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Listening position/speaker position

I had a friend visit this weekend for some extended listening. I generally trust some of his suggestions, and his hearing may be better than mine, but I am 61 and don't have any hearing "issues." Also, in the interest of full disclosure, my friend and I are competitive with each other so there is always the possibility that he is busting on me.

 

I am very happy with my setup and my sound----the room is quiet, the system is quiet and I have low distortion, plenty of punch and volume, without sacrificing any detail. I have Revel 228be speakers, a McIntosh MC312 amp, C53 preamp, Pass XP-17 phono stage, Technics SL1200G TT run with an AT-art9xi MCC.

 

Anyway, my listening room is approximately 26' x 15' with less than 8-foot ceilings, plaster walls, wall to wall carpeting, lots of cushy furniture, and it's perfectly rectangular. I have my Revel 228's positioned on the narrow end of the room, a couple feet from the side wall and about 2-1/2 feet from the back wall. The listening position is about 10 feet from the speakers, or just shy of the midpoint of the room. My critical friend was suggesting that by having the speakers at one end of the room, I am asking them to "fill" a 26-foot room, despite the listening position being near midpoint depth. He suggested that I put the speakers in the middle of the room and move the listening position against the wall, so that the speakers are only tasked with filling half of the room. He also implied that I was under-powered with the MC312 which doesn't sound valid..

 

Obviously, the only way to know if I would get sound improvement would be to swap sides in the room, but his suggestion sounded so odd that I thought some of you with more experience might have an opinion.

willyht
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,139 posts
 

I think it was Audio Physics that recommended a similar loudspeaker/listener setup.  Have the loudspeakers along the long axis of the room spaced widely apart with the listener within a foot of the rear wall.  It was offered to maximize image width and depth.  The trade-offs of not having loudspeaker bass reinforcement and sitting in a high pressure zone roughly balance out.  There is no problem with rear reflection because of the short distance involved.

There are no real absolutes regarding loudspeaker/listener/room setup, only guidelines.

ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
2,840 posts
 

It doesn’t matter where in the room the speakers are, they will always have to pressurize the room. That’s just the silliest thing I’ve heard today. And that bar is pretty high because I’ve been following current events in our world.

milpai's avatar
milpai
2,318 posts
 

Agreed with what others have said. I have read about a setup that divides room into 3 X 1/3. Place the speakers at the 1/3 mark (roughly 8 feet) from front wall and you sit on the 1/3 mark from the back wall. For the 15 feet width room, you might be able to place the speakers 4 feet from side wall and still have 7 feet, that can generate a great center image with amazing depth.

Experiment with your speaker position. I feel you will probably end up 6 feet from front wall. Move the chair also closer (towards the speakers), if you do that, and experiment that as well. Good luck and hope you end up with some amazing sound stage.

soix
8,686 posts
 

I’d say your friend is a fool.  You never want your listening chair up against a wall — major no no.  My room and speakers measure very similarly to yours, and from my experience I’d say your speakers are too far apart and too close to the back wall.  The fronts of my speakers are roughly 6’ from the back wall and 6’ apart and are toed in so they’re aimed just outside my shoulders at the listening position that’s about 10’ from the speakers (I’m not home or I’d give more specific measurements).  I’d suggest trying similar positioning and see what you think.  At these positions I achieve a great frequency balance and the speakers disappear and throw off a deep 3D soundstage.  Hey, it’s free and FWIW.

willyht OP
29 posts
 

Great input. Thanks guys!

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