Need Thougts on Placing My Speakers

[soulforged]

Hello,

Till a couple of months back, I didn't really have much trouble with speaker placements. Reason - was using corner loaded horns that were placed in...well the corners

I recently moved several notches up and acquired a pair of Harbeth SHL5 and now begins the endeavour to extract the most of them. The first thing is to find the right placement.

They are to be kept in my living room which is 12 x 29 x 9 (W x L x H). There are two niches opening from the room, a sit out of about 6 x 7 and a foyer of 8 x 7.

Currently I have the speakers along the shorter wall about 3 feet from the rear and 2 feet from the side. By trial and error, I figured out that they would perform better if I moved them up by another 2 feet or so. Trouble is, there is a door to one of the bedrooms on one side. I cannot really pull them up all the way without risking someone bumping into the speaker by accident. Of course, there is the option of moving them up when listening to them and then moving them back out of harm's way when done...but that is too cumbersome.

Was thinking of another option which is to move them away from the back wall altogether and move them somewhere towards the middle of the room, around 12 feet from the rear and 2 feet from the side and reverse their direction. This would still be risky but I might be able to mitigate it by placing additional barriers along the way.

I am attaching a rough drawing of my room. The blue spots are where the speakers are right now and the red ones are where I am thinking of placing them. They would be very close to the niche openings but I might be able to do something about it by placing a diffuser or absorber panel along the sides.

Has anyone tried this sort of a setup? Do you think this would work in terms of opening up the sound and assisting in the soundstaging? I know a listening position in the middle of the room is not advisable but what if the speakers are kept there (not exactly in the middle but close to it) and you sit closer to the wall? Wanted to know your thoughts before I tried it out as an experiment. Of course, whether it is practical would be another question I would have to deal with but that bridge I'll cross when I get to it

:signthankspin:

 

[soulforged]

Would the new position be somewhat like reducing the room size??? Since the front wall to the speakers would be around 12 feet or so...

 

[hydra]

Congrats on getting the SHL5s!

I think the red dots will be pretty fine. Giving the speakers more room behind them generally generates a much deeper (and in most cases a wider) soundstage. I think your room looks fine.

The effects of the foyer should be compensated for by the bookshelf on the other wall. It looks like your first reflection points are well taken care of.

Sitting very close to a wall (behind you) may not be well advised. But at worst, you can take care of that with some light absorption on the wall.

In any case, if the speakers are approximately in the middle of the room, that means you have about 14 feet left over between the speakers and the wall behind you. I think that's a LOT of space to play with. The speakers will probably be about 10ft apart, so you shouldn't (generally) have to sit more than 10-11 ft away from them. That leaves about 3-4 feet behind you.

Depending on how the speakers interact with the room, you might even be able to place them slightly closer together, I guess.

About placing speakers in the middle of the room, I think it might be actually advantageous in terms of bass response. I don't have anything to back this up (just previous experience), but you should be able to make out the difference right away.

You have a lot of space to play with! You should have fun trying things out

 

[soulforged]

So I went ahead and moved my gear. Completely reversed the direction, placed the speakers in the red spots. This did add depth to the stage. The sound is more airy. However...stage is a bit towards the left (towards the book case). The vocals in most cases is in the center but a bit smeared towards the left. The music also seems a bit dominant on that side. I tried moving the left speaker a bit more in...this did help but not entirely.

Next step...will try putting in a heavy curtain on the sit out entrance...dunno how much will that help. The right wall has a leather sofa and so does the front wall (from where I listen)...maybe damping them with a heavy bedsheet may help the reflections a bit...

 

[Naturelover]

I had a somewhat similar issue detailed here. Try to have the speakers 2 to 2.5 feet from the side walls in the red position. You will still have about 6 feet between them. A curtain will probably not help very much.
Since you have a sofa on the wall opp the sitout, maybe you can try with the speakers on either side of the sitout? The upper red and blue spots in the diagram. Here you will be able to pull the left speaker more away from the side wall.

 

[soulforged]

Thanks Naturelover...the left one (from my listening position) is about 2.5ft from the wall and the right one is about 3 ft...got about 6.5 ft between them. Tried listening from 7 ft to 10 ft away with consistent results I guess right now my room is reflecting like a room of mirrors...

 

[hydra]

Are you sitting on the side where the speakers used to be kept? Then you wouldn't get the benefit of the bookshelves. I was under the impression you'd be sitting at the kitchen side.

If you have the option of changing the seating position, do try reversing the speakers, and sit on the side where the kitchen is. I think it might be a better option. If at all there is an imbalance, if you increase the distance between the RHS speaker and the wall with the bookshelf slightly, that might help. The bookshelf doesn't have a glass door, does it?

 

[soulforged]

Yes, I have revesed the direction...sitting near the blue spots. The kitchen side is the dining area...cannot really move my listening position there, though I did think of it as an experiment while struggling with the lopsided soundstage. But since the two niches are asymmetric, moving to the other side might just change the lopsidedness to the right side...

 

[jenson]

red dot location looks very tempting for reasons stated. but seems foyer is adding to inconsistency...maybe that's the cause...

it would be ideal if you had a friend who could help you with different combinations like moving speaker in/out and/or toe in - switching to older position and repeat steps..

 

[Shivam]

Most of the Harbeths I have heard were always placed near the rear wall, a little away from corners, on some kind of resonating stands.

Try this first in your room before experimenting with other placements.

 

[soulforged]

Most of the Harbeths I have heard were always placed near the rear wall, a little away from corners, on some kind of resonating stands.

Try this first in your room before experimenting with other placements.

That was my default placement but I was not getting the desired depth and breadth in the soundstage. That's when I started toyig with the idea of placing them away from the rear walls.

 

[soulforged]

Update:

Kept the right speaker a few inches closer to the wall than the left one, fired them straight down and moved up my listening position. I've been able to kind of center the staging but it is still a bit smeared I guess that's something I'll have to deal with using diffusers/absorbers.