Importance of Speaker Placement

[AP@1992]

Biggest sound upgrade !!

Chain - DMP A6 (ME) ----Weiss Minerva -----Cayin AT 88 mk 2 (PS Vane EL34C, PSvane UK6NS7 (OR Tungsol 6SN7 GTB), Russian NOS 6sl7)

IC- Mogami 2803 (Mogami 2479 is used in case I swap UK6ns7 with Tungsol 6NS7 GTB). Speaker wire: Tellurium Q Black 2.

Speakers: Dali Oberon 5


The biggest sound upgrade I have ever heard had nothing to do with the above chain at all. The above chain sounded great, sometimes out of the world depending on source. Warm, smooth and organic (albeit not very dynamic or precise in bass delivery) and really suits my choice of songs.

Few days ago, late into my night listening session, I decided to remove the center table. Closed the curtains to improve damping and put a wing chair to form a perfect equilateral triangle listening position (63 feet) (photos attached). The effect was immediate and unbelievable.

Sound became more intimate, more of the 3d/holographic effect and in general their was a homogeneity to the sound. The SQ had objectively gone various notches above for sure.

This really goes on to show, speaker positioning, room acoustic etc etc have so much impact on our sound.

This now begs the question as to how many equipments we all must have upgraded/sold without first *addressing the real elephant in the room* (quite literally)

Correcting the acoustics/ speaker positioning etc has real tangible improvement in sound.

A lesson learnt. Better late than never.

Hope all of you must have had similar experience in past. Would love to know about it.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Biggest sound upgrade !!

Chain - DMP A6 (ME) ----Weiss Minerva -----Cayin AT 88 mk 2 (PS Vane EL34C, PSvane UK6NS7 (OR Tungsol 6SN7 GTB), Russian NOS 6sl7)

IC- Mogami 2803 (Mogami 2479 is used in case I swap UK6ns7 with Tungsol 6NS7 GTB). Speaker wire: Tellurium Q Black 2.

Speakers: Dali Oberon 5


The biggest sound upgrade I have ever heard had nothing to do with the above chain at all. The above chain sounded great, sometimes out of the world depending on source. Warm, smooth and organic (albeit not very dynamic or precise in bass delivery) and really suits my choice of songs.

Few days ago, late into my night listening session, I decided to remove the center table. Closed the curtains to improve damping and put a wing chair to form a perfect equilateral triangle listening position (63 feet) (photos attached). The effect was immediate and unbelievable.

Sound became more intimate, more of the 3d/holographic effect and in general their was a homogeneity to the sound. The SQ had objectively gone various notches above for sure.

This really goes on to show, speaker positioning, room acoustic etc etc have so much impact on our sound.

This now begs the question as to how many equipments we all must have upgraded/sold without first *addressing the real elephant in the room* (quite literally)

Correcting the acoustics/ speaker positioning etc has real tangible improvement in sound.

A lesson learnt. Better late than never.

Hope all of you must have had similar experience in past. Would love to know about it.

Lovely room and seat there

Iam similarly sitting with speakers along the long wall, in a equilateral triangle of 8.5 feet. I have raised the speaker height to get the mid range driver at ear height, and tilted the speakers slightly forward. So the tweeter is actually well above the listening plane, but still pointing towards the ears due to the forward tilt. I love this configuration, as I get a great sense of height too. I moved the speakers after being in their previous position for almost two years. Did'nt expect there was more to be had with a position tweak, but I was so wrong. The new position really improved things further. Having gone really wide with the tweeter to tweeter distance at 11.5 feet, Iam using a little bit of toe-in to get a tight and steady center image. My toe-in might be close to 10 degrees I think. After 10 years of crappy sound, this along with a few other additions have finally got me completely satisfied with the sound, and off the upgrade merry-go-around.

 

[AP@1992]

Lovely room and seat there

Iam similarly sitting with speakers along the long wall, in a equilateral triangle of 8.5 feet. I have raised the speaker height to get the mid range driver at ear height, and tilted the speakers slightly forward. So the tweeter is actually well above the listening plane, but still pointing towards the ears due to the forward tilt. I love this configuration, as I get a great sense of height too. I moved the speakers after being in their previous position for almost two years. Did'nt expect there was more to be had with a position tweak, but I was so wrong. The new position really improved things further. Having gone really wide with the tweeter to tweeter distance at 11.5 feet, Iam using a little bit of toe-in to get a tight and steady center image. My toe-in might be close to 10 degrees I think. After 10 years of crappy sound, this along with a few other additions have finally got me completely satisfied with the sound, and off the upgrade merry-go-around.

Would really love to see a picture of your listening space. It sure sounds interesting.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Would really love to see a picture of your listening space. It sure sounds interesting.

Haha...it looks very funny like the speakers are going to fall over. Iam travelling presently, and cant find any older pics where this forward tilt is evident. Will share some once Iam back home.

 

[shibashis]

This is no secret really, more than our equipment what we hear is the room, as the old cliche says.
Fantastic to see that you have found that sweet spot and realized the true potential of your system, for some of us it is the never ending cycle of upgrades and changes in equipment, without investing into the effort required to optimize the space for sound.
To be fair, most of the time we are not always lucky to have the space completely at our mercy to be able to customize it the way we want.
Having said that my own experience was, not surprisingly, exactly like yours, it was eye-opening.

 

[reignofchaos]

You can achieve what you did there by pulling the speakers further into the room as well. The thing that works best for me i the rule of the thirds

Speakers at 1/3rd of the room (both length and width) and listener at 2/3rd or thereabouts - this is slightly flexible. In my case where I have a slightly bigger room, this works perfect. It reduces the room involvement to a minimum.

 

[spirovious]

The logic is simple.
When we like the system in the demo room. We bought but didn't like at home, then certainly it's the room.

 

[edjamesx]

Correcting the acoustics/ speaker positioning etc has real tangible improvement in sound.

A lesson learnt. Better late than never.

Hope all of you must have had similar experience in past. Would love to know about it.

Yes ,Correct. I had similar experience . After did trial and error of various positions of Speaker+Sub , found a good sweet spot and it was sounding better than before. I thought Audyssy will help in correcting most of the room issues. But actually it's not. Placement + Room acoustics also matter.

 

[RRR]

Next remove the tv and see the difference.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Next remove the tv and see the difference.

I would beg to differ

TV screens reflect light. I think as far as sound is concerned, window panes, TV screens and a bare wall are all the same. They also reflect back sound.

Adding absorption or diffusion in place of the TV, or on top of the TV will be a definite improvement. But otherwise as far as sound is concerned, both the TV and a bare wall are the same in my opinion.

Window panes are a problem with deep bass, which makes them rattle due to their rigidity.