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I decided to experiment with speaker position earlier today.
My speakers are KEF LS50, and room size is 12ft x 30ft. Roughly one side is set up as my listening space, with LP shelves taking up most of the front wall, and equipment shelves on the 2 side walls. The other side of of the room is my office.
My usual speaker position was determined by the using Cardas web site calculator. About 5ft from the LP shelves, and about 3 ft from each side wall, with 5ft between the speakers. My seating position is about 6 ft from the centerline of the speakers. Near field.
Plus- pinpoint imaging with excellent soundstage placement. I can hear depth, height, low level detail and micro dynamics.
Minus- overall image is not very big. Bass can be better because the speaker location is in a null.
I spent time today trying to determine a better speaker position. I used a pr of AR3s speakers, and played a 40hz tone while moving the ARs around until they were firmly in a node area. Location is about 18 inches from the LP shelves, or 3.5 ft closer to the shelves. Rather than move my chair much closer to the speakers, I decided to keep my chair in its current location which is now about 9.5 ft from the centerline of the speakers.
These changes completely altered what I hear. I played several LPs over a 3hr period, including a few tunes that I am very familiar with.
Plus- soundstage is much wider, extending beyond the speaker location. Bass sounds more extended- bass lines are easily heard. Stereo image is bigger and approximately lifesize. Sound placement within the image is easier to determine. The scale of the image, and musician placement sounds like a real performance.
Minus- much less depth, in fact the soundstage sounds flat. Much more difficult to hear low level and micro details that were previously much easier to hear. The image, while wider and bigger is less clear and sounds slightly opaque.
What am I hearing ? Why did the soundstage flatten, why did micro dynamics just about disappear and why does the image sound opaque ?
Thanks !
nt
Putting the LS50s in the new positions, do you hear any positive differences ?
I used a pr of AR3a to establish a new location because they have excellent bass response. The LS50 were then installed in the new position.
My comments refer to what I heard from the LS50pr in the now location.
Thanks.
The XLO test CD contains a track for determining speaker locations. This technique works for any room and for any level of room treatments. In fact every time you add/change/delete room treatments it's an opportunity to recalibrate speaker positions.The basic idea is to find the locations in the room where the sound is the most diffuse when the system is out of polarity. Judging from the listener seat. When the sound is coming at you from all around the room with no particular direction. That means the sound will be full, focused and have the most accurate soundstage when the system is in correct polarity. Obviously the source cd or lip must be in correct polarity as well as the system for this methodology to work. This methodology works for ANY SPEAKERS AND ANY ROOM. Other techniques for finding the absolute best speaker positions are like trying to solve x simultaneous equations in x + N unknowns. Other techniques tend to find nit the absolute best locations but local maximums, they sound OK but not the very best.
Edits: 02/25/25
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