Sitting off centre

[hal55]

There's something that seems a bit odd (or maybe that should be "wrong") about my listening room. It's 6 x 4 mtrs, 2.7m ceiling height, with the speakers pulled out slightly from the front wall and the listening position some 2 metres or a bit less than the rear wall. Speakers and chair are equal distance from the side walls.
The home PC lives against the rear left corner and, while working on it and listening to music, it's often seemed that vocals are easier to understand in this position than the proper listening seat. I pulled the chair off to one side, just inside the line of the right speaker and back a bit further than usual, and didn't know whether to be alarmed or pleased that everything sounded better - the sound is warmer with more pleasing high frequencies and the overall balance just more musical.
Many years ago I remember running into Matthew Bond (the Tara Labs cable head) at the Sydney hifi show and he was adament that speakers SHOULD be set up non symmetrically in a room - and whatever you think of Tara cables Mathew did have a reputation for knowing how to set up a system.
Just curious - I'm happy with the sound but anyone else have their hifi set up, or sitting position, arranged asymmetrically?

Hal55

[Richard]

Hi Hal,

I have a similarly proportioned room and set up (as pic attached?) though I have a sofa where your chair is so can move either side or middle.

What I noticed many years ago when we moved in is this is an incredibly dry and analytical positioning. Imaging, even with big speakers, is very precise. I also noticed that by moving into a rear corner bass becomes very much stronger.

This will all be a matter of room acoustics I feel. By moving off-axis you're losing a lot of direct treble and moving towards the corners puts you in a position of stronger bass.

Some folk have commented here that their system actually sounds better from outside the room(!). The conclusion has got to be that the system is too bright. We become partly used to it and maybe reluctant to give up the exposed detail but winding down the treble/mid will help after a few days "running in" our ears to the new sound. Just done exactly this with a friend of mine, dropped his mid and treble approx 3dB with series resistors in the bi-wire leads.

In my case too I found the solution is to lower the level of mid and treble at the speakers (= increase the bass) which then gives the best of both worlds, great imaging and a warmer balance. I also took a little stuffing out the TL cabs which loosened bass a little. (Expect then that when moving to the rear corners the sound will become too heavy.)

You don't mention the type of speakers. I was having a listen over the hols to a few modern floorstanders in a friendly local shop where I know the salesman of old. We agreed that modern speakers are quite bass light compared with those of 20 years ago.

He now has a selection of subs and connecting one in and carefully tuning the xover point and level it was easy to get a pleasant and more natural balance. We both felt that these speakers had become balanced more as main fronts in a 5-1 type set up; victims of multi-channel, and really now rely on a sub being part of the set up. Something to bear in mind for anyone shopping for speakers.

Rich

[Cobblers]

Hi Hal,
If memory serves me right you were using Heybrook speakers which typically require positioning very close to the wall to enable solid bass response. As do the WD25's (without which they sound rather too lean, thin bright and harsh).

I would suggest trying positioning the speakers very close to the wall firing straight down the room rather than toed in order to bolster bass response.

It sounds like you are enjoying the considerable bass lift from the corner seating position.

Have you started building the WD25's yet?

[hal55]

Just to answer Cobblers query re the 25Ts first, I gave the plans to a local plywood retailer "Mr Plywood" well before the start of my end of year holidays with the intention of having them built by now. Mr Plywood was to do the twenty odd basic cutouts and a staff member at the school who is a chippy/builder was going to do the detail work. Talk about best laid plans of mice and men........
Mr Plywood had the panels cut out in no time but it became, lets say not prudent, to use the School where I work's workshops to finish them off. Mr Plywood readily agreed to quote on the balance of the cutting and took the plans, and that's where they still are. Things got hectic the closer it came to Christmas and end of year shutdown so I'm still listening to my Heybrook 3s and still waiting for the quote on the detail work. If they haven't sorted it out by next week I'll collect the panels and have a local chippy do it. The speakers are being done in a Fijian Cedar ply, 19mm, and should stain up well.
Richards comments were most interesting and explain a lot, but I'm still mystified why sitting in the corner results in vocals being clearer than sitting in the middle of the room (your sketch was dead accurate), as was the "dry and analytical description. I have shifted the Heybrooks around quite a lot in the two years since I built the room and the current positiong thirteen inches from the back wall works best, any further out makes the sound more detailed but less musical. The somewhat annoying thing is that after Ken Kessler wrote about his room in the "Kens Den" article in HiFi News my room was built as a near copy of his, so I was expecting it to sound superb straight off. Still, the WD25Ts may be a whole different situation, my gut feeking is that if they are touch lighter than the Heybrooks they will work really well and I might be able to listen in the centre of the room again!

Thanks Cobblers thanks Richard,

Hal