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Vandersteen 5A room placment options

I have had my 5A's in my 23 X 12 dedicated bowling alley for nearly three years now. I have settled down with the VAC Phi 300.1 stereo amp, which is IMO and in my room, the best I have heard them. OK! I have been shifting my rack around and reconfiguring things, so my rack w/ Turntable
has it's new home against the back wall rear of the left speaker. The rack will not be between speakers, as you can only see a foot or so of the RIX RAX's wide top shelf peaking out to the inside of the left speaker. The speakers are 93" out, or 1/3, of the 279" length of the room. Is it a bit far fetched to think I could move the speakers to the long wall, which I have never tried. I can't really conceive this working with the front plane of the speaker 3 feet out, and only having 8.5 or 9 feet remaining. Especially with the 5A's time aligned design, I can't see them working on the long wall, in a near field setup.
fjn04
zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
Fjn,
The amp, pre and CD are centered, halfway between the speakers and the listener front wall. The phono pre and TT are to my right mid long wall. Media is on shelves across the rear wall.
I am also using some toe in - 3" from front to back of the speaker, which also aims the speakers at the center of the back wall. I am not a fan of toe in for the 5A, however, in a relatively narrow room, it helps reduce the first reflections. I am using diffusion on first reflections, but also interested in experimenting with diffusion.
zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
Sorry, I meant:

"I am using absorption on first reflections, but am interested in experimenting with diffusion."
summitav
163 posts
 
Just skimmed the preceding, and didn't see one mention of "ear height".

The 5A's are terribly sensitive to ear height and it is of equal importance to equidistance of each ear from the speakers.

The exact height is unknown to me, but Richard could tell you. In a mechancially stagered phase coherant system, an inch too high or low can make some difference
zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
Summitav,

According to the user manual, the acoustic center of the 3 - 5A drivers is 36" high, and there is a table which specifies how much to tilt the speaker for other distances. For example,, the nominal condition is if you are seated 8ft from the speaker, your ear should be at 36" as well. It also says there is a 6" range of acceptable listening height.

I have found that in addition to proper listening height, you must ensure each speaker is dead vertical right to left and has the same tilt front to back. If not, the image is not as precise, and this is not emphasized in the user manual. I can detect this by moving my head forward and backward a few inches. If the image changes noticably, it may be due to this misalignment (other factors might be comb filtering or a non-symetrical room).

So, my experience is that the 5A image is more sensitive to the speakers being vertical and having equal tilt than having the ear exactly in line with the acoustic center. I use a level to ensure vertical and a laser to ensure tilt. Just set the laser on the speaker casting and mark the spot on the rear wall. Then, set the laser on the other speaker casting and match that same spot height.
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