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  3. 132116-1973

Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

So many audiophiles have commented that when your room treatment is completed, your electronics set up and tweaked and most importantly, your speakers are set up in your listening space correctly that you'll know it because everything just sounds so "right" and natural.  I just accomplished that feat in the last two weeks.  I say two weeks because I needed to play a wide variety of recordings to be sure that I'm there.  It is so great to have finally hit just the right set up.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it has taken me well over a year of experimentation to get to this point.  It's not that other placements yielded poor quality sound its just that now everything sounds like a live event (as much as any of our systems can).

I would really appreciate hearing about your journey to the promised land of audiophile/music lover bliss.  How long did it take, what were the most difficult aspects of the journey?  And if you have yet to get there, what do  you think is the "brick in your wall"?
128x128hifiman5
lnitm
143 posts
 
I can honestly say that a quarter inch or half inch off on toe in does make a difference. The other huge improvement that is one of the cheapest is using acoustic treatments for corners,  walls for reflections and eliminating echo. The biggest change I noticed to really make everything sound more cohesive and less bright with way more clarity and definition was treating my room. Huge difference, I'm waiting on Wavewood diffuser/absorption panels for my back wall to see the difference they make, I'm sure it will be good. 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
that must be why all those nice recordings i make at church sound so honked up at 15 ips....i can hear those preamp tubes telling the ribbons “ kill the plants for Jesus”

wgutz
85 posts
 
I want the empirical study, the double blind statistical results and logarithmic adjusted scope printouts before I will ever believe live plants deteriorate the sound. Especially those live and floating roses.
willemj
1,036 posts
 
Please realize that the methods to be used above the Schroeder frequency (mostly somewhere between 100-200 Hz, depending on room size) are different from those to be used below.
Moreover, the closer you sit to the speakers, the smaller the contribution from the listening room. Near field listening can be quite revealing.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

wgutz
I want the empirical study, the double blind statistical results and logarithmic adjusted scope printouts before I will ever believe live plants deteriorate the sound. Especially those live and floating roses.

>>>>I suspect the whole idea of putting plants in the listening room - and to a certain extent flowers - stems no pun intended 😀 from the use of plants and flowers in some high end systems at CES and other big shows and also arose 😀 from photos showing them in audiophile home systems. Presumably the plants (and flowers) act as diffusers or some such thing and or provide a more natural, attractive, soothing, atmosphere or whatever. Subliminal message: Relax, listen to how good the sound is. You are getting sleepy...

Ironically, as I said, plants and flowers actually hurt the sound. It’s not as if they don’t do anything. Bad rose, bad! 🌷 It’s an obvious case of expectation bias. So, if you have plants or flowers in the room take them outside ASAP. Let your sound bloom. Leave plants and flowers in your room at your own peril. 😄Check it out! Audiophiles need to root out the problems in the room that are not on the standard radar. The usual suspects have been discussed to death - the tube traps, the panels, the tiny bowl resonators, Helmholtz resonators.
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