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Room help

I'm new to this.  I have of late been fascinated reading here about the room as one, if not the principal, component of a well tuned audio system.  More recently I chanced upon a discussion about irregular rooms perhaps lending towards the best sound.  

Well, I have an irregular room.  It is approximately 15' x 27' with an 8' ceiling.  It has a trapezoidal cross section (sitting on the top floor of my home under the eves), has a dormer and a staircase up from the lower level at one end.  At one end the wall is brick and the other three are plaster.  Carpeted.

I have my listening area set up on one end of the long axis (oriented transversely along the short axis of the room if that makes sense) .  The speakers are 9' apart and 8' from me.  Few feet from the front wall. Today I rotated everything 90 degrees so that now the speakers are facing out along the long axis of the room.  The speakers are still 9' apart and 8' from me.  But the back wall is now some 18' behind me instead of 4'.

The sound is much better.  I've been listening for hours (with a pause for food, saying hello to visiting relatives, assuring my wife I'm still alive, and such).   More "spacious" is the best word I can use to describe it.   The soundstage is bigger.  

However,  this layout is much less pleasing from an aesthetic standpoint (please don't judge me harshly on this).  Soooooo.... my question is: Is there a way to recapture this improvement in some way while maintaining the original orientation of the room (across the short axis of the room)? 

Thanks for reading and I eagerly await any responses.

likat

Showing 1 response by prismdissonant

prismdissonant
9 posts
 

Is it possible that the spacious sound I get when my system is set up along the long axis is because the back wall, which is brick,  is so far behind me (about 17 feet) and the reflected bass is not there to muddle things? 

That was my first idea. It could also be that the brick is softer and less reflective than the plaster. If the plaster rests on a lath base it could have been absorbing a little of the low end as well when the speakers were pointed at it.

This could also have to do with your speakers now being nearer the open part of the room, emanating out into the stairflight etc and not being trapped under the trapezoid of roof.

As far as aesthetics, if there's other furniture causing the conflict, and some of that furniture is a pair of bookshelves, you could always try placing the speakers atop them provided there's no danger. That would ensure you have nothing between the speakers and is usually good for low end extension.

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