Length or Width in a Rectangular Room?

Early B.

We're considering rearranging our den. Currently the sound system is along the long wall (20 ft.). The rearrangment would place the system along the short wall (13 ft.).

For those of you with rectangular rooms, what has been your experience with placement of your speakers?

What do the "experts" say is best -- long wall or short wall?

Thanks.

Early B.

To create more seating space, the better half wants to cover the fireplace (that's fine with me; we never use it). This means putting the TV in front of it. Initially, we'll place the current 50" TV in front of it, and eventually buy a flat screen TV to hang above the mantle. Bookshelf speakers would be placed on the err...bookshelves on each side of the fireplace (see pic). The upside is more space, new furniture, and potentially a better sound. The downside is the big floorstanders that I love so much would have to find another home.

What do y'all think about that?

I need some expert advice. Wingnut, where are you?

pearsall001

Early B. wrote: »

We're considering rearranging our den. Currently the sound system is along the long wall (20 ft.). The rearrangment would place the system along the short wall (13 ft.).

For those of you with rectangular rooms, what has been your experience with placement of your speakers?

What do the "experts" say is best -- long wall or short wall?

Thanks.

Early, my room is 13x32 & my AAD's are positioned on the short wall 5' from the back wall & 2.5' from the side walls with my 50" TV smack in the middle. The sound fills the room with no trouble & space isn't an issue.

Do you really want to go from your superb setup to putting speaks on the bookshelf??? I'd really try to find a way to keep your present setup unless it's virtualy impossible. If push comes to shove, use stands for your new monitors...you'll never be happy with bookshelf placement.

treitz3

Short wall, short wall, short wall. There are a few exceptions. Cardas has a setup guide to calculate the optimum setup in a rectangular room here.....

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=Room+Setup

Early B.

pearsall001 wrote: »

Do you really want to go from your superb setup to putting speaks on the bookshelf??? I'd really try to find a way to keep your present setup unless it's virtualy impossible. If push comes to shove, use stands for your new monitors...you'll never be happy with bookshelf placement.

Sure, I can do stands, no problem.

Pear, since I have a couple of subs for stereo bass, I'm hoping I won't miss the magic of my floorstanders if we decide to rearrange the room and go with monitors.

Early B.

treitz3 wrote: »

Short wall, short wall, short wall. There are a few exceptions. Cardas has a setup guide to calculate the optimum setup in a rectangular room here.....

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=Room+Setup

Very cool. Thanks for the link.

treitz3

I have thoughts of what you could do but as usual with me, it might get expensive. I'll keep my mouth shut unless you are interested this time.

Ricardo

pearsall001 wrote: »

If push comes to shove, use stands for your new monitors...you'll never be happy with bookshelf placement.

+1,000 on this. My room is 10x13. I am currently "testing" the Cardas guidelines and am very happy with the sound.

Early B.

treitz3 wrote: »

I have thoughts of what you could do but as usual with me, it might get expensive. I'll keep my mouth shut unless you are interested this time.

Bring it. Whatcha got?

The WAF has given me a blank check. She wants it done.

treitz3

10-4, I'll have to get back with you tonight. Off to earn mo' money for audio gear right now......

Early B.

I'd like to get some of those metal racks to stack all of my gear on the bookshelf, to give the appearance that it is built in. And I'd like to be able to pull out each component separately to get access to the back of it. The swivel feature would be cool.

Does anyone have a link to where these racks can be purchased?

Thanks.

steveinaz

You'll have less standing waves with your equipment on the short wall. As long as you can get the speaker seperation you want...

This setup will intially sound like you're lacking a little bass--but actually your bass will be more accurate, albeit a little less room-energizing.

obieone

What's the structural integrity of the cabinet TOPS? I was thinking, you could put the two BEAST amps there, then the rest on the sheving?

madmax

Long wall was always the obvious choice for all SDA's. However, the avantgarde Duos favored the short wall. Give you speakers a try and see if it works out. It will be obvious.
madmax

Early B.

obieone wrote: »

What's the structural integrity of the cabinet TOPS? I was thinking, you could put the two BEAST amps there, then the rest on the sheving?

The cabinet tops will be able to hold the weight of all of the gear, no problem. I used to have a 37 gallon fish tank on top of the cabinet, and I'm guessing it weighed approx. 350 lbs (1 gal. = 8.33 lbs.). The shelves aren't deep enough for the gear.

Early B.

madmax wrote: »

Long wall was always the obvious choice for all SDA's. However, the avantgarde Duos favored the short wall. Give you speakers a try and see if it works out. It will be obvious.
madmax

I'm gonna switch the gear around sometime next week temporarily to hear how it sounds before I move everything.

treitz3

Are you prepared for a custom idea and a total makeover of that one wall?

