Somewhere in my travels I came across a site that had some ratios for an "ideal listening room" I cant recall where but I came across that site but I do recall that the room should definitely be rectangular as opposed to square or some other shape. 14 by 22 by 9 sounds pretty good though - I'll bet those demensions are pretty close to the ideal ratio. Once you have the room size established I would refer you to Cardas Audio which has a discussion of the "Golden Ratio" of speaker placement. You will find this at www.cardas.com; hit the "Insights" tab and then hit "room set up". The Cardas site will give you excellant insights for a generalized discussion of speaker placement in a rectangular room. Once you've obtained a good idea where to place your speakers in your room, the next step would be to determine where to put your equipment rack. This is critical because if you "get it right" you could then determine where to locate dedicated electrical lines for your audio. For example, lets say your room is 14 feet wide, under the Cardas golden ratio method your speakers will 6.26 feet from the front wall (room width x .447). Suppose you like to sit about 10 deet away - in that case I would have a couple of dedicated floor outlets located behind the chair and/or couch would be located and plan on placing my equipment rack behind the chair or couch. Another good spot would be to either side of the chair or couch in order to allow for easy access to my source components. In this example I would then install the dedicated floor outlets about 5-6 feet from the rear wall of the room and fairly centered. I would then have a duct under the floor in which I can place either speaker cables or interconnecting cables to allow me to run cables to either amplifiers or speakers located in front of the front wall. If you are running cables to power amps then I would add a couple of extra floor outlets on dedicated lines to the side of each speaker for conection of the power amps. Finally, conventional wisdom used to say that you should install a soft or absorptive surface like carpet on the floor and on the rear wall and a reflective surface such as dry wall or wood on the cieling or front wall (the wall behind the speakers). Glass and drapes tend to be audiophile no nos. The above suggestions are generalizations only. Many speaker companies recommend that you divide the room into thirds and place the speakers 1/3 of the way away from the front wall. they also recommend sitting 1/3 of the from the rear wall. Thats would have me sitting too close to the speakers for me althjough I understand their point about minimizing rear wall reflections. Also, I hear that some speakers like Dunlavy SCVs supposedly sound better when placed on the short wall side of the room rather than the long side. In you love these speakers I just totally messed you up!! The point is there are always exceptions. For the speaker systems I have had (Martin Logans; Wilson Watt Puppies and Genesis 300s) this placement would have and has worked out just fine for me. Finally some people will tell you that running your interconnecting cables in a floor dict will cause an audible deterioration to your the signal from your cables. These people will be correct. But you will solve lots other problems doing this like not having people sgtep on your cables or tripping on them and suiong you. Accordingly, I would consider the cable degredation by doing this acceptable. Cheers.
Dedicated room
Hey guys, let's hear your thoughts! I am building a 1000 sq ft addition onto my house and it will incorporate a listenig room which will be 14'x22' with 9' ceiling height. Being 25 I don't have a vast history with acoustical patterns (nulls, reflection points, ect..) Anyone have some "sound" (ouch!) advice for room set up? My local dealers are idiots so let's hear from the real experts. YOU.
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- 6 posts total
- 6 posts total