LS-90 Positioning

eagertrader

I've owned a pair of LS-90's for 11 years and should have figured this out by now.
They sound very good now, but there is always room for improvement.
I have them positioned approximately 4 feet away from the wall, and the left speaker is 2 feet away from the side wall that forms the left corner of the room. The right speaker is 8 feet away from the side wall tht makes the right corner of the room. The LS-90's are 8 ft apart from each other and toed in pointing to my listening position which is 15 ft. away from the center between both speakers.
They are standing over two stacked 13x13 ceramic tiles atop carpet.
Any suggestions on better placement?
If it imakes a difference to know, I have them by-wired to a 200 amp high-current amp and I mostly listen to 2 channel audio, (although they are part of a home theater set-up). On the left corner there is a Velodyne HGS-18 sub. Suggestions on positioning will be appreciated and experimented with.

mantis

Ahh the HGS 18...dude superior sub.I would proudly own it.

Your setup sounds pretty good to me.15 feet away from the mains,you should consider 15 feet apart from left to right speaker.when speakers are to close,they tend to lose there detail and soundstage.Music sound compressed.A rule I find that works extremely well to get started is the equal triangle.The distance between the main speakers and the distance to the listening sweat spot,need to be all equal.Most of the time I find that perfect world.Sometimes depending on the speaker and room reaction,slighty wider is better.

Tuning the sub for music is another thing I would do.The Velodyne HGS series are very musical.It will give you incredible weight.

Looking at the room,do you have many reflections behind on along side of the mains??Adress this and better hi fi you will have.

Wire,I see bi wire but what kind of bi wire do you own.Owning the best wire that matches your system is like a fine tuning of an engine.

dan

pjdami

Eager,

Welcome to Club Polk! Mantis has outlined some very practical suggestions for room placement.

Looks like you've got some room and distance between the rear of the speaker and the back wall (behind the speaker). You may find this ariticle by George Cardas interesting:

http://www.cardas.com/insights/index.html

Click on the room setup link from that page. It is based upon the "golden ratio" for speaker setup.

Now will the "golden ratio" sound the best? That is the question that you have to answer for yourself. Like Mantis has indicated sometimes you just have to trust your ears all theory aside. Experience with setting up speakers in rooms is often the best tool.

Paul

warviper

I prefer my 90s toed in. Gives it a more direct type of sound.

scottnbnj

Originally posted by eagertrader
They sound very good now, but there is always room for improvement.

first, i've never heard ls90's or even seen them in person, but from their looks, i want to. for your placement,..

i would start by trying to define what you hope to achieve in terms of 'my system lacks or has too much of x that i have heard done better in other systems' or in a real performance.

you might start with things like bass notes tend to come from one side of the stage or are too heavy/light/muddy/thin or notes of a certain instrument seem to dance from place to place and can't be pinpointed or everything seems to come from the center far away from me and i don't feel like i'm uh,.. immersed or sitting in the same room as the performance.

then maybe define what can and can't be done,.. right speak can't move closer to corner, both speaks can't move further from back wall but can move closer, listening position can't move much closer or further from back wall or to the right, the entire soundstage(l+r)can not be moved to left wall, i don't have carpet and i can't get a rug(sounds like you have carpet though), i have windows/sliding door on left wall, but can't put heavy treatments there, and on and on.

anyway's from what you've given alone, if no major movements are possible, for what i'd want to hear:

for serious listening, i'd want to sit alot closer with alot less toe in(i'd think about a nice executive chair that can get in and out of the sweetspot rapidly).

when you're entertaining others, you're probably not studying very seriously anyways, so the current listening area is fine for whatever tweaks make the prime listening area work best.

i'd want to try treatments, at least, on the left wall(maybe on the wall behind current listening area too depening on how close it is, particularly if it is in the middle of a standing wave) to minimize reflected sound.

did i mention alot less toe in?

not sure what you mean by tiles (thickness/weight) or what they're for, but i'd probably nix the them(at least one of them and add something to couple the speaks to the tile(ie rubber feet), if you must have both tiles, between the tiles too, probably no tiles, just spikes).

good luck.

)

eagertrader

Thank you all for your valuable input. I already started experimenting with your sugestions, and I started to appreciate improvements in the depth, soundstage and accuracy of being able to better pinpoint instruments. If you can think of anything else please let me know.
What worked best:
Separating the fronts a little further apart, to 11 ft. I am limited by the logistics of the room and what my wife would be willing to put up with.