Which way should I set up the speakers in my small rectangular room....

Now I've moved house I have to make do with a small listening room until I get round to making the large garage at the bottom of the garden into a listening room / refuge from the wife and kids . It could be years before I get any respite though, so for now I am going to have to make do with this room in the house.

The room is 8ft x 11ft and has a ceiling height of 8.5ft. The walls are brick, the ceiling plasterboard and there is a sprung wooden floor with cheap laminated wood flooring on top. There is a large window in the middle of one of the short walls.

My question is - which wall should I place the speakers (Spendor SP100) along. Aesthetically and practically speaking I would favour the long wall. This will also give me more distance between the speakers which would be good since they are pretty large and create an awesome soundstage given the chance. However, the listening position would be pretty close to the plane of the speakers - probably as little as 5ft.

Is there any reason, based on the dimensions of the room, that I would be better off placing them along the short wall? That way the listening position would be at a greater distance from the plane of the speakers (about 8ft) but they would be closer to each other which would presumably reduce the width of the soundstage.

[I know the best way to answer this would be to try each position but I have some serious shelving in there and wondered if there were any theoretical acoustic considerations worth knowing about before I start to move furniture about.]

Any thoughts?

 

Long wall on stands a couple of feet out from wall & tweeter is ear lever while sitting. Thats pretty basic.

 

this thread had some good info:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=121066

 

I can't offer much wisdom about "long vs. short" (except that my instincts--which are usually suspect! -- would be to put the speakers on the short wall), but here's a doubtless unwelcome observation that may nonetheless be worth bearing in mind. If the Spendors are designed to live in a much larger room, they may just not work well in a small one no matter what you do. Years and years ago, an acquaintance played me his system under just such circumstances; he had big electrostatic speakers (forget the brand) purchased for a pre-divorce big room, and they were absolutely smothered in the post-divorce glorified broom closet in which they were now residing. There just wasn't enough room volume for them to "bloom." You may want to consider storing your current set against the day that you get that garage remodeled (and what better goad could you give yourself?) and look into outfitting the existing space with a good pair of smaller ones for the time being. Later, the small pair might serve you as rear channels for surround, if you're interested in such, or you could always keep them in the main house on a second "family" system, discouraging familial "excursions" into your refuge.

(Edit)

Just hit me--you're in England. Through some mysterious chain, an older pair of these:

http://www.sequencedesign.co.uk/sonata/sonata_main.htm

came my way in a used eqpt. shop, and I like them very much in my "second" system, which resides in a very small room. English-based company with, as far as I can tell, no North American distribution, but that's not an issue in London! They can be set on the floor, but the magic starts when they're wall-mounted. Might be just the ticket to save space while getting good sound in a small room. They come with a tricky steel rod contraption that doubles as floor stand and wall bracket. They *do* need a subwoofer, or at least mine do, but it needn't be exalted; I coupled mine with a cheap Advent passive to good effect. Funny thing is that although they look much like "panel" speakers, in fact they rely on conventional drivers. Maybe worth a listen, if you can find a dealer.

 

I'm in the same boat, Mal. My listening room is slightly larger (13' x 9'), but not much. Because I simply can't set up my speakers against one of the short walls due to the placement of 2 doorways into the room, my floorstanding speakers are also set up against one of the long walls, about a foot out from the wall, & slightly toed in. So I'm sitting about 7 feet from the speakers & the speakers themselves are about 8-9 feet apart. While not perfect, it sounds decent & works for me until I get a bigger house one day.

Just experiment a bit with speaker placement, & I think you'll get decent enough results in your small room too. Good luck, Mal.

 

Speakers should fire the longer way down the room. The main advantage of that is it puts the wall behind you farther back. That's the main source of bass peaks and nulls. More info - with proof - here:

http://www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

--Ethan

 

Just checked your link - you mean I have to sit 4 feet into the room and have the speakers on the short wall?!!

I've arranged the furniture to have them on the long wall to start with - if I get problems there I'll tell myself I should have listened to you and try re-arranging the room.

Any thoughts about the size of the speakers - would you agree with drh that the S100's may be too big for such a small room?

 

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

This formula worked very well for me in two different locations.

 

Mal,

I've had a lot of success with speakers on the long wall, even with my head close to the wall behind me.

My concern is the size of your speakers versus the size of your room. The Spendor 100s were designed as a full range speaker and really work best in a bigger room than what you have. I can't remember if the speakers are sealed or ported but, if ported, you could try blocking the ports if the bass is overwhelming the room. Even a pair of old socks would do the trick!

Lovely speakers, those Spendors.

 

Yes, if you want the most accurate LF response independent of bass traps.

Here's the deal with long wall versus short wall as I see it:

The advantage of putting the speakers in front of the long wall is that puts the side walls farther away, which in turn reduces early reflections and gives better imaging. Great so far!

The downside is this gives a much worse bass response.

Side wall reflections are trivial to treat with relatively thin absorption, but bass problems require substantial bass trapping. So every time I'll pick the orientation that gives better bass response, and treat the side walls for those reflections.

--Ethan