[kingdeezie]

Hello all.

I have posted here on this forum to great success with acoustic issues, and so I now turn to all of you fine ladies and gentleman for help with my upcoming decision.

In an effort to get the entirety of my house to look better then it does, we have been rehabilitating each room one at a time.

The listening room is lined with awful carpet that is significantly old, worn, and stained. So early next month, I am having professionals install some hardwood floor that we just recently used in the living room to much happiness and satisfaction.

This begs the question of, should I keep the room configuration that way it is now, or switch things up? Obviously I want sound to be the number one priority.

My room is 12x18. I currently have my speakers and equipment along the 18 foot wall. I am running GR Research LS6 line source speakers. The speakers are two and a half feet from the wall behind them, with GIK monster traps directly on the wall.

When positioned properly away from the speakers, it puts my ears less then a foot from the wall behind me. I know this is bad. I do have GIK Monster Traps directly behind me all along that wall to try and delay reflections.

If I move the speakers to the 12 foot wall, I can move the speakers further out from the wall behind them, to around four feet, and my ears will now be about 5 feet away from the nearest wall behind them. Sounds better right?

The issue now will be that the speakers will be extremely close to the side walls. Right now the speakers have around four feet next to them from the side walls. Moving to the 12 foot wall will have them as close as one foot from the side walls, once the projection screen is installed.

It is easy to say just try it, but the problem is the dedicated circuit, and current room treatments are all hung and placed in accordance to the placement now, giving the current configuration that advantage, and tainting any trial.

So my question is, what is the lesser of the two evils?

Is it better to have more room behind the speakers and behind your ears, but less room from the sidewalls, or is it better to have more room from the sidewalls, with less depth from the wall behind the speakers and your ears?

Would appreciate any and all input.

Thanks.

[Hipper]

Do you like the sound you get now?

If you don't do anything else, replacing carpet with wooden flooring will surely change that sound.

In a 13' x 8' room I found the best solution was using the long wall for the speakers and with my chair against the back wall - it was a high backed chair that prevented reflections direct from the rear wall to my ears. However I used Auaralex foam on most of the wall behind the speakers, and a digital equalizer. Even though I'm now in a bigger more rectangular room (13' x 12') I still use the same arrangement, including my chair against the back wall. I've moved that chair about to see if I can do better but against the back wall is best (the equalizer is needed here to deal with some anomolies).

I would say that, even though I fully understand the problems of trying different set ups, that that is the only real way of finding out what works best for you. You could set up on the long wall and move your chair backwards and forwards - bass would be the area most affected by this.

[Hipper]

I've just read this in a revue of your speakers:

'they need room to breath so we don't recommend putting them back against a wall - there are EIGHT ports back there! You will also need 10 feet distance from them - these are not for near-field fans. That all means you need a pretty good sized room to get the best out of these, so those with smaller rooms should not even consider them.  The low-end pressurization of the room will necessitate treatments to hear what they can really do in all but the most cavernous of rooms, but room treatments are almost always helpful in any room for any speaker.'

[JLM]

So while you're clearing out the room for the new flooring, try it both ways (with no treatments and using an extension cord).  Long wall set-up with ears against the opposite wall is in the minority opinion, but some recommend it. 

Agree that line source speakers are meant to be heard far field.  Maybe it's time for new speakers too.

Think about diffusion/absorption on near side walls.  BTW absorption does not delay reflections, only reduces them. 

Think too about a smaller projection to allow narrow wall speakers to move closer together.

Also suggest shortering (and possibly lowering the ceiling in) the room.  I use the Cardas golden cuboid formula (1 x 1.62 x 2.62) to great success in my listening room.  12 x 18 is a simple muliple and the first rule is to start with "good bones" (room size/shape).

[Glenn Kuras]

I just did a test with facing the long wall vs the short wall. You can see the results here.
http://www.gikacoustics.com/video_positioning_listening_spot.html



Glenn Kuras
GIK Acoustics