19-Oct-2020, 13:40
@Pim ,
For a long time I used what used to be called the Audio Physic method for speaker placement. The basic setup was speakers along the long room axis, half way between the front and back walls (way into the room hence the 2 metres from the wall behind that I mentioned, also 2 metres from the wall behind me) and situated one quarter of the width of the room from the closest side wall, so half the width of the room between the speakers, and the listening position close to the back wall. What this tends to result in is a listening position that is a bit closer to the speaker plane than is often the case, the speakers at a wider angle to the listening position than is usually the case, and what I think in some ways is the most important feature which is that the first reflection paths from the side walls and the wall behind the speakers are much longer than the direct sound paths from speakers to listener, That means that the level of the first reflections is quite a bit lower in level relative to the level of the direct sound than is often the case in most setups, especially setups where the speakers are close to a wall. The effect of that lowering of the relative level of the first reflections is, as you put it, to "get most of the room's reflections out of the way". That usually results in a really good sound stage and imaging.
When I first tried it, I was expecting to lose a lot of bass because of the loss of reinforcement from the walls but I was surprised at how little I lost. The bass was also surprisingly clean and well defined. Putting the speakers midway between the front and back walls puts them in a null position for the room mode based on that room axis so they don't activate the mode strongly. Having the speakers a quarter of the room's width from the side walls means that they're also in nulls for one of the side wall modes but it also means that the side wall reflections for the side to side room axis modes of the two speakers are out of phase with each other, cancelling their modal effect. This setup method strongly reduces the impact of room modes related to 2 of the room's 3 axes.
The one big drawback from this setup method is that it's pretty impossible to get away with having the speakers in the middle of the room if you don't have a dedicated listening room. It is an extremely living room unfriendly speaker setup and probably not all that good as part of a HT surround sound setup either but for stereo listening I found it to work extremely well.
For a long time I used what used to be called the Audio Physic method for speaker placement. The basic setup was speakers along the long room axis, half way between the front and back walls (way into the room hence the 2 metres from the wall behind that I mentioned, also 2 metres from the wall behind me) and situated one quarter of the width of the room from the closest side wall, so half the width of the room between the speakers, and the listening position close to the back wall. What this tends to result in is a listening position that is a bit closer to the speaker plane than is often the case, the speakers at a wider angle to the listening position than is usually the case, and what I think in some ways is the most important feature which is that the first reflection paths from the side walls and the wall behind the speakers are much longer than the direct sound paths from speakers to listener, That means that the level of the first reflections is quite a bit lower in level relative to the level of the direct sound than is often the case in most setups, especially setups where the speakers are close to a wall. The effect of that lowering of the relative level of the first reflections is, as you put it, to "get most of the room's reflections out of the way". That usually results in a really good sound stage and imaging.
When I first tried it, I was expecting to lose a lot of bass because of the loss of reinforcement from the walls but I was surprised at how little I lost. The bass was also surprisingly clean and well defined. Putting the speakers midway between the front and back walls puts them in a null position for the room mode based on that room axis so they don't activate the mode strongly. Having the speakers a quarter of the room's width from the side walls means that they're also in nulls for one of the side wall modes but it also means that the side wall reflections for the side to side room axis modes of the two speakers are out of phase with each other, cancelling their modal effect. This setup method strongly reduces the impact of room modes related to 2 of the room's 3 axes.
The one big drawback from this setup method is that it's pretty impossible to get away with having the speakers in the middle of the room if you don't have a dedicated listening room. It is an extremely living room unfriendly speaker setup and probably not all that good as part of a HT surround sound setup either but for stereo listening I found it to work extremely well.
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
