[Mikeinsacramento]

My room is oriented to, and dominated by, a large segmented bookshelf.  Suggesting its removal would cause problems I don't even want to think about.

I have the opportunity to buy some used floor standing speakers I really want.  I could push the envelope with my Wife, and sandwich these speakers between the bookshelves.  The rear of the cabinets would be about 12" from the wall.  And the front would extend about 6" from the shelves on either side.  They are rear ported.

I know this an unconventional placement and am concerned about the sonic consequences.  If they are horrible, I will suck it up, and buy some actual bookshelf speakers.  But I really want these floor standers.

What should I do?

[JLM]

Welcome!

As a newbie, it is now your duty to send me the money you would have wasted on the (evitably) wrong speakers.   

As I envision what you're saying, the speakers would fit into a recess.  That is a recipe for bass boom, especially floorstanders with rear porting (unless they're really bass wimpy speakers).

I suggest you look for standmounts (some like TBI's are supposed to be quite placement insensitive) and add a powered sub (or headphones).

[Quiet Earth]

What should I do?

I think you need to provide a little more info....

What speakers are you using now? Where is their position now? Is it in the same place that you want to put the new ones?

Have you tried speakers (any speakers) in the position you are thinking about? How's it sound?

What make/model are the speakers you are looking at getting?


If you are just looking for a general rule of do and don't then you won't get a consensus here. Too many variables. For example; JLM would say that my speaker placement is dead wrong because it breaks all of the rules of rear ported floorstanders sitting in the corners of the room. But it works beautifully because they were designed to work that way. Can't tell from looking, only from listening.


Need more info . . . . then after all the differing opinions you will need to experiment a little and decide for yourself.

[Mikeinsacramento]

I've not experimented with this placement as I don't have any speakers now.  Unfortunately, I don't know anybody who has any speakers of the sort I'm considering, that I could borrow.  If this query is too hypothetical to base an opinion on, I understand.  And I'm hesitant to mention the speakers, as they are on a well known internet sales site and are rare.

I didn't know if there were any hard and fast rules concerning crowding the back side of a rear ported speaker?  It can't be good, but I was just curious if it was a distinct no-no, or if it was a qualified do-able.

[nodiak]

If there's too much bass response when you place them as you mentioned, you can put something in the ports - sock, foam, etc - which will reduce the bass and may sound good enough to live with. This is often done to deal with room lift. It would change them from a ported to more like an aperiodic design. If here's still too much bass you can lift the speakers off of the floor with bricks or a small better looking stand if it helps. These are 2 basic hands on methods that work in the real world. Another option is to use a longer port to tune the cabinet resonance lower (if you can get inside them and want to try that), which would at some point reduce the bass peak but keep the extension.
If that's the place you have for speakers then these methods are something worth trying, don't worry about theoretical perfection and enjoy some music.

[Quiet Earth]

Mike,

There are good generalizations for speaker placement as you are already aware of, but they are not necessarily hard and fast rules. Most of us are limited to what we can get away with anyway so how far must we take these rules? Don't let them stop you from trying.  If you really want to get these speakers because they're something you always wanted, then I would go for it. Life is too short and we don't always get a second chance to try.

I have owned two pairs of reasonably large rear ported speakers and successfully placed them very near the back wall and/or side walls. You can always adjust the angle of toe-in to get more mid and treble energy toward you,  and as nodiak says, put them on short stands. (Excellent advice, by the way nodiak.)

Lifting a floor standing speaker off the ground just a few inches or putting it on a sandbox (like a Brightstar Audio box or equivilent shock absorbing speaker stand) makes a huge impact on bass clarity. It's totally do-able.

BTW, welcome to Audio Circle. Make sure you come back and tell us how it turns out. 

[richidoo]

Mike, welcome to AudioCircle!!

Putting speakers in an alcove surrounded by close walls won't sound good. Not only the bass will be overexagerated but even worse will be the midrange and treble reflections from inside the alcove will prevent reaching the potential of the speakers. You'll get blurry imaging and tone and maybe even megaphone sound. Most speakers are designed (voiced) to have flat EQ away from reflective surfaces. Putting them near reflections will change the sound drastically.  Consumer speakers aren't intended for high end sound quality, so it doesn't matter where they go. That's the mindframe of the uninitiated. They just don't understand that this is a science as much as an obsession... 

When people say bookshelf in high end circles they really mean two way monitors, on a stand, still a couple feet or more from any boundaries which would reduce the sound quality. In a small room that is often the best answer. Putting a small speaker on a bookshelf has the same issues as putting a floorstander in an alcove cubby.

But there are other ways to skin the cat. There are some quality speakers that are designed to be placed against the wall or recessed inside the wall.  You can also ameliorate the reflection problem of placing the speakers in an alcove by filling the spaces with sound absorber. But even then you are not using the speakers as they are intended, so the potential will not be reached and you won't get your money's worth.  You could move the speakers into place for listening and hidden away when not in use. This is difficult because the final positioning of the speakers is sensitive. You don't have to care about that tho... You'll still get 95% of it if they are within a half inch, easy do do with small marks on the floor. Obviously weight is an issue if you will be moving them. Even if they are moved out of the cubby holes for listening, the sound of the cubby holes will drive you nuts if you don't treat it ith absorbers, or block it off with faux wall. Come to think of it, the faux walls make the shelves become "built ins" (high WAF,) get rid of the cubby acoustics, and they could hold a set of in-wall speakers, aka "infinite baffle."   Could be a win / win.

Do you have another room to put these speakers you want? Can her bookshelves go in another room? It's all about compromise. Tell her what you want to do and ask her to help you find solutions. Explain the technical issues so she knows there is a reason why they can't be hidden in a hole. The more reasons you have the less standing she has for keeping books that are never read from going into the attic. hehehe   Good luck man!
Rich