Bookshelf speakers ... placing them on their sides?

Hi all,

I recently re-arranged my living room and the end result was that I needed to take my back surround speakers off of their stands and place them on top of my expedit record shelves....and I did end up placing them on their sides (the speakers that is) rather than their normal orientation. I am curious if this could be a problem long-term, or do you think they will be ok in this position?

Thanks, Gabe

 

Hi Gabe, I don't think it will do any harm. I have read that it was ok to turn them upside down to improve bass, so you should be ok.

 

That's exactly how I have my surrounds, out of necessity -- they are literally on bookshelves, and on their sides is the only way they would fit. No problems whatsoever, either sound-wise or mechanically.

It's not ideal, I know, and I would never put bookshelf speakers on bookshelves if they were my front L-R speakers, but the arrangement of our smallish living room allows no other suitable option for the rears. For HT surround use they sound just fine where they are, and even on the rare occasions that I listen to 5.1 music they sound alright (although this is where I notice the deficiencies of the bookshelf the most).

 

You should be just fine for surround.

 

Back in the 60s and 70s placing bookshelf speakers on their sides on actual bookshelves was the most common way of using them. Depending on the speakers and the depth of the shelves they can even sound pretty good that way sometimes.

 

Yup, I remember doing that with a rather large so called bookshelf speaker back in the day.

 

You could play with the time arrival of the drivers with them on their sides. I would place the tweeters [assuming 2-way, which is the norm from 'bookshelf' speakers] on the inside with moderate toe-in. Should make the stereo imaging more focused.

 

Great! Thanks so much for all the insight and advice. Cheers and thanks again

 

I have some Yamaha NS-690s that were marketed as "bookshelf". Can't say as I've ever had a shelf big enough or strong enough to support them. Something the size of an EPI 100 would be about the limit and to me even that is pushing it for weight. I have some M50s that actually do sound great on a shelf, though. Just make sure they have 6 or 8" from the wall. They were my first speakers (still enjoy them). Plenty of bass for a small speaker. In one house I lived in they used to actually walk themselves off the shelf if I cranked it for awhile!

 

I used to have Infinity 2500's on their sides above the TV. Now I have Paradigm Titans, upright. The Infinity's had more 'grunt' and volume, the Titans more finesse and deep bass.

 

I use Titans as my surrounds (and they used to be my front L-Rs as well before I got the Reference Studio 60s). Those little guys never cease to amaze me, they just sound so good and full for such a small, reasonably-priced speaker.

 

For my den I recently bought a pair of used 10 year old CSW Model Six speakers and have them on their sides on bookshelves. I had thought I would put them on the top of the bookshelves but the sound was too harsh for this model. I next I moved them to the shelves and started experimenting with which shelf height worked best for my usual listening position. I then had to play around a bit with their angle and distance to the edge of the shelf, and finally had to determine whether or not the larger driver should be close to or further from the bookshelf sides. It took a little while, but I found just the right positioning for this set and am very happy with their imaging. My other connection for listening in my office is with Pioneer SP-BS22-LR. In this case I have them standing upright (you can't put them on their sides due to the rounded design) on top of the shelving.

 

Let your ears be the judge.

 

I thought you shouldn't ever turn them on their sides, as it would screw up the sound, due to the design. That's what I've always heard.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-home-t...ouldnt-lay-bookshelf-speakers-their-side.html

 

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

They are not supposed to be like that! It places them in the wrong orientation with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. They will degauss over time and lose their sound.

OK, maybe not.

The basic problem is that when tweeters are next to woofers, you get peaks and dips in the frequency response at different angles from the speakers. (Google "venetian blind effect"). This may not matter much at the sweet spot but can sound bad elsewhere. (So, why are center channels almost always sideways? Space, customer expectations, $$$$. Acoustics take a distant back seat).

 

I think all of that is true, if you're talking about placing your mains on their sides. For typical surround content, it really doesn't make much of a difference.

 

some pro audio monitors are made to use in either orientation. I doubt it could do anything bad to the speakers physically. Sound-wise, the tweeters will be in a different orientation, which may sound better or worse or be inaudible I guess.

 

Sonically, there is a difference, but I think this difference resulted from me taking them off of speaker stands and placing them atop shelves...not only a difference material, but a different height.

 

If you put your speakers on their side, all the ohms will run out. You won't have nearly enough ohms. This could turn an 8 ohm speaker into a 4 ohm one in a matter of days. In a month you could be less than half an ohm. Trying to drive that would blow up your amplifier.

Fortunately, I have an ohms pump which I would gladly sell you that would refill your speakers with new ohms. It's only $299 and worth every penny.

PM me if you are interested.

 

But some require you to rotate the mid/high unit 90 degrees if you do, due to the different horizontal vs. vertical dispersion characteristics. For most you are stuck with the way the drivers are mounted. As an example, see these Stereophile measurements on a 2-way stand-mount speaker:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/epos-elan-10-loudspeaker-measurements

and compare Figs. 5 and 6. The fairly smooth dispersion will now be in the vertical plane if you rotate the speaker 90 degrees, and the suckouts will appear in the horizontal plane!

 

^ Agreed this is true with main monitor speakers.

With surround sound speakers, I've found that reflected sound is often better than direct sound from the speaker. Rear speakers should have a defuse sound. Dispersion patterns don't really count for much in this application.

 

I've had my bookshelf speakers basically sitting on the floor hiding behind a grate for ages. As an experiment, yesterday I took them out and placed them standing properly on the shelf on each side of our television. The end result is that while it increased the brightness of the sound, it also killed pretty much all of the bass to the point where I questioned if I had to purchase a subwoofer. I shrugged that off and put them back behind the grate and am happier for it (thought the sound was perhaps too bright out in the open anyways).