Listening room advice

[moby2004]

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice as I will be moving in a new flat allowing me to have a bit more flexibility regarding my listening room .
A) Currently all my gears ( for stereo and home theater duties) 4M Width * 8.5M Length * 3.3M height ) are in the living room ( 4M Width * 8.5M Length * 3.3M height ) and speakers /gears are placed along the long wall ( no other choice) . This is creating the following drawbacks :
1) speakers close from the front wall ( 30cm / tweeters at 90cm)
2) listening position close from the rear wall (30cm)
3) asymmetrical
4) living room starting to look like a showroom...
5) cable management is a total m...

Despite all these shortcomings, I enjoy the sound I am getting with no major bass issues but still there is 4M Width * 8.5M Length * 3.3M height ) very probably (major) room to improve.

B) In the next flat , the target is to totally separate stereo and home theater duties ( less gear/cable concentration => more space) .
The new living room will be very similar to the current one ( only a bit wider at 4.5M instead of 4M) but the bedrooms will be bigger.
So my target is to put the stereo setup in a bedroom of the following dimensions : 3.8MWidth * 5.8M Length * 3.3M height .
The gears and speakers will be put on the short wall allowing me to have :
1) speakers placed at around 70cm of the front wall ( tweeters at 130cm)
2) listening position around 2.5M of the speakers ( I am a « nearfield » listener) and around 2M of the rear wall
3) no TV screen between the speakers
3) symmetrical but both speakers would be pretty close from the side walls ( around 45cm) ...
As it s a bedroom , I also will have more flexibility ( but not total as it will be mainly used as a « regular » bedroom ) regarding the positioning of acoustic panels ( diffusion or absorption )
Obviously it s hard to anticipate but do you think it should work despite the relative limited width of the room ?
My speakers are sealed speakers ( YG Sonja 2.2) and I have a REL 212 SE sub as well.

Thanks
Alex

 

[Gregm]

Hello Alex, congrats on the new home!
You know that any advice we give you is approximate at best, as we are not in situ... having said that, I propose you start by placing you speakers at 70 cm between the woofer centre to the side wall and at 90cm between the centre of the front baffle & wall behind the speakers. If you can place a strip of masking tape to mark the distance from the side walls and parallel to these walls, it will allow you to move the speakers closer to or further away from the front wall without changing the distance from the side walls.
Connect one speaker and listen to familiar music with bass and move the speaker front & back to find the position where the bass is stronger and clearer. from the listening position.
As your room is long, you also have flexibility regarding the placement of your listening chair.
When you have found a good position, connect he other speaker ad begin adjusting for imaging, depth (i.e. further away from the front wall), phase problems, etc. To place the sub, common practice is to place the sub at the listening position and search room for where the bass pressure is highest while maintaining clarity -- which means crawling around on hands and knees...

No doubt you have ample experience yourself in this matter.
Good luck!

 

[moby2004]

Hello Alex, congrats on the new home!
You know that any advice we give you is approximate at best, as we are not in situ... having said that, I propose you start by placing you speakers at 70 cm between the woofer centre to the side wall and at 90cm between the centre of the front baffle & wall behind the speakers. If you can place a strip of masking tape to mark the distance from the side walls and parallel to these walls, it will allow you to move the speakers closer to or further away from the front wall without changing the distance from the side walls.
Connect one speaker and listen to familiar music with bass and move the speaker front & back to find the position where the bass is stronger and clearer. from the listening position.
As your room is long, you also have flexibility regarding the placement of your listening chair.
When you have found a good position, connect he other speaker ad begin adjusting for imaging, depth (i.e. further away from the front wall), phase problems, etc. To place the sub, common practice is to place the sub at the listening position and search room for where the bass pressure is highest while maintaining clarity -- which means crawling around on hands and knees...

No doubt you have ample experience yourself in this matter.
Good luck!

Thanks for your answer ! I did not move yet but if I want to enjoy some flexibility I would need to put the gears in the bedroom then. ( in the living room, the flexibility to move speakers/listening position would be almost null...)

Alex

 

[sbo6]

Congrats on your move and new dedicated listening space! When you say will it work it depends on your definition of work. yes the room is large enough to accommodate the speakers but what it really comes down to is - at what listening level and at what level of bass accuracy. The subs will certainly help with low frequency peaks and dips and if you like listening at close to or actual concert levels then absorption will likely be required as the dominant treatment. As always YMMV.

 

[moby2004]

I am definitely not listening at concert level but still relatively loud. Regarding bass, let’s say that as long as I do not have muddy bass and/or annoying resonance at my average sound level I would be already satisfied.
I could potentially add a second sub ( would I go for the smaller room) to help smoothing peak and dips .

 

[Cellcbern]

Look at my thread - "Trying the ZR Acoustics Panels".

 

[Addicted to hifi]

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice as I will be moving in a new flat allowing me to have a bit more flexibility regarding my listening room .
A) Currently all my gears ( for stereo and home theater duties) 4M Width * 8.5M Length * 3.3M height ) are in the living room ( 4M Width * 8.5M Length * 3.3M height ) and speakers /gears are placed along the long wall ( no other choice) . This is creating the following drawbacks :
1) speakers close from the front wall ( 30cm / tweeters at 90cm)
2) listening position close from the rear wall (30cm)
3) asymmetrical
4) living room starting to look like a showroom...
5) cable management is a total m...

Despite all these shortcomings, I enjoy the sound I am getting with no major bass issues but still there is 4M Width * 8.5M Length * 3.3M height ) very probably (major) room to improve.

B) In the next flat , the target is to totally separate stereo and home theater duties ( less gear/cable concentration => more space) .
The new living room will be very similar to the current one ( only a bit wider at 4.5M instead of 4M) but the bedrooms will be bigger.
So my target is to put the stereo setup in a bedroom of the following dimensions : 3.8MWidth * 5.8M Length * 3.3M height .
The gears and speakers will be put on the short wall allowing me to have :
1) speakers placed at around 70cm of the front wall ( tweeters at 130cm)
2) listening position around 2.5M of the speakers ( I am a « nearfield » listener) and around 2M of the rear wall
3) no TV screen between the speakers
3) symmetrical but both speakers would be pretty close from the side walls ( around 45cm) ...
As it s a bedroom , I also will have more flexibility ( but not total as it will be mainly used as a « regular » bedroom ) regarding the positioning of acoustic panels ( diffusion or absorption )
Obviously it s hard to anticipate but do you think it should work despite the relative limited width of the room ?
My speakers are sealed speakers ( YG Sonja 2.2) and I have a REL 212 SE sub as well.

Thanks
Alex

How did it all go.

 

[Elliot G.]