2. speakers
  3. 132116-1973

Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

So many audiophiles have commented that when your room treatment is completed, your electronics set up and tweaked and most importantly, your speakers are set up in your listening space correctly that you'll know it because everything just sounds so "right" and natural.  I just accomplished that feat in the last two weeks.  I say two weeks because I needed to play a wide variety of recordings to be sure that I'm there.  It is so great to have finally hit just the right set up.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it has taken me well over a year of experimentation to get to this point.  It's not that other placements yielded poor quality sound its just that now everything sounds like a live event (as much as any of our systems can).

I would really appreciate hearing about your journey to the promised land of audiophile/music lover bliss.  How long did it take, what were the most difficult aspects of the journey?  And if you have yet to get there, what do  you think is the "brick in your wall"?
hifiman5
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
300 posts
 
Took me about two years, main problem being bass cancellation from the front wall. Speakers have down firing subs, active and the distance from the front wall and side walls needed slight adjustments. The one note bass finally disappeared when traps on the rear wall and distances from the front and side were tweaked.
Also the tweeters needed taming, but I was relentless with tube rolling as the system is all tube components. It has all paid off and it’s been months since any changes were made. Honestly, the speakers were moved, sometimes fractions of an inch, at least a hundred times. Moved the listening position many times as well.
One thing I learned is that the sweet spot is the sweet spot. You can’t fool physics. Now, two people can sit on the couch and the effect off center is very tolerable, but no denying the sweet spot.
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
Don't feel bad. I mess with a room for close to that before I feel like I'm really getting the best out of it. A lot of people around here like to bang on about magic CD's that will get the job done or some sort of hocus pocus formula, but nothing really replaces trying and listening. Foam mattress pads from Walmart we're miracle workers. Real cheap, pretty effective, not terribly pretty though. At the very least they tell you what and where before you feel like buying prettier stuff. 
agriculturist
160 posts
 
I'm sure you've seen this, but if not its very helpful.  Worked for me...
http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_main.php

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
2,164 posts
 
my listening room is a living room of sorts so i have a few constraints that preclude a lot of speaker related tweaks other than trying to stick to the “ hocus pocus” formula of the hard physics of node creation. My choice of speaker includes 11 bands of EQ below 120 HZ so getting that right, tweaking level and Q on the sub consumes a few hours...
i do have 5 dedicated circuits and some ground float cheaters and some isolation tweaks but overall the hours put in were not excessive...
More to discover