I like the long wall. Lots of good information in here.enjoy the music.
Speakers on the long wall
My Vandersteen 2Ci speakers are now on the long wall of a 13' x 20' room with a 7' 7" ceiling, roughly centered on the wall and about 10" from the front wall, with a TV between them. The listening position is about 9–10 feet away, on the opposite side of the room in front of three windows, and one of the short walls has a 6' opening into the kitchen.
In a previous setup the speakers were on the 13' wall and sounded excellent, but returning to that arrangement is no longer possible. With the current long‑wall placement, the sound is shallow, a bit lifeless, and the soundstage is poor. This seems to point strongly to room interaction.
This seems like the kind of room many have successfully tamed with careful placement and treatment, so practical advice on how to proceed with room treatments and positioning would be very welcome.
Vandersteen 2Ci, McCormack DNA‑0.5, Marantz CD player.
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My upstairs living room is approx 28 x 16. I’ve never really had good luck with the speakers on the long wall in this room. Doesn’t sound bad by any means just way less good than the short wall. I’ve tried with multiple speakers big and small. Finally gave up and put the system back down in the basement since the short wall is not feasible long term. Never really had the chance to play with room treatments too much but that might have made a difference. |
I have a 12’ x 20’ room and played it on the short wall for a while. With the room untreated the soundstage felt constrained and I generally wasn’t happy with that, although the bass response was excellent. One thing that really made a big difference was treating the early sidewall reflections, most importantly the first cross reflections, by which I mean the first reflection of the right speaker off the left wall and vice versa. I treated these in such a way that the reflections were absorbed using an angled panel that was hard and reflective on one side and absorbent on the other. This allowed sound to bounce off the back wall and hit the hard side of the panels and reach me in a delayed fashion, while the direct sound from both same side and opposite side early reflections was caught by the absorbent side of the panel after it had bounced of the wall. I sell acoustics and have been taught that it is desirable to hear reflections from the side walls, but later and weaker than the early reflections directly from the speakers. Setting that up was the first time I had actually heard the effect for myself and I will say that it really opened up the soundstage! I found it very natural and comfortable sounding. Unfortunately it was a cumbersome setup that made the room difficult to navigate so I couldn’t leave it in place. But, there are better ways to do it than my angled panel arrangement. I'd have bought what I needed to make it work, but I ended up switching to the long wall because in my room that turns out to be a much more livable arrangement. |
@asctim Interesting concept that makes a lot of sense. My room is the same size so might be worth experimenting. Given your user name, and you indicating you sell acoustics, are you affiliated with ASC. I have been considering their panels for my room. |
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