Not sure where to start?

I use solo piano recordings to position my speakers. If the arms of the pianist are too short, they are too wide apart.
A more useful advice can be found here: http://audiophysic.de/aufstellung/index_e.html

MCLSOUND said:

I see that there is limited conversation on getting started here guys?

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Not fair. Notice that there have been over 80 views of your post. I don't think anyone has much idea how to advise you to proceed.

You have provided very limited information about the dimensions of your room and its layout. You have not listed your gear that is involved. Are you saying: "As I approach the midpoint of a line connecting the speakers, and am standing only a couple feet in front of that line, the sound acquires a spaciousness that it lacks from the usual listening position."???

It may be that you are listening from too far away. Your speakers, being so close to the side walls, may actually be producing first reflections off the side walls that are interfering with the direct arrival of the sound. Try moving the speakers another 6" away from the walls and moving your listening position about 5 feet closer. You might also try some side wall absorptive treatments to reduce the reflected energy.

It seems as though the relationship between your speaker placement, room dimensions/acoustics, and your listening position is far from optimal. Of course, these comments are only based upon the very limited information provided.

If you can provide more detailed information, I'll bet others will step up to offer suggestions.

Lee

Floor-standers? Stand-mounts? How big? Horns? Ribbons? Conventional drivers? Bi-pole? Di-pole? Right off of the top of my head, I'd say if these are conventional dome/cone drivers in a box speaker, you're too far away if they're only 8' apart. Are they toed in at all? If yes, that will make matters worse in the above scenario. At 8' apart, you need to start at 8' away, with the speakers toed in so you can see just a bit of the inside plane of each speaker box, then play with it from there. At just 20" from the side walls, you may need to dampen the first reflections with something. Here's the bone-simple version: Sit where you're going to sit. Have a friend with a mirror start on the wall right next to the speaker, then bring the mirror forward, along the wall, until you see the reflection of the speaker in the mirror. Put something soft there.

If you're stuck with 8' apart and 13' away, bring those speakers in another 6" each, eliminate any toe-in, dampen the first reflections (wall haning, potted plant, case full of books, soft chair - anything soft and diffusive will treat if not cure) and see what you get. You're going to get compromise, no question about it. What you gain in breadth you may lose in precise imaging. Or maybe not. Depends on what the answers are to all those questions up top.

Tim

Hi Mclsound,

Don't forget to experiment with the location listening position too. Lot's of people forget that sometimes their seat is in one type of node or another. HTH.

Jack

I'll repeat myself for clarity:

RBFC said:

It may be that you are listening from too far away. Your speakers, being so close to the side walls, may actually be producing first reflections off the side walls that are interfering with the direct arrival of the sound. Try moving the speakers another 6" away from the walls and moving your listening position about 5 feet closer. You might also try some side wall absorptive treatments to reduce the reflected energy.

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I added the bold font to emphasize that the listening position is another factor that must be considered.

Lee