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Room Placement on Vandersteen 3A Sig's?

I have been listening to Aerial 6t's, 7's and B&W 804's. Preferred the Aerial's. After thinking more and more about my potential purchase, the question keeps arising............have I listened to enough speakers?

I called my dealer who also sells Vandersteen and sought his advice. He had very good things to say about the 3A sig's but he did not reccommend them for ME. He said that one of my mains would be to close to the wall, he went on to say they would sound ok but never sound how they were intended.

So my question is...........how far do they need to be placed away from the wall? In my current set-up, my right speaker is about 4 feet from the back wall and about 18 INCHES from the side wall. Would the Vandersteens be a bad way to go?

thanks for any help

Jeff
vegasgreed
6 responses Add your response
wberdan
86 posts
 
Vegasgred- when I was writting that I confused you with another poster above- I think 4' from the front wall should be ok, and the sidewall isn't as big of a deal (to me anyway)... See if you can borrow a pair for a weekend and give it a try

Will
wberdan
86 posts
 
Ive tried 3A signatures in a number of places in the room- following the guidelines in the manual, and just experimenting.
I think you will do ok, but with that room set up I would instead buy the 2CE.. I just don't think that you are going to notice much improvement of the 3A Sig when you have the speakers that close to the walls.
In my room I have the speakers 6' from the front wall, and 3.5' from the side walls.
I still had to treat the room acoustically in order to get the best sound I can here.
I tried many times with the speakers close to the front wall, and each time I was not satisfied until I pulled them out at least 4 to 5 feet from the front wall.
If you have the space- try it

Will
tpigeonb280
21 posts
 
You can always try to treat the side walls to stave off early reflections too.
sdcampbell
2,136 posts
 
You would certainly have enough room between the rear wall and the back of the 3A Sig's (my pair are about 30" out from the rear wall), but 18" from the side walls probably isn't enough. However, most room placement guidelines recommend that speakers NOT be placed the same distance from the rear wall as the side walls.

It's hard, however, to generalize a lot about room acoustics, since each room can vary due to furnishings, floor coverings, ceiling height, etc.

It's true that Vandy 3A Sig's are somewhat sensitive to room placement, but not acutely so. My best suggestion is for you to borrow a pair from your dealer for a home audition. That will give you a chance to vary the placement of the speakers and determine what is best for your room.
jkphoto
167 posts
 
I would call Richard Vandersteen - he is always more than willing to discuss these type of issues. Second best would be to call John Rutan at Audio Connection in Verona, NJ.
rjones
23 posts
 
Vandy's are sensitive to room placement. The owners manual provides clear information on placement based on room geometry. I have a pair of Vandy 2ce signatures in a 13.5'x 15'5 room, placed against the short wall. I found the best sound with my speakers are 32" from side walls and 30" from rears.

The Vandy's also image best when nothing tall (equipment rack, TV, or furniture is located between the speakers.
Unless your room is very small or you have a lot of stuff in between your speakers, they should do ok.

I would not expect the placement location of your current speakers to work best for the Vandy's, given how close you had them to your side walls and how far in front of your rear walls.
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