New room, very small .Speaker Placement???


I am moving in a couple of months to our new home. It will actually be ours but the room I have available for my stereo is a 10'x11' room. What is interesting about this space is that there are two full parrallel walls and there are two parrallel 3 and 1/2 foot walls parrallel which the top of the area of the short walls is open space of the top floor of the house.The ceiling is 8 feet high. Any reccomendatuions on speaker placement would be greatly appreciated. One source says to use the full walls for the back of speakers and behind me and another source says to place the speakers in front of the 3 and 1/2 foot walls with my listening position at the opposite 3 and 1/2 foot wall. I'm confused. Do I go for the reinforcement of the full walls behind the speakers or on the open 3 and 1/2 foot walls? Remember my room is only 11x10 feet. The open short partial parrallel walls are 10 feet apart and the full walls are 11 feet apart. HELP!!!!!!!!
I should mention my speakers are Hales Transcendence 5's and my amp and preamp are Pass Labs. The Hales are large and I am thinking I may be able to take advantage some how of the 3 and 1/2 foot parrallel walls. Please advise.
Thanks.
mitchb

Showing 4 responses by mitchb

Muzikat. Do you mean I should have the full wall behind my speakers and behind myself? with the short walls on the sides? I cannot sell the Hales. they are part of the family. I would like to try to make them work. I have a Pair of decent monitors on stands but they are in a different system. i have an extra stereo!! Maybe a bedroom system if I'm really really nice to my wife. She'll never go for it!!
I am hoping the two short walls will largen the room. I can pull the speakers as far into the room as I like. If I were to have them at the full wall out 3 feet or so and about a foot and a half into the room from the side of the half walls. could that maybe work? Of course I will have to try it to know for sure but I am just looking for ideas. I am hoping because two of the parallell walls only come up tp 3 and 1/2 feet tall that I will have the effect of a larger room. If I put the speakers 3 feet into the room from the full walls and a foot and a half in from the side partial walls I wouldn't have allot of side reflection from the tweeters and the bass would not be as tightly closed in. If I do the partial walls in front of me and behind me I would get a deeper soundstage but would have the full wallds on the sides of me which would reflect the sound bouncing off the full wall. Basically I am wondering which way would work best in theory. If the Hales don't work I'll use my Jungson Monitors and store the Hales. The money that was put into them would not justify the perhaps $2000 I might be able to sell them for. The fact that they were modified lowers their value but I put almost $650 or $700 worth of parts into each box.
Time will answer all my questions but I was hoping for theoretical solutions to try.
We took possession of our new town house today but we have a couple of months to slowly move. Of course the first thing I moved was my bigger system and it sounds surprisingly good for being in a space that is 10x 11 feet. At first the boominess made the system sound bad but what cleared the problem immediately was putting the two strips of Aurolex foam one behind each speaker in the corners kind of folded and then I played with speaker placement a bit and the sound is good. I'm actualy getting a nice soundstage. The wall behind the speakers and behind my listening position are only 3.5 feet high leaving open space in front of me and behind me further than the walls. I'm impressed although I'll only be able to use it at nice volumes when the girls are out but at least it sounds nice. It actually sounds better than the Jungson system which is now on the dedicated audio/video room where it is sounding like a nice little sytstem should sound but the Hales are working well in their/our new environment so I felt I must go on a little rant. I'm done but would ask if you have any suggestions what else I can do to even further improve the sound. I would like to use the 24" by 40" approximate Aurolex foam on either side of the speakers for side first reflection and am wondering what would work well in the corners behind the spreakers. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mitch
I used 2" foam in the corners behind the speakers and 1.5 inch foam on the side walls with a blanket covering the half wall behind the speakers and a blanket behind my listening poasition and the sound is quite good. I have the speakers a foot and a half from the side walls to the midline of each speaker and 3 feet 4 inches from the back wall behind the speakers to the front of the baffle of the Hales with a half of an inch tow in on the speakers. I'm really impressed. I was going to be happy with bearable sound but the sound is actually very nice. The boominess is gone and the echo I was getting appears to be gone. I can play the system loud without too much distortion. Before room treatment I could barely play it at low volumes. Now I can play it loud. I am extremely happy as this place is a more perminent dwelling being ours and I was worried I'd never get my system to fit in such a small area. I did it and I'm happy. I'm getting good sound in an area I thought would be impossible to beat. My wife does not like the foam on the walls but she understands.And people said I would have to sell my Hales and get monitors. The Hales asre here to stay. I guess the half walls as well as the room treatment are sufficient in my space for good sound.