is much more important than what the speakers are, if you insist on placing them near the ceiling, you might want to try it with the one you already have.

 

[Harryharryharry]

Which other locations might you suggest other than by the fire or on the ceiling?

I'm struggling with bot seeing another feasible option sadly @Cote Dazur

 

[Cote Dazur]

Which other locations might you suggest other than by the fire

The only play in this room, to listen to music, if it was where I live, is the speakers on each side of the fire place.
Looking at where the speakers are now, you are probably better just listen to the tv on its own sound, assuming it has speakers.
You can use boxes or stools for makeshift stands to try it, tweeters have to be at ears level. You might be amazed at how good almost any stereo can sound when properly placed and seating at the right spot.
That beautiful green chair looks like the perfect audiophile seat, it would be a shame not to use it.

 

[Harryharryharry]

The fireplace is too beautiful to have a TV above it sadly.

It's a pretty impossible room to make everything work, I guess that's the downside of open plan!

 

[droid2000]

Try this simulator. It's free and fairly simple to use. It 100% accurately predicted the huge bass null at my MLP.

You can move the speakers around in the simulator to find the optimum location.

Room Simulator

 

[Keith_W]

What is the strange white diagonal sloping wall on the right in the second picture?

You could:
- move the blue sofa on the right to where your hydronic heater currently is.
- move your green listening chair in front of the fireplace
- place your TV + speakers on the right side of the room where the blue sofa used to be.

 

[Harryharryharry]

Try this simulator. It's free and fairly simple to use. It 100% accurately predicted the huge bass null at my MLP.

You can move the speakers around in the simulator to find the optimum location.

Room Simulator

Nice, this room is far from a rectangle but will give it a go!

 

[Harryharryharry]

What is the strange white diagonal sloping wall on the right in the second picture?

You could:
- move the blue sofa on the right to where your hydronic heater currently is.
- move your green listening chair in front of the fireplace
- place your TV + speakers on the right side of the room where the blue sofa used to be.

It's a weird boxing in of the staircase that's going to be removed, and replaced with a banister.

We did consider having the TV there, will have another think!

 

[Cote Dazur]

The fireplace is too beautiful to have a TV above it sadly.

How

 

[Harryharryharry]

Oh yeah my friend has one of those pictu8frame TVs

 

[FlyingFreak]

I m in the camp of tv above fireplace is an abomination. It’s way too high and if the fireplace is in use a risk for electronic. And it’s ugly. Mostly it’s way too high. I guess I care more about image (and my neck) than most here.

Anyway … one possible option would be projector with electric screen above the window.
You would either have the speakers like you intended on top of the windows (on both sides of the screen) or on stands.
That is obviously not working if you end up putting a long sofa as you mentioned in #1…

Tv in place of the blue sofa would annoy me cause I couldn’t sit directly in front of it (imagining you don’t want a sofa in front of the fireplace). Still probably best option.

Or, the obvious one, put the tv where you first intended too and add a soundbar underneath. It’s not hifi certified but neither is your room and it can sound pretty good for ambient music and movies.

I would go with 1 or 3 myself.

Best of luck!!!

 

[igfarm]

The first time I saw a Samsung Picture Frame TV, I thought it was a piece of art, not a TV. It was mounted correctly and displayed a modern work of art.

 

[Harryharryharry]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

It's a bit sad as I've not really listened to much music since moving here as the sound isn't very inviting so I need to sort something out.

Probably speakers from the ceiling is going to work best for us overall, but I might try it with some talk stands first to see how it goes.

Thanks again

 

[Harryharryharry]

I've ordered a wall mount to try the ceiling spot with my current speakers.

Just wondering whether one in front of the window the other on the wall in red would be better?

I know glass isn't good for sound and expect having different background materials also bad.

But is it less bad than the ceiling (green)? Could be at ear level at least.

 

[Sokel]

Unorthodox rooms,unorthodox suggestion:

How about mounting the speakers not on the front wall but on the ceiling above the MLP considerably closer than the wall with expendable brackets?

 

[JustJones]

Headphones