Weird Speaker Placement Configurations



My latest listening room has presented me with many challenges, because it is not only a listening room, but also a "music room", study and spare living room.

So fitting everything, including a piano, a big desk and two sofas, working around a glass pocket door and fireplace, while accomodating Magneplanar Tympanis has been no small feat.

In the end, my solution has me sitting with my back in the corner of the room behind the desk most of the time.

This has me wondering: could it be possible to successfully fire speakers diagonally across a room?

Obviously there has been lots of discussion of short vs long walls, distance from walls etc. but is it possible to create the classic triangle where the speakers vary in their distances from their respective boundaries in the room?

Or would this create obvious problems?

Of course I can also experiment, but experimentation can be a full day's work with Tympanis.

Has anyone stumbled into success with an unusual or unexpected placement of their speakers?

Thank you,
cwlondon

Showing 2 responses by rcrerar

Indeed the type of speaker positioning configuration your are proposing is, in almost all circumstances, more desirable and will achieve superior results to a symmetrical set-up. I am happy to see that there are some fellow 'goner's here who are familiar with this concept as you will rarely see this type of positioning,not just in peoples homes where it is understandable, considering the aesthetic concerns this type of speaker placement brings to a room, but even in high-end dealer showrooms where these types of considerations should have less bearing. In fact any type of pure symmetrical set-up placement where the speakers are equidistant from all room boundries will almost surely produce acoustical problems such as standing waves. There is an excellent Canadian high-end publication titled UHF that has touted this type of placement scheme with loudspeakers for years. So if you have an accommodating spouse or live on your own I urge all audiophiles to experiment with this type of placement configuration where the loudspeakers form a triangle with the corner of your listening room, I think you will be surprised by the improvement, in the overall performance of your audio system, that can be obtained by this method if performed properly.
Saki70; Yes having the placement off axis even when oriented diagonally in the listening room is just as important as with a more traditional placement. Even with the diagonal set up asymmetrical placement of the loudspeakers is still undesirable for all of the same reasons.