[rlw3]

Moved my system into a rectagular room for the first time. it is 5 sided as it opens into my hallway and is 19 x 13 x 8 feet. as i buy and place my bass panels and diffusers i noticed an interesting development. my system in on the short wall firing down the long walls. all my heavy bass panels are on the short walls and all my light absorption and diffusers are on the side (long) walls. since bass notes are long wave length this seemed to make sense to me.

[Ethan Winer]

It's better to have the speakers fire the longer way down the room. That puts the reflecting rear wall behind you farther away, which in turn reduces the strength of those important (damaging) reflections. Proof in Figure 3 here:

How to set up a room

Some people will argue that having the side walls farther away is better for early reflections, and that's true. But those reflections are easily tamed with relatively thin absorption. Versus bass problems that are much more difficult to solve.

--Ethan