Help Total Confusion


I just read where placing your equipment rack between your speakers is a no-no, collapsing sounstage, boomy bass, etc.

My problem is that I don't have a choice. So would it be better to buy a taller, thinner rack, creating more vertical space around my speakers, or a low slung, wider rack, creating more horizontal space around the speakers?

My speakers are monitors (Tyler Acoustic Linbrooks) and all my listening is near field, about 7 to 71/2 feet from listening chair. The speakers are 8 feet apart now and I detect a small hole in the center of the soundstage, so moving them closer an inch or two might be helpful.

I'm almost ready to buy a new rack, but none of the accesible stores will let me give the furniture a trial run, which I find curious because they'll all let me audition components in-home. Thanks so much in advance for your suggestions and comments fellow 'goners.

Dan
tbadder

Showing 1 response by wmcmanus

Thanks for the link, Sean; it was well worth the read! Ben, I'm with you on this one. Room limiations sometimes cannot be avoided, and you just have to live with them the best you can and enjoy the music. I'm seriously thinking about ripping out a major portion of my roof and adding a second floor dedicated HT, but short of that, which would obviuosly come at an enormous cost, I'll have to continue to live with real world room limitations. I don't think anyone who has posted above has argued differently, but it's comforting to know that well-informed folks such as Ben have achieved workable solutions.

One of the puzzling things about the audio hobby in my experience which is admittedly limited, is that if one tried to follow every bit of sage advice in a literal fashion, he would end up with an audio system that would be the equivalent of an Ed Norton golf swing! (For those of you who remember the Honeymooners episode where Ralph and Ed were trying to learn how to swing a golf club simply by reading a book.) Experience teaches, and that's where the link Sean has proved comes in - lots of good ideas to work with.