[coke]

I'm considering changing my room around over Christmas.  the dimensions aren't exact, but below is an approximation of my room.  Red shows my existing setup, and green shows the proposed.   90, 180, and 270 degree rotations of my existing setup aren't possible.

What are your thoughts on this?  I have 3 GIK 242 and 4, GIK 244 panels that can be used.  My main issue is that I'm able to hear a difference in the left and right speakers, most likely due to how close the left speaker is to the wall.  The depth of the sound also seems to be limited due to the closeness of the speakers to the back wall.   

I appreciate any help or suggestions 

It's also a lot more work than it appears to be.  I'll obviously have to re-route all my cables, but i'll also have to move my projector screen and build a new mount for the projector.  I also have curtains running all around the room except where the screen is between the speakers. I'll have to move these around as well.

[Mitsuman]

I'm considering changing my room around over Christmas.  the dimensions aren't exact, but below is an approximation of my room.  Red shows my existing setup, and green shows the proposed.   90, 180, and 270 degree rotations of my existing setup aren't possible.

What are your thoughts on this?  I have 3 GIK 242 and 4, GIK 244 panels that can be used.  My main issue is that I'm able to hear a difference in the left and right speakers, most likely due to how close the left speaker is to the wall.  The depth of the sound also seems to be limited due to the closeness of the speakers to the back wall.   

I appreciate any help or suggestions 

It's also a lot more work than it appears to be.  I'll obviously have to re-route all my cables, but i'll also have to move my projector screen and build a new mount for the projector.  I also have curtains running all around the room except where the screen is between the speakers. I'll have to move these around as well.

Don't know if this will help you or confuse you, but give it a read and you can decide. Steve's approaches are sometimes controversial, but having known him personally, I respect his methods and advice. As always, YMMV. 

http://www.decware.com/paper39.htm

[Hipper]

This may sound silly but the most obvious solution is to move the right speaker to the right wall (and of course the chair to the middle of its wall). Can you do that? Will it interefere with the door? Could you make the door a sliding one?

And here's where it gets sillier. If the speaker cannot be placed permanently nearer the right wall, could it be moved there temporarily? In other words, put the speakers on rollers! Has anybody ever done this? I dare say arguments about spikes etc will be made but the improvements from such isolation will surely be minimal compared to better speaker placement.

[coke]

Thanks for the suggestions. 

The drawing isn't quite to scale.  If I moved the speaker to the right more than about a foot it would be in front of the door and there's only about 1.5 feet from the back of the speaker to that wall.

I can notice difference in sound when my speakers are moved a fraction of an inch.  I've got them dialed in now, but don't think I could do it repeatedly with rollers on carpet.

[stew]

I have nearly the exact same room configuration and also could never get the sound from my speakers balanced. Drove me nuts until I added a TacT RCS2.0 for room correction (I use digital in from my source, and digital out into a Bryston DAC). It solved all my major issues. You can sometimes find used ones for relatively cheap online. 

Good luck!

I'm considering changing my room around over Christmas.  the dimensions aren't exact, but below is an approximation of my room.  Red shows my existing setup, and green shows the proposed.   90, 180, and 270 degree rotations of my existing setup aren't possible.

What are your thoughts on this?  I have 3 GIK 242 and 4, GIK 244 panels that can be used.  My main issue is that I'm able to hear a difference in the left and right speakers, most likely due to how close the left speaker is to the wall.  The depth of the sound also seems to be limited due to the closeness of the speakers to the back wall.   

I appreciate any help or suggestions 

It's also a lot more work than it appears to be.  I'll obviously have to re-route all my cables, but i'll also have to move my projector screen and build a new mount for the projector.  I also have curtains running all around the room except where the screen is between the speakers. I'll have to move these around as well.

[bmckenney]

I believe that new new placement is often used in a square room and I'd give it a shot if I could swing it.  And since you have some room treatment product, you might have a good chance of making it work.

Also like the suggestion of using a Tact.  I think good acoustics trumps any other aspect of audio.  If I had a difficult room I'd sacrifice some "true" audiophile ethics in electronics for better acoustics in a heartbeat.

[stew]

Hi Coke,

In addition to the TacT unit, I also utilize 2 GIK 242 panels (mounted at tweeter height along the left wall to block the 1st reflection points of both speakers on that wall) and 2 Echobusters absorption panels (mounted at tweeter height along the back wall immediately behind my listening position, which essentially abuts the back wall like yours). According to measurements in my room, the Echobusters do a better job of attenuating the high frequency reflections than the GIK panels. Anyhow, I hung the panels because the TacT really can't do much, if anything, about those reflection points, and even with the TacT correction (but before the panels were installed), the sound in the higher frequencies was never quite as focused as I knew it should be.  Using the mix of absorption panels and TacT, now the sound is nearly perfectly balanced in my asymmetric setup.

