CONFUSING Speaker Placement Tips (And How To Deal With Them) - AcousticsInsider.com

For me it was very fast clear that all this rules will be a compromise anyway. To know all the Rulesd will help to find the right Compromise for you.

The dip is not just due to boundary effect of rear wall. It’s also due to height of woofer above ground causing out of phase component cancelling direct sound.

Speaker set up varies with design and field lobing in particular along with polar response. Controlled directivity speakers tend to have more of the direct sound and phase preserved and makes for easier positioning.

How to get accurate transient response in a small room

I heard of the 83% rule. Your speakers should be 83% apart from each other the distance the speaker is to your ear, so if your speakers are 7 ft apart then you should be 8 ft 5 in from your speakers. This is from a guy who set up thousands of stereo systems and wrote a book on it. I saw it on YT lately. It's suppose to be a "starting point" on speaker placement. It's called Jim Smith's Magic Formula. There's a thread on it at Steve Hoffman's discussion site.

Great call on the boundary bit, I've always gone by that logic, but good to hear a pro say it.🙂
Boundary to me always seemed pointless to a degree because unless the room is infinite width, in my mind the dip just changes to a different frequency anyway.🤔

My speakers do not a ports on them

Thanks for this video ❤❤
This is the answer of all my questions about the speaker bounty interference in my mixing room.
But one thing is a big dip at around 2900 hz wich is obout -9db . Is it also coused by speaker bounty interference or it's becuse of no diffuser at all in my room ?
My room is 248 W , 355 L and 250 H in cm.

The woofer size spacing thing is ridiculous. If you have double 8" woofers, do you space your speakers 16' apart? 24' apart for quad 6" woofers? WTF? This seems like ancient nonsense and if it ever did have any real meaning, it certainly isn't relevant with modern multi driver woofers.

Vey interesting approach ! How can I do if I have a Subwoofer ? Using the subwoofer alone when I want to find my Low End Sweet Spot ? Thanks a lot

Home theater enthusiast here. Glad I found this channel. Well presented and digestible. Liked and subscribed

Well explained and much appreciated. It ties in well with LINN's recommended "Tune-Dem" methodology for speaker position optimisation

Great info in your vids. The swallowing noises can get to be a bit much though…

So i've been testing speaker placements around my rather square-ish room......I have different wall materials on each side unfortunately, making this topic a very difficult for me to pin down.

I have invested in some 6" absorbers from GIK (Sound blocks - x43), which has helped a lot with the low end definition for sure.

My problem currently is which wall to go with for my speaker placement. I've currently gone with (right up) against my sliding door window pane and windows (with white shutters that have to stay there due to my condo rules)....my thinking is that most of the low energy is going to make its way out towards my backyard/deck....and I've treated the back wall with as much of the absorption and reflections for the back as I can get away with.

Am I better off with the cement wall as the speaker wall vs my glass sliding doors? - I should add that with the sound blocks I have 4 stacks of 4 each in each corner as bass traps...and 6 stacks of 3 each for the sides and walls.

I love this take! I also have been going crazy trying to balance, the 38% rule, my monitors manual suggestions, and the room modes in my room and that dang equilateral triangle. In the end I have this feeling I have sacrificed my stereo image and my hunch is that my bass response could be more accurate if I sat further back than 38 percent and widened my monitors. I think that will be my next experiment. Acoustics will make you lose sleep, but your take is refreshing and liberating.

Thank you 🙏

I don’t want to be rude but all said in this video was flat out Voodoo. Just kidding, very scientific. Correct and helpful, thanks Jesco!

The "33% Rule" and "38% Rule" should no longer be used as suggestions. It's close but not accurate. 33% or 32.8% ONLY work in longer-length rooms. 38% is too close to the 4th harmonic null at 37.5%. The real listening position is at 39.6%. Why? Because it's exactly in between the 4th (37.5%) and 6th (41.7%) harmonic null. You have 37.5% + 41.7% / 2 = 39.6%. So if you are keeping your head in between the harmonic nulls, then your possible Listening Position options between harmonic nulls will always be the same in any room: 32.8%, 39.6%, or 45.8%. Use 45.8% in small-length rooms, 39.6% in medium-length rooms, and use 32.8% in longer-length rooms. Also, lay out your room in a CAD program so you can really see and understand where the room nulls land.

I heard about this 38% "guideline" first from Ethan Winer - not sure if that is who you were thinking of?

I asked the gf to put my towers where she thought they sounded best.
Next thing I knew they were in the fire pit 😫

Is there any actually any rule/guideline at all for distance between your speakers?

Interesting discussion. From what you're saying about optimizing first for stereo field, and ignoring boundary locations - I'm curious about a few things. If you have a rectangular room with parallel walls and materials on either side with the same reflection coefficient and acoustic properties - like many interior rooms of residential construction - then your stereo field is going to be fairly good. Especially if you treat primary reflection zones with broadband absorbers, which are cheap and easy to obtain.

However, by ignoring speaker wall distance / boundary location - especially distance from the front wall - you now create an issue that you cannot easily solve with treatment or EQ. By not placing the speakers as tight to the front wall as possible, you create non-minimum phase interference which will totally compromise your low end. By placing monitors as close to the front wall as possible, you create a minimum-phase effect with the front wall loading, then easily shelf it down with a LF shelf in the monitor drive signal. Plus, many small monitors actually benefit from the front wall loading in LF.

