Acoustics, speaker placement, subwoofers

I would choose the short wall for a nearfield setup and the second for a nice wide stereo image provided you can put some fat bass traps behind your head. Maybe a nearfield sub. My room is similar in ratio though 1m more in length and width and i vastly prefer the 2nd with the caveats i mentioned.

 

I also have another room that’s 3.2m x 7.2m where I have less freedom. But it’s a big room and fitting speakers in there around other furniture would not be a huge problem. If it sound better than that all that matters

 

@Cspirou is the room only for music or also tv/movies/etc? Oftentimes the other use cases will determine general arrangements.

 

Well you can try both of course but sounds like the second is the living room? If you value listening with your partner then that certainly adds bonus points in my book even if you’re limited to some acoustic art panels.

 

It’s basically an entertainment (movies, video games, music) room. The idealized acoustic arrangement though likely won’t happen, but I do want a reference to see what it looks like and what comprises I’ll need to make after

 

Based on the images, it looks like if your tv is larger than 50-55" you'll have to use the long wall otherwise things won't fit unless you push your speakers out into the sidewall.

 

I’d look at this: https://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm. Short wall, main seat 38% from front wall offers the theoretically smoothest bass response.

 

Here are suggestions from Cardas:
https://www.cardas.com/system-setup

 

I usually start with the Cardas guidelines/calculations and then adjust. Planars aren’t quite as simple as point source… but, that said, it usually is within 10% of where I end up… I find they’re better a bit closer together than those calculations, and about the same further out into the room (rectangular)… but for my Vandersteens back in the day, they worked a treat.

 

This is a good watch if you want to play around with subwoofers:

 

So i had an itch for fuller sound and a thought to maybe fix some dips in the range the mains usually play at...
Well since i run stereo subs and the crossover can be easily configured(just some modules with resistors). I figured trying a higher crossover while placing the subs closer to the mains, basically right besides them on an elevation.
Running at 200hz this is obviously needed because of the quarter wavelength rule.

First impressions are very favorable and exceeded my expectations! The bass is absolutely crazy good now. No replacement for displacement obviously. The 10" drivers in the subs easily go flat to 500hz and there doesn't seem to be any limiter or anything on the plateamp when the filter is bypassed.

Not a bad and cheap upgrade!

 

Lyngdorf audio used to sell specialty "mid woofers" for this. IIRC, their mid-woofer went up to 400Hz.

Highest I've tried is 110Hz, when I had stereo subs. Sounded oh so good!

 

Yeah it's great but I'm also lucky that sub's like to be on the outside of the speakers. There is like one very narrow dip which isn't an issue and after DSP it's flat down to 20hz easily.

I thought I saw them go even higher on the Lyngdorf stuff?

 

You're right. I was thinking of the BW-2 (I see there's a BW-3, as well).
Its fact sheet says it goes up to 800Hz.
https://lyngdorf.steinwaylyngdorf.com/downloads/lyngdorf-bw-2-fact-sheet/

 

That's crazy, only way i see that working is using it with one of their on wall speakers and putting it right below it. For the BW-2 you'd have to flip it upside down and hang it below one of the mains, and you can't use just one either.

 

Yeah, Lyngdorf's preamps have support for crossover and high crossover points built-in.

I used to have a DPA-1 and its 4 outputs were nice: L/R Lsub/Rsub.

 

That's a cool pre amp. Wonder if they will ever do a modern version. Guess there is more competition now from minidsp and nad.

 

So several iterations of my setup further, crossover is back down to 100hz and the subs are on the floor now. Got a very good result etc. For those that have stereo subs that fall within the stereo triangle by means of physically time aligning. What do you think about the reflection from the subs?
They are only sticking out 10-15cm in front of the mains but i swear it sounds better when i put some acoustic foam on top of each. Measurements don't show much difference.
Guess i have to commit and make it look nice some way... Maybe some black akotherm(smooth surface or woolly), it's cheap enough and i don't need much.

 

I use a black fuzzy body pillow cover from Target. 2 for $20

 

I just ordered the akotherm so i don't have to walk into a store and talk into a pillow to test the absorption. The pillows will probably look better but it might invite people to sit on my subs lol