Speaker positioning - house rewire.

[dhutch]

We're currently mid house re-wire and I need to tell the electrician where to run the speaker cables to.



In the lounge we will have a pair of wall mounted bookcases, currently Whalfdale 9.1 which are front ported. Would the below location be ok. In the corner about 4ft up. Would pushing it to ceiling height, about 8ft be much worse, when listing around 12ft away on a sofa.
House is Edwardian with presumed original oak panelling and fireplace which is obviously the main feature of the room, so anything it must work around it. Can replace speaker with wood carving equiv. as ebay is full of them!






Thoughts welcome.


Thanks

Daniel

[B17NNS]

I'd try to keep them at around ear height if possible.

[Shuvi McTupya]

I had no choice but to mount my front speakers high, so i put the TV up quite high as well, I also turned the speakers upside down so the tweeters are nearer to 'ear height' than the woofers.

It sounds fine to me!

[dhutch]

Both good comments. This will be out main evening room, certainly in winter. The back wall joins nextdoor so it won't even super loud but I'm hoping to get some good evenings listening to music.
I have a powered subwoofer I would like to get into the room, but placement may have to be to the rear.

In the kitchen they will be high, above the wall mounted units, but equally I won't putting a record on and sitting in there to enjoy the listening, it will be good quality background music. I can't wait to get nice speakers in there.

The other main living room I'm still hoping to get my B&W floor standers in. This room is well away from nextdoor and ear marked to be the dinning room, but as room for some chairs too layout is an issue and a bit up in the air.

Apologies for the top photo being on its side, forgot it always does that, forums image upload thing does read the exif data right.

Daniel

[Red 5]

The pics are fine

Corners are bad for sound from full range speaker though! The ports are of no particular relevance.

The midrange and upper bass is ruined in that location, be it high, or lower positioning as you have now.
If you need to see for yourself, then talk to somebody in the room, while slowly moving your head back into the corner.
You’ll sound quite congested and nasal. Horrible sounding!

I would suggest a bigger re-think.


In the kitchen, get some decent speakers in th ceiling and be done with it

[Shuvi McTupya]

dhutch said:

I have a powered subwoofer I would like to get into the room, but placement may have to be to the rear.
Daniel

I don't think it really matters where you put the Sub so long as you can adjust its levels separately, but I wait to be corrected.

[dhutch]

Red 5 said:

Corners are bad for sound from full range speaker though! The ports are of no particular relevance.

The midrange and upper bass is ruined in that location, be it high, or lower positioning as you have now.
If you need to see for yourself, then talk to somebody in the room, while slowly moving your head back into the corner.
You’ll sound quite congested and nasal. Horrible sounding!

I'm aware it's a compromised location. How far from the corner do you need to go to get away from it?

Obviously at about ear height on the left you have to be the far side of the door, else you have to go over the door at a higher level.
On the right there is more scope as to where on that wall it can go, but it also needs to be balanced with the effect on the room and decor, its a multi function living-room and most of the time the speakers will be off.

Would either side of the chimney breast be any good, or are you in a corner again?
The fire is the central focal point, used frequently over winter and even overcast weekends in summer, so the speakers are on that wall unless they go behind you.
Is being at ceiling height in a three-sided corner worse than lower down in a two sided corner?


Daniel

Edited by dhutch on Thursday 6th December 09:57

[anonymous-user]

If you put the speakers up high, use angled brackets and point the tweeters at your couch. Hi frequencies are highly directional.

[Red 5]

dhutch said:

Red 5 said:

Corners are bad for sound from full range speaker though! The ports are of no particular relevance.

The midrange and upper bass is ruined in that location, be it high, or lower positioning as you have now.
If you need to see for yourself, then talk to somebody in the room, while slowly moving your head back into the corner.
You’ll sound quite congested and nasal. Horrible sounding!

I'm aware it's a compromised location. How far from the corner do you need to go to get away from it?

Obviously at about ear height on the left you have to be the far side of the door, else you have to go over the door at a higher level.
On the right there is more scope as to where on that wall it can go, but it also needs to be balanced with the effect on the room and decor, its a multi function living-room and most of the time the speakers will be off.

Would either side of the chimney breast be any good, or are you in a corner again?
The fire is the central focal point, used frequently over winter and even overcast weekends in summer, so the speakers are on that wall unless they go behind you.
Is being at ceiling height in a three-sided corner worse than lower down in a two sided corner?


Daniel

Edited by dhutch on Thursday 6th December 09:57

If you can get speakers 300mm or so out of a corner, that would get rid of most of the problems in mids / upper bass.

Height isn’t so much of an issue, as long as you still aim the speakers at your preferred seating location. You’ll not notice after a little while.

What’s more important, is getting out of tight corner locations and sitting in a triangle with your speakers, so you hear stereo.
The speakers are the base, which should be a little narrower than the other two sides (the distance away that you sit)

The speakers should go along the wall, that your furniture points towards

[dhutch]

Red 5 said:

If you can get speakers 300mm or so out of a corner, that would get rid of most of the problems in mids / upper bass.

Ok. Obviously on the door side this means it must go high up. I'll have a lookt it over the weekend.

Thanks

[Shuvi McTupya]

dhutch said:

Ok. Obviously on the door side this means it must go high up. I'll have a lookt it over the weekend.

Thanks

Now you need to decide if you are going to centre the speaker over the door, or in the middle of the space between the fireplace and the wall..I would go for the latter, and then measure off the wall to see where you need to put the right hand speaker to make it even.

[dhutch]

Shuvi McTupya said:

Now you need to decide if you are going to centre the speaker over the door, or in the middle of the space between the fireplace and the wall..

Sorry I don't get this.

A) above the door, about in its centre
B) in the middle of the door?

If I went ear level ish, as far from the wall as practical without getting in the way of going through the door, with the curtains providing some acustic attenuation. RH speaker as the same height, circa 300mm from wall. Sold?

Daniel

[Shuvi McTupya]

Ah, are you thinking about going to the left of the door rather than above than the door?

That would work

My speakers are nearly touching the ceiling, otherwise a door would hit the left one when it opened and i wanted to be able to walk underneath as the space is tight for the left one.

I have done what another poster suggested and got some adjustable brackets that allow me to point the speakers down towards to me, and as i mentioned, I have also turned them upside down so the tweeters are pointing directly at my head.

To me, it sounds and looks just fine.

[dhutch]

Shuvi McTupya said:

Ah, are you thinking about going to the left of the door rather than above than the door?

Its certainly a very real option. Door opens outwards and isn't used loads.


Daniel

[dhutch]

I can get the one on the side with the door about 8" away from the wall, which will always have the curtain by it which might help the effect? On the right I can do a foot without it looking daft. So we will do that.

Kitchen isnt an issue, dinning room is far too up in the air to plan anything but I'll make a decision and either put two drops in or leave it coiled in the floor void till we plan a bit more and decorate the room.

Plan is to run in some 1.5mm^2 twin&earth and a cat5/6 cable to each point. Then we can use the T&E to power convention speakers from a central amp, but if times/tech/prices change there is always the option to re-repatriate it as power cable and have a powered network speaker there.

I have looked at Sonos kit and the like but at £350 a room, for a whole house install secondhand conventional kit I already have wins hands down!



Daniel

[Shuvi McTupya]

That sounds like a good plan to me. As far as i am aware, twin and earth cable should be perfectly fine for use as speaker cable.