You cannot adequately compensate for non-minimum phase effects, even with adaptive digital EQ. So why create the problem in the first place? Perhaps I misunderstood your advice so I'd like to hear your response.

Thanks for understanding the concerns of amateur home studio builders.. This was really helpfull

I think I just an unworkable situation that's too short from wall to wall. My polk speakers some how have 0 bass in my seating position, but if I walk behind the couch or forward of the seating position, the bass comes through. So I seem to be sitting in some sort of void where the bass reflection are literally canceling themselves out... But I can't move my seat position and moving the speakers closer or further from the wall makes little difference. It's kind of annoying. I just run a big long wire to my head sets now lol

More than 24" ? Or should that be no less than ...... 24" from baffle to front wall, gives just over 3 ml secs reflection, which I think blurs the sound stage depth. Best if the front wall is treated with diffusion (possibly quadratic diffusers) and having front baffle at least 3 feet from front wall (5 ml secs reflection, minimum so that reflection does not interfer with direct sound). I have a treated stereo listening room ( not a studio) where I have my speakers 4.5 feet from front wall (room is 28 feet long, 12.5 wide), and find this gives best stereo image and soundstage . I think most don't realize how pulling speakers out from the front wall can really help with soundstage depth and stereo image. But then again, trust your ears ..... takes but a few minutes to move speakers around and try.

I wonder? Does any of this apply to wall mounted speakers?

its easier when you build the room around the speakers ;) ( room in room )

His videos are too long. Such great valuable content but so frustrating to absorb. Also adding some visuals to show the sound wave movements around the room would be helpful.

I just want to hug this guy. I can't explain it.

If my choices are speakers behind a flat screen tv (facing it's back), speakers angled around the tv, or speakers on a different plane than listener, what would you choose? Working in a small room with big tv and speakers. My guess is a toss up between 1 and 2.

There are rules and then there are no Rules except move stuff around and try different placements and listening positions.. You have to play around to find the sweet spot for everything.

I need to have for example a sofa close behind me otherwise my speakers do not sound correct and I can’t work out why this is. If I have nothing behind me certain bass notes sound distorted. I suppose the answer is to fill your room with soft furnishings. Also Dolby recommend a reference listening position of 2/3 of your rooms length which seems to work well for me.

I notice that you keep talking about studio acoustics and not stereo listening room acoustics. Would the same principles apply in a typical audiophile listening room?

Your face reminds me of Jennifer Lawrence ❤

Thank you so much! Love your channel and all the information given throughout this video, big up! 🔥

In case of a asimmetric room, would you rather have a big window on one of your sides or on the front or back of the speakers? The room is rectangular and the window is on the short side

Great video thanks

Thanks for your comments. I would say that all of this often misses the point of the consumer, so starting on positioning, many audiophiles usually drag the topic to to full room treatment.

Yes. there is an ideal setup in which there is a room "dedicated" to audio. Think about a studio or an auditorium for speakers. You can have the speakers at an ideal position, throw in absorbers, diffusers etc, take measurements, have an ideal seating distance, listen at higher volumes, simply perfection.

Then.. there is the living room. Everything is there, it is a home you share, there might be neighbors. Speakers arrive and the way you have arranged your living kind of dictates where the speakers should be. In this situation the room treatment is limited to curtains and a carpet perhaps.

Just place your speakers, put them closer to the wall if that is what brings out certain personal preferences and pull them from the wall for the same personal reasons. Audio science and living rooms rarely add up in practical sense. Not to put aside that some living rooms sound great due to the way they are accidentally stuffed by items that help to reduce reverb. People with a cozy taste usually have an advantage above people who prefer sterile decoration (small bookshelves work around like a wonder in those, Bose anyone ;) ) But still leaps away from utopia. In other words, the average living rooms and auditoriums are a totally different ball game and that is not a problem. Just enjoy :)

outstanding as usual

I've been watching most of your videos over the past year+. This video is one of the most helpful I've seen because of the amount of detail in which you answer the question and provide additional advice for. Thanks

Alright people.... Time to go metric...

Fantastic 👍

Can Hedd type 20 and Sub flat mount to the wall? Do they design for use like that?

I have always wonderd, if I was to build a studio from a contruction point of view, meaning, there is no room before I build a room.. what would you do in terms of shape of the room, materials, room measers, placement of desk and speakers,isolation, measers etc.? Would be a wonderfull video to watch.

I am an EDM style producer that are looking to buy a plot in the future, but I am concerned about these things

The 38% “Rule” was by Wes Lachot

Great videos as always! Thanks Jesco!

I have a very small room with the closet doors missing. The previous owners took them because I found that the width of the closet isn't standard so they were custom built. All I have is a curtain there. I feel really discouraged to even attempt to treat my room so my mixes suffer

I would like to genuinely thank you, it’s hard to sift through all of the misinformation.

Also, I appreciate you giving me a thorough explanation in a very respectful manner.

I am tired of the Internet trolls giving me attitude for asking to be educated on something that I obviously don’t completely understand. Lol.