Placing speakers as close to the front wall as possible?

[Al.M]

3 hours ago, Lx4man said:

glass pretty much doesnt help

Whether it’s glass, wall plaster or concrete sound is generally going to reflect the same on any non absorbent and uniform material surface.

 

There will be room modes or 10dB+ increase within 1m of walls (two reflecting surfaces) and corners worse (three reflecting surfaces). 

 

Just experiment and move speaker within 0.5-1m of wall and see what sounds best. Also don’t have too sparse a room, fill the room with enough objects (sofa, cabinets, shelves etc) out of the way of speaker sound path but to breakup reflections to create a more non-uniform space, see how that sounds and then if no good revert to sound absorption pads etc. not the other way around.

[LX_4_MAN]

i was under the impression that large glass windows absorb low frequency ? thats the what i put it down to when i moved to my current house and the low frequencies were full of troughs , i definately may be wrong though and it may just be cancellation due to room dimensions/design .

[needlerunner]

Whether it’s glass, wall plaster or concrete sound is generally going to reflect the same on any non absorbent and uniform material surface.
 
There will be room modes or 10dB+ increase within 1m of walls (two reflecting surfaces) and corners worse (three reflecting surfaces). 
 
Just experiment and move speaker within 0.5-1m of wall and see what sounds best. Also don’t have too sparse a room, fill the room with enough objects (sofa, cabinets, shelves etc) out of the way of speaker sound path but to breakup reflections to create a more non-uniform space, see how that sounds and then if no good revert to sound absorption pads etc. not the other way around.

Finding this thread highly amusing.
When did equipment and room sound dynamics, become more important than the MUSIC it self?

Sweet spots, dead spots, low spots, blah, blah, blah. Give me a wet spot every time.

Walls are like trees on highways... hazardous to ones wellbeing. Just knock them down, l as say.

Seriously, doesn't matter were l sit, my music sounds great to me. Albeit, my system only cost me 5k. Maybe that's it.
The more we spend, the more unhappy we get.

I'm about to upgrade my equipment and spend another 10k, so I'm about to become a real sad bastard.

[Satanica]

2 hours ago, Lx4man said:

I was under the impression that large glass windows absorb low frequency?

They don't actually absorb but allow bass energy to pass through more so the end result is the same in that glass windows and doors are considerably better than solid walls.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Satanica

[awayward]

12 minutes ago, needlerunner said:

Finding this thread highly amusing.
When did equipment and room sound dynamics, become more important than the MUSIC it self?

Sweet spots, dead spots, low spots, blah, blah, blah. Give me a wet spot every time.

Walls are like trees on highways... hazardous to ones wellbeing. Just knock them down, l as say.

Seriously, doesn't matter were l sit, my music sounds great to me. Albeit, my system only cost me 5k. Maybe that's it.
The more we spend, the more unhappy we get.

I'm about to upgrade my equipment and spend another 10k, so I'm about to become a real sad bastard.

When did equipment and room sound dynamics, become more important than the MUSIC it self?

Answer: never

But the aim is to make the music as enjoyable as possible and optimizing your equipment and room will give you the best bang for your buck, and enhance the enjoyment of the music.

[Al.M]

4 hours ago, awayward said:

When did equipment and room sound dynamics, become more important than the MUSIC it self?

Answer: never

But the aim is to make the music as enjoyable as possible and optimizing your equipment and room will give you the best bang for your buck, and enhance the enjoyment of the music.

All factors are important, we are just answering more precisely what the original post asked for specifically in his given room dimensions and linked article. The question was not about MUSIC being more important something else.

 

However, it’s a fact experienced by many that bad positioning and selection of equipment considerably affects the sound quality if one doesn’t pay enough attention. But then again if one is blissfully unaware or don’t care about those issues in the first place then you are right it really doesn’t matter. A single Apple HomePod speaker sounds really nice.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Al.M

[needlerunner]

All factors are important, we are just answering more precisely what the original post asked for specifically in his given room dimensions and linked article. The question was not about MUSIC being more important something else.
 
However, it’s a fact experienced by many that bad positioning and selection of equipment considerably affects the sound quality if one doesn’t pay enough attention. But then again if one is blissfully unaware or don’t care about those issues in the first place then you are right it really doesn’t matter. A single Apple HomePod speaker sounds really nice.

Good reaction. Just having a light hearted moment. Just adding a bit of levity to the situation. But seriously, l don't have a problem with speaker positioning. But l draw the line at sticking egg cartons on the wall...Just kidding.

[DJGopal]

19 hours ago, Lx4man said:

i was under the impression that large glass windows absorb low frequency ? thats the what i put it down to when i moved to my current house and the low frequencies were full of troughs , i definately may be wrong though and it may just be cancellation due to room dimensions/design .

Large glass windows let low frequencies escape

[Red Spade Audio]

On 13/05/2019 at 3:06 PM, Lx4man said:

i was under the impression that large glass windows absorb low frequency ? thats the what i put it down to when i moved to my current house and the low frequencies were full of troughs , i definately may be wrong though and it may just be cancellation due to room dimensions/design .

The absorption isn't normally considered because the transmission is so high. Glass has approximately four times the density of bricks but as it's always thin the mass is still quite low. All practical windows perform very poorly in terms of keeping bass in the room - even acoustic windows with a high STC rating. Rooms with lots of openings and many large windows and light construction can actually perform quite well in the bass due to being lossy.

On 13/05/2019 at 5:51 PM, needlerunner said:

Finding this thread highly amusing.
When did equipment and room sound dynamics, become more important than the MUSIC it self?

Sweet spots, dead spots, low spots, blah, blah, blah. Give me a wet spot every time.

Walls are like trees on highways... hazardous to ones wellbeing. Just knock them down, l as say.

Seriously, doesn't matter were l sit, my music sounds great to me. Albeit, my system only cost me 5k. Maybe that's it.
The more we spend, the more unhappy we get.

I'm about to upgrade my equipment and spend another 10k, so I'm about to become a real sad bastard.

Some of us are music lovers who don't care for the technical. Some of us are gear junkies who love our shiny hifi toys. Some of us are tech nerds who enjoy learning about the science. I'd say most of us are some kind of mix. Music is often the excuse that justifies our love of tech and toys but in reality I'd argue that any mix of the above is a perfectly valid interest for anyone to take on.

[Guest kab]

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by kab

[A9X]

On 12/05/2019 at 2:15 PM, blakey72 said:

It says recording studio's have their mains flush against the wall. Even with rear baffles, strange.

Read the article again; it's perfectly logical, i.e. basic acoustics. Remember most studio control rooms are actually designed by acousticians, few domestic rooms are.

 

On 12/05/2019 at 2:47 PM, Gryffles said:

Yeah and I bet they use monitors designed to be placed as such.

It's called EQ.

[djmt]

On 12/05/2019 at 2:56 PM, blakey72 said:

I don't think I'll really hit the sweet spot with positioning my speakers while I'm sitting against the back wall. I'm not allowed to move the couch forward, not enough room she says. Yeah but we spent all this money on stereo gear and it's wrecked by sitting against the back wall. Can't understand women haha.

I couldn't move the sofa off the back wall either. Convinced her to buy a new house where the sofa's in space. Boy, I out smarted her or so she let me think.