Armoire between speakers

I suppose the listeners can be bunched together as long as they're close friends who bathe frequently.

A true dedicated room has only one meaningful seat...that is the sad truth about our hobby...*sigh*...that said, I don't care as long as I'm in the seat.

IMO that depends on the type of speakers being used and how they are set up.

A true dedicated room has only one meaningful seat...that is the sad truth about our hobby...*sigh*...that said, I don't care as long as I'm in the seat.

Don't forget sideboards and secretaries. A dedicated room is the ultimate component as long as it has a couple of extra listening seats.

I think some of these posters are part of a wider anti-furniture movement that will stop at nothing to strip us bare of armoirs and possibly hutches and cupboards!

Excellent suggestion from Mezmo!

Personally, I would make peace with the realization that as long as you're constrained in speaker placement by the logistics of furniture and/or interior design, you will only be experiencing a small fraction of what they can really do. Sound staging, coherence, and tonality will never get close to what they capable of stuffed in a corner with a hulking piece of furniture in between. Accept it. Make peace with it. Get on with your life. Likewise, mucking about with moving inches from an acoustically untenable starting point, draping stuff with blankets, or other contortions are really only bandaids to make yourself feel better, not real solutions. Play away, by all means, but I suspect you'll not find huge differences.

I, however, like you it seems, have also made peace with the fact that sharing space well with your chosen companion is WAY more important than taking a stand on acoustic purity.

Here's what I would suggest. One day when She is not around and you have the place to yourself, pull the speakers several feet into the room and spend a couple hours moving them around. Pretend there's nothing else in the space, and dial them in purely by sound. First, it's a blast. There are a bunch of primers on the interwebs that will help identify all the various metrics to listen for, and what sorts of adjustments will best address them, but it really is a journey of trial and error. Helps if you've got a friend to assist (and immeasurably helpful if said friend happens to be an acoustic engineer, what can I say, I got really lucky with that one). Second, if things go as planed, should clarify a couple of issues in your thinking. Like, perhaps, dicking about with half measures has a role, but a limited one...? Third, unless you really give yourself a shot to learn what the speakers are capable of -- and you won't as long as you have'em stuffed in corners -- making small adjustments will kinda be like playing darts in the dark: tough to see what your aiming for, but what does it really matter because you can't see to know if you've hit it anyway? Anyway, give yourself a day to pretend nothing but the sound matters (knowing it's just make believe), and it could (should) be hugely enlightening. Then put it all back.

Finally, if this little experiment goes as planned, you can then think about devising a means of recreating it easily, unobtrusively, and in a means that works for everyone. I have my speakers on granite slabs, slabs on the "magic coaster" furniture sliders, and Stillpoints footers between the speaker and the granite. They live in the WAF-approved positions, easily come out to play when called for, and then go back where they came from in a matter of seconds. (I've got the current version of the ideal position marked off under the rug with blue painter's tape. But it remains a work in progress.).

All may sound like a pain in the ass, but I lived with speakers in the design-approved position for a well over a decade, as if it were a mental prison that I never permitted myself to think outside of. Giving myself permission to move them out into the room and let sound be the only guide was the single most enlightening (and sonically rewarding) moment in years and years of obsessing over this stuff. Think you owe it to yourself to give it a whirl. Best of luck.

Why do you even have an armoire in your home? Unless it's an antique or some sort of family heirloom, it needs to be dumped. Those relics are being sold at used furniture stores for under $40.00 and noone is buying.
And if you have a TV inside the unit, you need to realize that only the tiniest flat screens even fit them anymore. Worst of all, it's not doing anything for the sound from your speakers. It's just another item to reflect/deflect sound off of.

This will kill your imaging and stage.

Magfan,
Lemme guess, Water Music? You should come over to listen and drink.

Bizango.....I'll bet your fish are big fins of Handel?

Did you just recent get this armoire ?

Keep in mind that a reflective surface well behind the plane of the baffle will reflect some bass rolloff to the sides where you aren't. Unless you are, in which case you should move back to the sweet spot and stop looking out the window at the inappropriately young neighbor chick or stashing jewels and sacred setup documents from Mapleshade in your wall safe. The imagined soundstage has an effect on the actual one created by the system, so there's that, but otherwise trust your ears and only your ears (never "comprise" the sound), or merely glue 4 inch thick foam rubber to the armoire and paint a tromp l'oeil vista of the Vienna Opera House on it.

