Yeah, it's easy for those of us who use multichannel. It's only the stereo guys who suffer from the ambiguity.
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Why is the wall behind our speakers so often called the rear wall?
- Thread starter mixsit
- Start date
I'm working class English. As such, the main room in your house, you know, the one with the settee in, is always called the front room, no matter where it's situated.
Bollox to all that 'living room', 'sitting room' and 'sofa' or 'couch' nonsense!
Back on topic, the rear wall when setting up your hifi is always the one behind your speakers. Them's just the rules. Surely!?
Bollox to all that 'living room', 'sitting room' and 'sofa' or 'couch' nonsense!
Back on topic, the rear wall when setting up your hifi is always the one behind your speakers. Them's just the rules. Surely!?
I tend to agree, but we must consider the typical sensitivities and confusions of our American brothers. They can't help but be a bit confused, and use weird langwich at times.
ObiWanKenobi
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It's called Front Wall and not Back/Rear Wall since it's in front of you.
The speakers are not the subject here, you the listener are.
The speakers are not the subject here, you the listener are.
We're running in argumentative circles here. As already mentioned, it depends on the mental priority and viewpoint: speakers, or listener.
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Oftentimes the speakers are, in fact, the subject.
OP understates the case. What if there is a full sized mirror behind the speaker, showing what is behind me? What is rear now???
Even worse: any sufficiently good optical mirror doubles as a near perfect acoustic mirror.
Sacrilege!
The speakers are ALWAYS the subject.
We know this to be true, since all amps sound the same, as do sources and cables.
Listeners sometimes don't even know what day of the week it is, but speakers!... ah, speakers is
where all the magic happens!
They alone get to dictate what a wall is allowed to be called, and furthermore, they'll interact with said wall just the way they want to, and there's bugger all you can do about it except yield to their positional demands.
'Rear wall' refers to the wall to the rear of the speakers facing the listener.
It's not complicated and there's a convention around the use of the term that is familiar to almost everyone who has ever considered the position of speakers in a room they were in.
I suspect the reason that this ostensibly idle question and its thread has gained such traction is due to the fact that there is a considerable awareness on ASR of room effects.
Which means all four (or more) walls have an equal, or at least equivalent, bearing on the sound of the system being played.
In this new (to audio) paradigm, the primacy of the rear wall is shattered, and in the dialectic moment that follows, the power and influence of walls per se is up for grabs.
It's not complicated and there's a convention around the use of the term that is familiar to almost everyone who has ever considered the position of speakers in a room they were in.
I suspect the reason that this ostensibly idle question and its thread has gained such traction is due to the fact that there is a considerable awareness on ASR of room effects.
Which means all four (or more) walls have an equal, or at least equivalent, bearing on the sound of the system being played.
In this new (to audio) paradigm, the primacy of the rear wall is shattered, and in the dialectic moment that follows, the power and influence of walls per se is up for grabs.
Archguy
Member
Again, then: in this case what will you call the wall behind the listener?
Don't give people ideas! A few months from now we may see $100,000 "Hifi audio grade" mirrors on the market.Even worse: any sufficiently good optical mirror doubles as a near perfect acoustic mirror.
back wall
If you take two and position the second one on the wall behind you (the front wall according to this thread, as opposed to rear wall
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"the wall behind the listener," why not simply use that? You already solved the problem.
four of them in a room completely cancel all wall reflections for the purest audio in a nearfield setup.If you take two and position the second one on the wall behind you (the front wall according to this thread, as opposed to rear wall
MAB
Major Contributor
So many semantics discussions lately.
The terms "the wall behind the listener" and "back wall" are interchangeable.
One is five words long, the other two.
One can clearly be misused without the context of whether or not you are referring to the wall behind the speaker or listener, just as "rear wall" is.
The other one can only be interpreted incorrectly if the person interpreting it is intentionally daft.
I personally think "back wall" should be enough, like you do. Though, apparently there is somehow confusion, so why not be completely clear and concise?
For clarity, 'back wall' always refers to the wall at one's back.
It is the wall at the back of the room in relation to the front of the speakers.
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