20-Feb-2021, 00:07
@docvale ,
A lot of what you said above resonates with me.
Back in the 1990's my wife and I were living in a fairly small house and my audio system was in the living room half of a combined living/dining room that was rather awkwardly arranged when it came to doorways and traffic paths. Speaker and listening position setups were difficult and while I really liked listening to music my wife was far less interested. When we started looking for a new house after I retired in 2001, one thing that we had an agreement about was that I could have a separate room for the audio system. That agreement was as much about accommodating to our different interests in some areas as it was about giving me the opportunity to set up a "dedicated listening room"'. The room I chose when we bought the new house is an acoustically awkward L shaped room with 2 open archway entrances, one into the front hall and the other into a space connecting to the open plan kitchen/dining/living room area. My wife got the opportunity to set up the living/dining area to suit herself and I got the opportunity to do what I liked in the listening room. Yes, it is set up for a single listener but the shape of the room really dictated the layout and the best speaker/listening position setup placed the listening position near the bend in the L shape where a single chair was the best option. The only reason why that isn't a problem is that most of the time the only person in the room is me (my wife died a couple of years after we moved so most of the time the only person in the house is me). I have got a sofa and chair up the back of the room behind and to the left of the listening chair for when I do have visitors interested in music and we just take turns moving through the listening chair.
There is one trick I "stole" for my own living room from a member of my local audio club, an architect who has designed school concert halls and a few dedicated listening rooms. In his home he has his own system, which includes a pair of visually imposing speakers and a fair amount of electronics, in a small living room which actually functions very well as a living room when people just want to sit and chat. What he's done is to stick the speakers at one end of the room with the other components and a listening chair at the other end of the room. In the middle he has 2 sofas, one along each side wall, with a coffee table between them. When you aren't listening to music people can sit on the sofas to chat and have drinks and nibbles and the rather imposing audio setup is virtually unnoticeable because it's off to the side of your visual field at one end of the room or the other, it simply doesn't intrude or interfere with the sorts of activities you usually do in a living room. When listening to music even people on the sofas at the ends closest to the listening chair can sit comfortably and enjoy good quality sound though not quite as good as it is in the listening chair and he can bring in a couple of extra chairs so a few more people can sit facing the speakers as well. I use the same setup in my living room with my flat screen TV at the end of the room and a sofa on one side facing a couple of living room chairs on the other side with a coffee table in between. It's a surprisingly effective and user friendly layout to use if you can set up your room in that manner.
And you're right, it is all just for pleasure and the love of music so it's best to do it in a way that works for you on as many levels as possible, even those levels which have nothing to do with listening or music.
A lot of what you said above resonates with me.
Back in the 1990's my wife and I were living in a fairly small house and my audio system was in the living room half of a combined living/dining room that was rather awkwardly arranged when it came to doorways and traffic paths. Speaker and listening position setups were difficult and while I really liked listening to music my wife was far less interested. When we started looking for a new house after I retired in 2001, one thing that we had an agreement about was that I could have a separate room for the audio system. That agreement was as much about accommodating to our different interests in some areas as it was about giving me the opportunity to set up a "dedicated listening room"'. The room I chose when we bought the new house is an acoustically awkward L shaped room with 2 open archway entrances, one into the front hall and the other into a space connecting to the open plan kitchen/dining/living room area. My wife got the opportunity to set up the living/dining area to suit herself and I got the opportunity to do what I liked in the listening room. Yes, it is set up for a single listener but the shape of the room really dictated the layout and the best speaker/listening position setup placed the listening position near the bend in the L shape where a single chair was the best option. The only reason why that isn't a problem is that most of the time the only person in the room is me (my wife died a couple of years after we moved so most of the time the only person in the house is me). I have got a sofa and chair up the back of the room behind and to the left of the listening chair for when I do have visitors interested in music and we just take turns moving through the listening chair.
There is one trick I "stole" for my own living room from a member of my local audio club, an architect who has designed school concert halls and a few dedicated listening rooms. In his home he has his own system, which includes a pair of visually imposing speakers and a fair amount of electronics, in a small living room which actually functions very well as a living room when people just want to sit and chat. What he's done is to stick the speakers at one end of the room with the other components and a listening chair at the other end of the room. In the middle he has 2 sofas, one along each side wall, with a coffee table between them. When you aren't listening to music people can sit on the sofas to chat and have drinks and nibbles and the rather imposing audio setup is virtually unnoticeable because it's off to the side of your visual field at one end of the room or the other, it simply doesn't intrude or interfere with the sorts of activities you usually do in a living room. When listening to music even people on the sofas at the ends closest to the listening chair can sit comfortably and enjoy good quality sound though not quite as good as it is in the listening chair and he can bring in a couple of extra chairs so a few more people can sit facing the speakers as well. I use the same setup in my living room with my flat screen TV at the end of the room and a sofa on one side facing a couple of living room chairs on the other side with a coffee table in between. It's a surprisingly effective and user friendly layout to use if you can set up your room in that manner.
And you're right, it is all just for pleasure and the love of music so it's best to do it in a way that works for you on as many levels as possible, even those levels which have nothing to do with listening or music.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