Early B.

treitz3 wrote: »

Are you prepared for a custom idea and a total makeover of that one wall?

Yep.

treitz3

You might want to give me a call then. I've got a couple of ideas.

Dennis Gardner

Just an idea............................If you have the room and free reigns, I would build a projector based media wall in front of the existing fireplace with a 4-15/4-18 Infinite Baffle sub built into the wall. Done properly, this could all be "undone" at a later date to reveal the fireplace/bookshelves. Your VMPS could easily be used with an 80 inch screen. I use towers this size on my 13' wall along side my screen and love it for both 2 channel and HT.

AndyGwis

Yeah, I'd have a carpenter / cabinet guy come over and take out the bottom cupboards and put in shelving or something doesn't stick out as far. That way, you could keep your floor-standers. Mounting a TV over the fireplace would look great and save space, too.

Good luck with whatever you come up with. Good woodsmiths can do wonders with setups like this. They totally revamped my parent's family room cabinets at their last two houses. Few hundred bucks and make the room look like it was architected around your HT setup. Probably good for resale.

Maybe have them take the whole shelving / cupboards out and rebuild. Thinking two columns on each side. One for audio gear all the way up, one for media all the way up. Have one side's media column built for DVDs, the other for CDs. . . and/or Vinyl. . . and/or whatever you have.

Erik Tracy

If you ever use the fireplace, I'd be concerned over smoke/ash getting on the TV screen if it is hung above the fireplace.

I had flat white paint in the original color scheme in our house. You could see the black soot up above the fireplace over years of use in winter.

Just the thought of having to hang my plasma over the fireplace makes my AR personality cringe :eek:

AndyGwis

Get gas logs and there shouldn't be any "soot" issues

And the price of the project keeps growing. . .

amulford

AndyGwis wrote: »

Get gas logs and there shouldn't be any "soot" issues

Yes but you will have water vapor, so you'll DEFINITELY need a dehumidifier...

And the price of the project keeps growing. .

ben62670

A long room is much better to deal with reflections. My setup has no choice but to have the system setup on the long wall. My couch is up against the wall, and I hate the reflections.
Ben

amulford

Hang a shag rug or some panels behind you...

ben62670

amulford wrote: »

Hang a shag rug or some panels behind you...

The whole rear wall is friggen doors. I have to move the couch to get in a storaage room:o I supose if I have to move a couch. I can move a rug;)
Thanks
Ben

Early B.

Here's another pic from some temporary re-arranging I did today. I moved the TV in front of the fireplace and hooked up the 2-channel system. The room looks bigger than before. This means my speakers look smaller (that's a good thing). Perhaps there's no need to consider bookshelf speakers.

The TV looks OK. I could get used to it. The upside is that there are no off-axis viewing issues like we had before. The audio gear won't remain on the floor. I need to get longer ICs and such, then I'll stack the components on the left shelf unless there's a better option.

In terms of music, it sounds different, not better or worse. The sound is a little brighter, probably due to the dearth of furniture in the room at the moment. I'm getting more bass, though, probably due to the corner loading. At first, I had the speakers farther from the back wall, but I like it better when the speakers are hugging the corner.

I probably won't hook up the HT system until I make some final placement decisions. My wife hasn't seen it yet, so much of what you see will undoubtedly change.

Ricardo

Looks good. And I agree there's enough space for those speakers, though I would try the Cardas golden approach just for trying it; you might be surprised.

Early B.

Ricardo wrote: »

Looks good. And I agree there's enough space for those speakers, though I would try the Cardas golden approach just for trying it; you might be surprised.

Hell, yeah!!!! The golden cubiod works! I love it.

The downside is -- the cubiod requires the speakers to be placed well into the room. This means I gotta move them every time I want to do some critical listening to music. It's a small inconvenience, though.

SKsolutions

I have a similar room, with a window where your FP is, and an FP where your rig is. The window got covered with the TV, the day we moved, and the speakers started 2' from the back wall. Time, measurement and a little help from Cardas, now has the standmounts 3.5 feet from the wall 90% of the time. I've got markers on the floor for a slightly modified cubiod for when it's just me and some tunes (4.5' from rear wall). The standmounts are 31'' stands with tweeter level 4''-6'' above ear level over a 8 distance to the seating. The added height keeps the HF radiator above other furniture (couch) on the long wall which keeps the image very stable. A lower height had adverse effects. I think you are going to enjoy the change, and you will have an easier time with your subs as well.