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webby
07-10-2009, 21:51
Hi,

I have a room sized approx. 8ft by 16ft (with a sloping ceiling for the last 5ft of that 16ft length). Currently, my speakers are a couple of feet in from the back wall beneath the lowest part of the ceiling, firing down the room. The speakers are around 6ft apart and my listening position is around 7-8ft back, which means I have another 6ft of space behind me (the computer area!).

All sounds pretty good, but given these dimensions, do you have any thoughts on the possibility of firing across the room? I'm not sure I could give the speakers much room behind cos it's only 8ft across, but what's generally the accepted method of layout for room shapes like this?

Thanks

Lee

Peter Galbavy
08-10-2009, 07:47
This is the one I am scratching my head/ears with at the moment. My best success in a 14.5 x 11.5 x 8.5 ft room is with the speakers about 1/3rd the way in down the long side, 18" or so from the shelves/wall. Longs ways still doesn't work for me, even is aesthetically I would very much like it that way around. You best bet is to get long enough speaker cables and move them around (and your seating) until you get what you want.

Oh, most online guides completely fail to talk about ceiling heights too. I found this was a big deal and my "solution" was reflection traps.

The Grand Wazoo
08-10-2009, 08:33
There's never a hard & fast rule - you can only try it & see what works best.
I'm a great believer in giving plenty of space to the sides (as are some others here) as it is so beneficial to the soundstage & image placement. However, if that means you can't get enough space behind the speakers, it could be a problem.
I've just been experimenting with this myself as I've been installing my gear into a new house. Across the room placement didn't work because I was too close to my 1.3 m tall speakers & all the treble was going over my head. Other, shorter speakers didn't work either because of the presence of a fireplace that was asymetric to the room layout.

John
08-10-2009, 08:49
Like Chris said no hard and fast rules its a case of trying different options and see what works best

Chippy_boy
14-10-2009, 14:51
Hi,

I have a room sized approx. 8ft by 16ft (with a sloping ceiling for the last 5ft of that 16ft length). Currently, my speakers are a couple of feet in from the back wall beneath the lowest part of the ceiling, firing down the room. The speakers are around 6ft apart and my listening position is around 7-8ft back, which means I have another 6ft of space behind me (the computer area!).

All sounds pretty good, but given these dimensions, do you have any thoughts on the possibility of firing across the room? I'm not sure I could give the speakers much room behind cos it's only 8ft across, but what's generally the accepted method of layout for room shapes like this?

Thanks

Lee

You really need to try it because things like what the walls are made of will make a big difference. For example you may have brick wall at the end of a room and plasterboard over stud partition on other walls and these behave very differently.

Inevitably speakers in domestic settings like this will produce standing waves, and the frequency of the dominant standing waves will vary according to the room dimensions and the orientation of the speakers. The standing wave frequency is equal to 1125/2 x room dimension in feet. So you can see firing your speakers down the room will give you the strongest standing wave at 1125/16 = 70 Hz, and across it at 1125/8 = 140 Hz. Of course you will get both frequency "humps" with both orientations, but you'll get even more if the speakers are pointing that way.

I would have thought the 70Hz hump was preferable to the 140Hz hump and you might find the room is just too "boomy" firing across the room. You need to suck it and see though.