Two listening positions, optimizing speaker placement.

Rnjderivs

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Hi there, newbie here. Trying to figure out my best speaker placement in my office given my constraints.

1. I have two listening positions, one is my desk, the other is a recliner. They are close to the corners of the rear wall.
2. The room is about 230 sq ft and is roughly square. About 15x15.
3. Has a vaulted ceiling.
4. The speakers are on a ledge about 8 feet high on the front wall. About 18 inches from the corners and with 6 feet between them.

How would you optimize for both listening positions.

The picture below is from one listening position. The second would be 6 feet to the right.
Thank you so much

16488317281048335266648600559090.jpg
 
Well co-axial is good, but really in order to optimise your listening position, and if you can't move the speakers, I'd suggest angling them in slightly and getting yourself a good chair and move a bit closer. Position perhaps 2-3m from the speakers.

Something like this should do..

1648832711082.png


I'm struggling to suggest a desk though. Nothing suitable in the whole IKEA catalogue.
 
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I would say it's almost an impossibility to optimise a listening position with the speakers being that high. Tweeters at a seated head height is best option, certainly for listening from an arm chair. If doubling up is needed for a desk as well then a good pair of headphones may be the better option for serious listening and leave the speakers where they are for background music.

Just my two penny worth.
 
Bring speaker down to normal ear level.

For the next trick, the only thing I know of that can do it is the Roon streaming software:

Basically you adjust the inter-speaker delays according to approx 1ms for each foot for difference in distance between L/R speaker and a listening position and adjust the further speaker to be between 0.5 and 1.5dB louder than the nearer one.

Then save a preset for each position.

The end result will be to perceptibly time align and level the L/R speaker for each listening position - and this does work so long as each position is not too far off axis. If further off axis, then EQ can perhaps be used to compensate for the high end roll off.

I have used this to account for the difference between my ideal listening central position and another side location in my living room (that is close to one speaker and distance from the other) such that I get perfect time and level aligned imaging at both locations (I also have room correction presets for both locations which helps too).

Other than the above DSP approach, maybe you need to decide which location is most important and optimise for that or accept that neither will be good and aim somewhere in the middle. With speakers up high like that, then nowhere will be good, even if they were angled down.
 
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The only thing that will help that is good room correction software, and even that might striggle.
 
You do have the right kind of speakers - co-axial drivers have much better dispersion and can actually work reasonably well when wall mounted (which is effectively what these are).

First of all you have to forget about any kind of proper stereo image, treat it as though you are looking for a uniform sound field or mono system.

Best to angle the drivers downward so that they are pointing into the middle of the two listening positions. Some kind of bracket mount will help, you don't want the speakers falling onto pedestrians from that height. Probably not a bad idea to add a small sub - even up on the shelf would be okay too, you will be getting almost no bass at all from your current setup. Adding a bit of bass support for the speakers will help.

I can't see what amp you have there - does it have sub-out?

Alternatively something designed to work as a single speaker for the room with wide dispersion like a Sonos 5 or one of the many alternatives is also worth considering.
 
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Well co-axial is good, but really in order to optimise your listening position, and if you can't move the speakers, I'd suggest angling them in slightly and getting yourself a good chair and move a bit closer. Position perhaps 2-3m from the speakers.

Something like this should do..

View attachment 1676679

I'm struggling to suggest a desk though. Nothing suitable in
 
Thank you all for the advice. Wondering if some room treatments like bass traps or diffusers will help. Or is the juice not worth the squeeze given my room configuration and speaker placement?

Also like the idea of pointing the speakers down a little safely. Maybe i'll get one of those speaker pads with a lean.

Funnily enough I had a Klipsch G17 gallery speaker (single speaker like a sonos 5) with a chromecast hooked into it, which sounded quite good in a corner. But I was looking to upgrade the sound, get more of a soundstage and more detail. Hoping the effort/cost will pay off.

The amp is a Niles SI2100 and the speakers are KEFQ150s.
 
Thank you all for the advice. Wondering if some room treatments like bass traps or diffusers will help. Or is the juice not worth the squeeze given my room configuration and speaker placement?
Not really as the present positons are really compromised. It would be a waste of money as room treatments cannot do anything about a poor soundstage.
 
Hey all, thought I'd update on how my experience evolved. Up on the shelf it really didn't sound good at all. So i ended up buying some speaker stands and putting them in the corner as shown below. I know corner isn't optimal, but it's perfect for me because it's equidistant between my desk, and my recliner. I used the foam plug insert in the bass port (came with the Kef q150) to dampen that thud a little and it sounds fantastic to my ears.

0407221727.jpg
 
Some architects are hopeless when it comes to giving us the right space to organise our hifi. :)

I think what you have done, although not perfect, looks good and I'm not surprised it sounds a lot better. Enjoy.
 
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Some architects are hopeless when it comes to giving us the right space to organise our hifi. :)

I think what you have done, although not perfect, looks good and I'm not surprised it sounds a lot better. Enjoy.
Too true.

Fortunately the new-build I bought 5 year ago has a reasonably sized rectangular living room with access to the kitchen and the outside on the shorter sides of the room. So an almost ideal space for my home theatre setup.
 

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