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question about speaker placement. dead end room?

sorry for what may seem like a stupid question but here it is anyway. my "hi-fi mentor" came over yesterday to give a listen to my new system upgrades and tweeks. recently upgraded my power lines and cords along with IC's and speaker cable (still waiting for one final IC and power cord but i'm 90% there).

he stated that regardless of what i upgrade and how good i think it sounds, my speaker placement is too close to the rear wall. he said i shouldn't bother upgrading anymore until this can be resolved (waste of money until i get the speaker position right in his opinion) my aerial 7b's are about 14 inches off the wall measuring from the rear port and 28 inches if measuring from the front woofer. the room is such that even testing the aerial's at a "good distance" off given wall is impossible. my listening position would be way too close.

i use a velodyne dd12 which comes with a very useful/in depth tuning kit. spent many hours with this kit and finally got a pretty flat curve in the end (which also happened to sound right/good to my ears). it did take alot of work to get rid of a few huge base peaks, but i did get them hammered out eventually.

there is no way to put the aerial's in a postion that meets the general guidelines of speaker placement...per the cardas web site and other resources. would need to relocate the entire system to a different room and install a new dedicated ac line. neither of which is something i want to do.

my question is....

do i really have a "dead end room" where i've basically gone as far as i can go?. am i wasting my money on these IC and power source upgrades when such a glaring "sin" is present in my system.

like i said before....i think my system sounds pretty good. just wondering if i'm spinning my wheels (and tossing money away) by pushing forward with small, incremental upgrades and tweeks.
levy03
reubent
3,587 posts
 
So, by "way to close", how close do you mean? I know a couple of people who have their speakers half way out into a room and their seating position is only about 5 feet from the front plane of the speaker. It sounds AWESOME in their room. The speakers absolutely disappear to the point that you cannot even place them with your eyes closed. Also the soundstage depth is amazing.

Obviously this type of setup won't work for many people because of WAF, etc., however it can be extremely satisfying in some rooms, with some speakers....

Enjoy,

TIC
levy03 OP
425 posts
 
thanks Reubent. should have mentioned that my speakers are about 10 feet apart due to a doorway and HT. if i move the 7b's 4 feet off the rear wall, i'd be about 6 feet away listening, but they would still be 10-ish feet apart. take a look at the pic's of my system and maybe it will become clearer (large wood coffee table is usually where my gaming seat is in the pic). and yes....the speakers would be almost in the center of the room. not something i could pull off while still enjoying the room. my buddy said i was trying to make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t, with regards to this room. lol!
richlane
167 posts
 
What are your room dimensions?

Ceiling Height?

How far apart are your speakers, and how far away is your current listening position?

How far is each speaker from the sidewall?

Is there any way to put the speakers on the short wall, and then pull them out further into the room and move your listening position back, assuming your room is rectangular and not square?

Please describe the rest of your equipment?

At what freq. is your subwoofer crossed over at?

Are you driving the Main Speakers full range or are you just adding sub bass at the lower frequencies?

What is your room like; wood floor, carpet, glass windows, etc..?

How's your neighborhood? Maybe you want to move!! (LOL)

If you hear an improvement in sound with the upgraded cables, than it's not a waste of money.

I agree with your friend that your speakers are too close to the front wall. In my experience; depending on the type of speaker that you have and the room size, I have found that 3-4 feet from the front wall works well in most situations, for sound-staging, and bass coupling to the front wall. My distance is measured from the rear of the speaker and not from the front of the speaker.

How does it sound, too close to the wall? Is it muddy, dull, boomy, narrow depth perception, poor sound-staging, imaging?

If you can describe how it sounds now, then maybe people here could advise you better.

Rich
richlane
167 posts
 
Sorry, I didn't realize your system was posted.

Maybe you could answer some of the other questions though.

Rich
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