New room, very small .Speaker Placement???

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.

Fiberglass will work best in the corners. Check over at AA pertaining to "quick & dirty" bass traps. Sean
>

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

Bass traps in the corners behind the speakers might help. I wouldn't trade in the Hales for monitors--I think it's better to try to deal with the problems an excellent full range speaker may have than to give up 'real' bass for what a monitor can do. I imagine that's unpopular, but so be it. You could also find a preamp with tone controls. Good luck!

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.

Well I made my Apogee full range ribbons work in a 10 X 15 room and everyone said it can be NOT done, when I got a new place, my room was much bigger and there was subtle difference but better difference since the Apogees need lots and lots of breathing room, the treatment cost me a fortune but it worked to my liking.

If you do the math to be honest, you are better off revamping the speakers cause I believe the Hales T5 can NOT be toed in too much compared to most speakers and its big too and therefor you sweet spot if going to be far off behind. The distance between each speaker is going to be a trick as well with the Hales. Try it and see if it works, dont give up easily. If you can kill all the standing waves that the Hales is producing based on its volume then...... shop around for something new with speakers. If you ceilings were higher, at least something like the Martin Logan Aerius would work well to but with 8 feet heitht to work, monitors would be the best and dont be fooled by people with the full range sound and size of monitors, I had may big boys before including Wilson, Apogee Divas (my favourite) and now I actually prefer monitors for long term listning compared to the monsters.
Get a good high performance monitor and you will be in that room of your most of the time. Good luck with in.
And if you can, try looking up for software room acoustics and read about on them to get a better feel of the room.
It works sometimes.

I remember sometimes back I inherited a room which was 12 ft x 12 ft 3 inches. There were two serious problems associated with it:

1) Floorstanders really excited the room nodes in a negative way as Onhwy61 has pointed out as well.

2) I could not play "Hotel California" due to boom for the three years I occupied it. It was just not listenable no matter which speakers I was using.

The best option is to have standmounters.

You should be flexible about the Hales. If you can get them to work, fine, but if not... Three big issues will present themselves. First, can you set the speaker to listener distance great enough for the speaker's drivers to coherently integrate? Can you position the speakers far enough into the room for them to throw the soundstage they are capable of? Will the full range nature of the speakers over excite the bass modes of the nearly square room? If only one of these problems is unresolved then you won't have high end sound. If two are left unresolved you won't even have good sound.

Best of luck!

Everything is pure speculation until you actually move in. Dont't beat yourself up over it. Wait until you get everything moved in, then start the insanity. Good luck.

Mitch, try using Cara Quick to play around with placement.
http://www.cara.de/ENU/index.php?load=quick.html (its pretty self explainatory... note that you can actually move the speakers and listening position in the little diagram of the room layout by click each item).

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!!

Sell your large speakers and get some monitors or small floorstanders.
Put your speakers on the long wall. You will have to listen in the nearfield. My room is your size. It can work.