It really only effects soundstage/imaging, so if that quality is not the most important to your music reproduction experience, then don't sweat it.

Congrats on the 32 years with the tolerant one. My wife and I would call you rookies.
Merry Christmas,
Bill

I have a large, tall aquarium in between my speakers and it sounds fantastic as long as the fronts of the speakers are pulled out least 12" in front of the tank. This has been my setup for over 35 years in 10 different homes (and one tolerant wife for 32 of those years) and the fish have never seemed to mind. Over the years I have become an expert at keeping the tank quiet so that it doesn't distract from the music. Visitors are stunned by the center image and overall soundstage width and depth but like most people they have never heard a fine system before. If you have the space experiment with getting your speakers out in front of the armoire.

There was a thread the other day about enjoying music vs hifi equipment and I posted that I enjoyed both simultaneously as hobbies. With the tank I guess I have to modify that to enjoying three at once.

... I am always struck on how people will comprise their sound with other furnishings in the listening room ...

It is often unavoidable, unless you are only sharing your living space with plants.

Rich

Too highly reflective. Get rid of it, then you can place speakers correctly. I am always struck on how people will comprise their sound with other furnishings in the listening room.

I used to think you had to have that middle "free space" but I found it all depends on what type of speakers you use...I have the "fireplace in the middle" issue and having moved my current speakers (Silverline Preludes) all over the room I finally realized they're fine about 8 inches from the sides of the fireplace and protruding straight 4 or 5 inches out in front of it...nearly 2 feet from the front wall. Any reflections are completely a non issue, imaging is excellent, etc...I have a little REL sub behind one of the speakers taking full use of the bass reinforcement of the small corner. Plus, I can look at the propane fake fire while I listen. The listening sweet spot is on a couch 3 feet or so from the back wall and about 9 feet from the speaker baffles.

My panels are about 60"+ inside to inside and I sit about 11' away.
Sound improved a LOT when I removed a RPTV from between 'em. The set was probably about 6 cubic feet, which is pretty good sized.
I could imagine a big help from getting rid of a big blockage from between speakers.

Sinner, Repent!
Seriously,
I have found over time that the less between the speakers,
(even going to a shorter equipment rack) the better.
You're just compromising the sound, now.

Have you considered putting a wooden base with wheel casters underneath your speaker stands. You can wheel your speakers into place when you wish to listen and then wheel the speakers back when you are finished.

Granted it is a bit of a diy project/ kluge, but our systems exist within the rest of our living space. I have never really had an ideal system set-up, mostly because of energetic cats prancing about, but I find that I can work around most things.

Rich

An armoire is a large cabinet. I have never heard of a small armoire. You can drape blankets or other material over the armoire, but you will still have an object between the speakers causing a negative effect. The fact that the speakers cannot extend beyond the front of the armoire only makes it worse.

Probably dramatic if its a large armoire.

good suggestion, thx

To further my comments: Try what Theo said about the blanket and move the speakers up just so the front is in inch in front of the armoire. If you notice a big difference, then you know to lose the unit-it will only get better if gone at that point.

What is in the Armoire? If it is a TV then disregard my suggestions. Try opening the doors and see if your sound changes at all. Or try draping a thick blanket over it and see if notice any difference at all. I have a similar issue with a TV. If I place acoustic panels in front of the TV it creates a big improvement. Problem is I can't move the TV, so I have looked into other options. But my point is maybe you can gain some improvement with some modifications.

The difference will be dramatic. You have no idea what you are missing.

I have a similar situation with a fireplace which is built out from my front wall and is thus between my speakers. It does effect stage depth in the center and makes for some interesting reflections and multiple corners behind the speakers. It obviously can't be moved, but your armoire can be. I would get it out of the room if you can. Depending on the resolution of your system, it could be a significant improvement.

VERY BAD!!

I sit about 10' from the speakers-
I cant have th front protrude past the front of the the armoire-
Material on the sides of the armoire will be vetoed by my wife-

How far do you sit from the speakers? If you are 9 feet away or more, it should be ok.
They should always sound better out of a corner. Also, do you have the fronts of the speakers protruding out from the front of the armoire? That will help as well.
Last thought before losing the armoire-sound absorbing material on the sides of the armoire may help too?