Help with speaker placement

I am taking delivery of new speakers within the next week or so and need help on the best way to position them as I have an L shape lounge room with the TV and stereo system along the short wall of the L as you can see in this photo.


Unfortunately it is shared space with the family and I have nowhere else to place them and as we are renting I can't wall mount the turntable and move the cabinet to another wall, as much as I'd love to.
The current speakers are 18cm (7.5 inches) wide each and front ported and the sub woofer is 33cm (13 inches).
The new speakers are 30cm wide each and rear ported.
I'm ditching the sub woofer as I rarely use it, as I mainly listen to records in 'Pure direct' mode and the new speakers should give decent bass.

I'm going to bring the speakers forward so they are in front of the TV but should I leave the left hand speaker where it is or move it to the right and forward of the turntable cabinet?
Is there anything else I can do to help the sound considering the right hand speaker will still be out in space?
Any suggestions are appreciated baring in mind WAF and that I have a 3 year old and teenagers in the house

 

Unfortunately, you will never have well-balanced sound in this space, but can you ditch the tower altogether? If you could do that — and place your turntable in one of the slots in the low stand (which seems possible since, by all appearances, you are not using a dust cover for the turntable) — then you might be able to achieve some breathing space for your new speakers that would be better than what you have now.

Yeah, you'd have to put your LPs somewhere else, but there aren't too many, so I think that might be possible, and I am hard-pressed to offer a better suggestion given your stated constraints!

 

The left speaker has no biz against the wall. It's gotta be f.....g up the sound bigtime. Care to send pics of the room from more angles ?

 

I take it you can't use the left wall for the speakers, meaning when you listen you have your back to the open space?

The key really is to get a symmetrical layout. Currently your left speaker will be affected by two walls whilst your right, only by one. Perhaps you could move that tower so that it imitates a corner on the right so helping even up bass, and some absorbent panel at the first reflection point on the left to help even up the higher frequencies. Possible use of tone controls or an equaliser may also help.

Experiment with speaker positioning including toe-in.

 

Ash, at the moment I'm in the same situation as you. One big shared space as it's an open concept condo, and although I've done my best to move things along, I know the setup is messing with my sound. I believe I shared this suggestion with you in the vinyl thread but you really need to give your speakers space to breathe. Don't put any speaker in a corner, between a wall and your shelving system. They could come out even if you only bring them out when listening to music, give them a lot of space between the back of the speaker and the wall.

I have mine out, almost like they are in the way, and what a difference it's made. My family knows to just avoid or walk around them LOL. Also, I toe my speakers inwards at an angle and this also has made a difference.

You might want to look into getting some acoustic panels for your room. I heard a friends room over the weekend and was blown away with what he achieved.

I'll be buying the same panels and installing them in my new home this spring. You might benefit from a similar solution. Keep us up to date on how you are working it out. Good luck. Some photos would help, to see the actual layout.

 

There are several big issues as posters have noted. Also the window/door blocks any move in that direction. Can you replace the long TV table with something better sized? I would move the turntable stand to the corner and the speaker inside that. Don't know the rest of the room layout but moving the system and TV so that they are in the corner firing across the room diagonal may be another possible option. You are not going to get accurate stereo sound from the current arrangement.

 

Yes but I had a system positioned exactly in the way you are suggesting in my previous home. The towers were rear-ported as well and the corner provided the biggest bass reinforcement I'd ever heard ever. It did work for the type of music I listen to but granted it wasn't neither accurate nor balanced. Maybe plugging the rear ports...the OP should really try and judge by himself. Just my 2 cents.

 

At the very least, swap the left speaker with the tower so that the speaker isn't up against the wall. Consider a smaller TV stand? If I'm reading your post correctly, the new speakers are double the width of the current ones. How are they going to fit?

One of my speakers is near a wall, but I follow the Sumiko set up and am very pleased with my results: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=60819.0

 

The first option is better, agreed but depends on purchasing different kinds of TV stands and record holders. You still are left with one speaker almost exactly in the corner. If he is not playing them loud then that becomes less of an issue for diagonal placement. Given that there would be a TV in the middle, the speakers would be fairly wide apart and would not be firing directly against the back wall or into the corner. The big problem is the window/door which prevents sliding the system farther to the right.

Perhaps the TV could be moved into the corner which would then permit the speakers to be arranged a bit closer together against the wall.

