Speaker Placement in a square room.

[karkus30]

Speaker placement. The thorn in the side of any hi fi enthusiasts dream of sonic Nirvana.

Yesterday I moved my system into another room, its very similar to the old room; 10' ceilings, 15' x 15' square, probably the worst dimensions for speaker placement.

In the old room, the speakers were placed either side of a bay window. The listening position was opposite , against the wall.

The new room doeasnt have a bay, so I just put them up against the wall, switched on and ...............disaster, awful, muddled, bass bloom, terrible imaging etc.

So, after reading about speaker placement, I decided to move them further into the room. Because this would have interfered with the door way, they were moved to either side of the fire place about 5.5' apart and toed in towards the listening position (in the centre of the listening position its just possible to see the inside faces of the cabinets). The front face of the speakers is around 4' 5" forward of the back wall and around 4' from the side walls.
The listening position is back against the far wall, which gives a measurement of approx. 1.5 times the distance the speakers are apart.
Wooden floors, with a large rug, curtained window, large sofa and a cd cabinet is all there is in the room. peakers are small stand mounted , 2 way design, rear ported.

Result, loads better than in the previous room. Incredible imaging, tight thundering bass, all the little nuances that I must have spent years missing out on.

This might just save someone hours of aggro and truck loads of money. The difference is incredible, its not subtle, its as if Ive gone out and spent a few thousand on a new system.

 

[Hawklord]

Cheapest upgrade ever is to have everything positioned as best as you can. I still fiddle from time to time hoping to squeez out every last drop from my system without spending a penny (except when upgraditis set in)
It's a great feeling when you get system synergy everything falls into place with no snake oil in sight

 

[karkus30]

Hawklord, as I was looking at the Naim forum today, noticed your looking for amp recommendations. You are using the Naim Cd player, I have a 72/140 combo with a custom power supply and have owned a Nait 3 and tried the the A&R amp.

IMO The A&R doesnt have the power, even hooked up to a power amp. The Nait 3 and probably the five, will give a different presentation to the A & R but they are a bit breathless when pushed hard.

The 72/140 is where the fireworks start. Its flat earth stuff, but they can really swing current and everything is fast with tremendous slam and grip. The usual Naim traits are the trade off, they do image but not in a spectacular way, they lack deep bottom end and extreme highs (not that I have noticed, but thats what they say).

If you do buy, never , ever switch them off and dont switch them on for a few hours and expect them to sound right, they will sound splashy and confused. They need at least 24hrs of being powered up before they begin to sound right.

This is NOT one of those bits of advice that should be ignored, its not a slight change in sound, its fundemental. I have been in Naim dealers who brought the amps out from cold to do a demo .

Not sure where you are located, but if you can get to my neck of the woods, bring your player up and try it out through my system.

 

[Hawklord]

I had a very brief listen to the nait5 and nait5i with the cd5i but wasn't really enough time to make a real comparison to the Arcam A80 they were using at the audition.
I'll do a bit of homework over the next few months and put together a short list of the usual suspects. My credit card is maxed out at the moment so it'll be a while before I can even contemplate upgrading the A75+. The A75+ is a very good little amp for the money (I paid £395 about 8 months ago) so will tide me over till I make a decision on what to do next. I have put a wanted add in the classifieds for a P75+ though so I'd be sorely tempted to purchase one if someone had a mint one going cheap
Have you any experiance of the Nait5i? I know it's going to be a good match for the cd5i but wether it'll be a marked improvement over the Arcam is questionable imo. I'll probably have to spend something in the order of £1000 to better it I feel.

Hawk

 

[karkus30]

My experience is with the Nait 3, but I would imagine it to be similar. I dont think it would knock the spots off the Arcam, but the overall presentation would be better. A 72/140 naim pre power would probably set you back between £700 to £1200 secondhand, depending on age / condition and it would annihalate the Arcam.