06-Nov-2020, 01:43
I would strive to maintain left/right symmetry to the greatest extent possible at the speaker end of the room. That means I would go for option 1.
I've got a room that has 2 openings, one into a hallway and the other into a much larger area (kitchen/dining/living) into which the hallway opens as well. The hallway opening is to the right side of my right speaker. I can actually get a centred imaging without using the balance control but the room does have physical acoustic treatments and the space to the right of the right speaker is much, much smaller than the space to the right of your right speaker would be if you go for option 2. Even with the acoustic treatments I can not quite get a balanced soundstage, it's not so much the left/right aspect but more a sense that the acoustic space to the right is different to that on the left. I've never tried to balance the soundstage and imaging in a situation where the space to the side of one speaker is so much larger than the space to the side of the other speaker as it is in your option 2 but I think it would be difficult to balance.
I might go for the downstairs room if you could place the speakers on the wall with the fireplace but your plans for the piano preclude that. I won't suggest moving the piano to the upstairs room but if you were to place the piano in the top right corner of the downstairs room (adjacent to the covered outside area) you might be able to set the speakers up on either side of the fireplace which would provide left/right symmetry but I think your choice of the bottom right corner for the piano is the best option for the piano and it would probably not be possible to come up with a plan for whatever other furniture you're going to have in the room with the piano that would work for both the piano and the system if you moved the piano to that top right corner and placed the speakers on either side of the fireplace.
I've got a room that has 2 openings, one into a hallway and the other into a much larger area (kitchen/dining/living) into which the hallway opens as well. The hallway opening is to the right side of my right speaker. I can actually get a centred imaging without using the balance control but the room does have physical acoustic treatments and the space to the right of the right speaker is much, much smaller than the space to the right of your right speaker would be if you go for option 2. Even with the acoustic treatments I can not quite get a balanced soundstage, it's not so much the left/right aspect but more a sense that the acoustic space to the right is different to that on the left. I've never tried to balance the soundstage and imaging in a situation where the space to the side of one speaker is so much larger than the space to the side of the other speaker as it is in your option 2 but I think it would be difficult to balance.
I might go for the downstairs room if you could place the speakers on the wall with the fireplace but your plans for the piano preclude that. I won't suggest moving the piano to the upstairs room but if you were to place the piano in the top right corner of the downstairs room (adjacent to the covered outside area) you might be able to set the speakers up on either side of the fireplace which would provide left/right symmetry but I think your choice of the bottom right corner for the piano is the best option for the piano and it would probably not be possible to come up with a plan for whatever other furniture you're going to have in the room with the piano that would work for both the piano and the system if you moved the piano to that top right corner and placed the speakers on either side of the fireplace.
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