 

Good suggestion, but are the new speakers rear-ported as well ? That might cause trouble.

 

Thanks for the responses.
For those suggesting I use the left wall, it mainly consists of a large archway through to the hallway so that is out of question unless I move the speakers only so they are on either side of the archway amd then it will be for mUsic only, no TV.
This isn't really an issue for me except I would have to convince the wife which could be tricky (and rearrange other furniture)
As for the suggestion to get a smaller unit for the TV, I've thought about that too but it belongs to the wife and convincing her to get another smaller unit could be difficult. (She doesn't understand why I need better speakers anyway)
I can't move the turntable under the cabinet as I have an inquisitive 3 year old and though he's normally good at not touching things that don't belong to him, it will just take 1 time...
@Waxfreak, my current speakers are front ported and the new speakers will be rear ported
I will probably look at room treatment down the track which I guess will mainly be around the back and side wall

 

This is a view of the right side wall.
If I can manage to get this idea past my wife, do you think the sound might be better if I have one speaker on either side of the archway firing into the room and have them for music listening only?

 

Looks like my wife may be ok with me placing the speakers either side of the archway as per my previous post.
Does anyone think this will be a better solution or is it likely to create a new set of issues?

 

I think it would beat the hell out of your current arrangement. Pity you rent because fitting that archway with a door or at least a thick curtain would help yet further.

Dont forget to keep a reasonable separation from the wall if the speakers are rear-ported.

If you don't watch concert dvds as I do, loosing the telly would be no big deal. Or you can locate the TV so it is in the corner firing across the room diagonal as Mr. Bass pointed out and connect another amp and speakers for that purpose.

 

Almost certainly a much better solution

 

If you put them at the archway, you have to deal with getting speaker wires to your left speaker (you may have thought of this already).

 

That's interesting that you have an opening in the left wall. That gives you two options I think.

First is my suggestion above, still using your existing wall, that you move the tall record cupboard to the right to act as a corner. You bring both speakers out so that their side wall reflection points are in the open space. That will mean the speakers being closer together then currently. With this set up and rear ported speakers you should get approximately equal bass and no side wall reflections on either side. That should give you quite an interesting sound which you may or may not like but could be worth trying. Position the speakers and chair by using 'The Thirds' or perhaps better 'The Fifths'. See this link:

http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com/monitoring.htm

The second option is the left wall. That looks pretty symmetrical. Bass should be good from the corners. Side wall reflections will occur but you may prefer this. Having no back wall may well be a plus as you won't get bass problems or reflections off that wall. I'm not sure how having no centre in the speaker wall will affect the sound but I suspect it may be a bonus. Still use 'The Thirds' or 'Fifths' for the speakers but I would think you could be more flexible with the chair. Overall this set up ,looks less conventional but may well sound rather good. If you try this I'd like to know!

For cables going across any pathways, you could buy flat ones designed flat to go under carpet - Van den Hul do them. The Arctic is one (I had Snowtrack some years ago but it's not here):

http://www.vandenhul.com/products/cables

 

My current cables are only cheap Crest cables but they are flat and I think I may be able to get them into the gap between the carpet and the tiles.
I've been doing a bit of measuring and I think I know how to rearrange the room to get everything in place.
Of course this will be a major rearrangement for the benefit of speaker placement over all other practicaliies so I may get thrown out on my ass but we'll see.
By the way, the speakers should arrive early next week!

 

Glad you got a comprehensive wife who'll let you rearrange the whole room. Hope this works out for you and you get a much nicer sound ? Mind if I ask brand and model of the new speakers ?

 

They're a custom made Australian speaker. I started a thread here:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ascension-speakers.408419/

 

Hence my desire to get the best speaker placement possible in a compromised room to see what these babies can do

 

My speakers arrived today. I've set then up about 2 foot from the back wall and 3 foot from the sides and my wife isn't happy - she wants them right against the back walls. I have moved them back a little and a bit closer to the sidesbut she's not happy.
I don't think she realised how big they would be. I like them anyway though haven't bothered fine tuning speaker placement as she will just make me move them.



 

Think you're going to have to fit shoe shelves to the rears of those!

 

SWEET towers man !!! The new placement seems spot-on. How far apart are they ? Man up and tell your wife the speakers stay where they are.