Hi bmckenney,

I have found that good acoustics is a huge ingredient to a system sounding its best... and it seems you may agree! I would go so far as to say that it is perhaps the single most important factor (i.e., great components can sound crappy in an untreated room or when positioned incorrectly, but shine to their full potential only when treatment and setup are done right). Since I use the TacT only as signal processor (digital in, digital out to Bryston DAC), I have found its (negative) impact to the sound quality to be negligible. But, admittedly, that was after a lot of experimentation with different curves and microphone positions, as well as careful vibration isolation.

Cheers, Stew

[adydula]

Coke, how high is the ceiling in this room? 8', 9' etc?

Alex

[geezer]

I have a geometry almost the same as yours, except the vertical (as in your diagram) dimension is 22 feet, so the back wall is far behind the chair. I too originally had a R-L imbalance, but in my case I just turned the R-L balance knob a bit towards the right; now it sounds great. Incidentally, I've done nothing in the way of acoustical treatments to the room, yet the system sounds beautiful. It must have something to do with the fact that there's a lot of upholstered furniture all around, and there is a heavy drape covering a very wide window on the left wall.

[jimdgoulding]

Hi, Coke.  If this is a dedicated room for listening to music, what's wrong with the obvious?  Just rotate your triangle so your speakers are in the east end of your illustration between 2 to 3x their cabinet depth off the back wall firing straight ahead into your room's length.  If you watch TV in there, wall mount a flat screen. 

[Hipper]

It's a real shame you can't turn the system 180 degrees as that is the obvious solution.

Can you also not move both speakers at least a little bit more to the right?

Or, have you tried both speakers the same distance from their side walls, even if they are rather close together in the middle of the room - say each being four feet from the side walls and therefore about six feet apart? If you allow reflections off the side walls you may still get quite a wide soundstage.

On the subject of Tact, there are other possibilities with digital equalizers, including the DEQX, and, the cheapest option, the Behringer DEQ2496 (around $300, plus a microphone, cable and stand). I have one and it is essential to my sytem. All these products require a lot of learning though and they are not a cure all.

Basically you put a microphone where your ears will be and do some measurements for each speaker seperately. You can then get the sound levels at your ears for all frequencies more or less as they should be. Tact and DEQX offer more sophisticated settings.

[Austin08]

I have read through several posts and it seems like a lot of peole run into odd room layout or WAF problem.... Here is the most easiest and cheapest solution promissed to solve most of those problem that I came across from some other thread. Built a speaker stand just tall enough to put 4 wheels or 4 rollers on 4 corners. Drill 4 holes next to it and install a set of adjustable spike in it. Everytime, you want to fire up your toys, move the speaker out to their prefix optimal position, adjust the spike feets so it lift the speaker of the ground. When you are done listening, lower the spike, roll them back to where they came from. Whoala, problem solved. I did this before and my wife love me to death. Just my 2cts.

[Nuance]

^ Dialing in a system in a room of this type can come down to inches, so moving the speakers constantly would probably be a hassle, taking a very critical eye and ear to get things dialed in properly  Good idea, though.

Coke,

You already said this, but just to be 100% sure: you absolutely cannot change the layout to having the speakers on the South or West wall (based on the diagram)?

[Austin08]

Nuance,
If set up the speakers properly and mark the spike feet with painted tape. So it is much easier to set it up next time. It is very hassle at first but after doing it for awhile I seem like to know the position by head.

[Nuance]

Nuance,
If set up the speakers properly and mark the spike feet with painted tape. So it is much easier to set it up next time. It is very hassle at first but after doing it for awhile I seem like to know the position by head.

I thought of that when I was responding earlier; it's doable for sure, don't get me wrong.  Now if speakers already came that way...

[coke]

^ Dialing in a system in a room of this type can come down to inches, so moving the speakers constantly would probably be a hassle, taking a very critical eye and ear to get things dialed in properly  Good idea, though.

Coke,

You already said this, but just to be 100% sure: you absolutely cannot change the layout to having the speakers on the South or West wall (based on the diagram)?

There are 2 windows on the "south" wall.  I might be able to make it work, but it wouldn't be easy to mount my screen there.  I didn't show it on the drawing, but the entire west wall is a closet with 2 sets of doors that open into the room.

[sebrof]

I have a 12' x 13' room similar to yours and I recently moved to the diagonal setup in your proposed diagram.
All I can say is "Do it." It certainly worked for me, no question. And the odd thing is that it feels like there is more room now. It's worth a try IMO.

btw: Moving stuff around when I want to listen is a PITA, or at least a PI my A. I did not like having to do it. Others may not mind as much.