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Need help with room placement [message #18762]

Tue, 06 June 2006 11:09

angelmercado
Messages: 4
Registered: May 2009

Esquire

I decided to keep the altec valencias but i am clueless on room placement on these things my room is 13 x 17 i believe and i have them placed on the short wall.Can i put them in the corner i have 3 to 4 feet to play with but my sofa is up against the wall

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18764 is a reply to message #18762]

Tue, 06 June 2006 11:19

SteveBrown
Messages: 330
Registered: May 2009

Grand Master

Great question, I have the same kind of question, but a larger room (16 x 29). One of the things I've found, and not sure if it is related to the horn or related to placement, is that it seems hard to find a spot where a nice soundstage fixes. I can get a nicely focused central image pretty easy, but getting instruments on the sides to "let go" of the enclosure/horn has been frustrating. Seems like I can have a nice central image and then there's an instrument on the side (piano, etc) and it seems to come directly from the location of the speaker, not to the side or behind it, as it does in smaller boxes. I have tried everything from pretty much straight on, to significantly toed in (cross in front of listening position). I've also tried having the speakers pretty far apart (10 -11ft) and closer (7'), and tried pulling them further out into the room.. etc..

Maybe this is an artifact of horns (811 on top, JBL direct radiator on the bottom). I can get this to set up correctly using open baffles or regular BR boxes, but not with the horns.

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18765 is a reply to message #18764]

Tue, 06 June 2006 15:27

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18725
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Check it out with CARA. I've made some pretty good investigations with it, and it does a great job. The author, Dr. Thomanek, discusses it in the thread below.

Computer Simulation of Room Acoustics

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18766 is a reply to message #18765]

Wed, 07 June 2006 04:17

SteveBrown
Messages: 330
Registered: May 2009

Grand Master

Wayne, thanks for the link. Still, I don't understand why a proper set up is dead easy in my room with a box speaker but not a horn.

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18767 is a reply to message #18764]

Wed, 07 June 2006 06:49

angelmercado
Messages: 4
Registered: May 2009

Esquire

thanks wayne will check it out

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18768 is a reply to message #18766]

Wed, 07 June 2006 08:25

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18725
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Could be that you need the extra energy in the reverberent field for your room, possibly more in the higher frequencies.

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18769 is a reply to message #18768]

Wed, 07 June 2006 11:01

SteveBrown
Messages: 330
Registered: May 2009

Grand Master

Wayne, good question. My room is the basement and the walls are concrete. I do, however, have a trap in the first reflection points on both walls and that helps sharpen the image. One thing I have discovered is that my JBL 2426+2370 combo has much better focus than the Altec 806A+811 combo. I wonder about any diffusing effect of the fins on the 811 - scatter the sound?

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18770 is a reply to message #18769]

Wed, 07 June 2006 14:30

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18725
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

My gut feeling is that the difference is mostly due to the collapsing DI of the 811 as opposed to more uniform DI of the 2370. This causes a difference of HF energy in the reverberent field.

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Re: Need help with room placement [message #18771 is a reply to message #18762]

Wed, 07 June 2006 15:43

akhilesh
Messages: 1275
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

Hi Angel,
Some rules I follow:
1. Keep some space between sidewalls and back wall. (at least 2 feet each)
2. try to make an equilateral angle with the listening position.
You will get maximum depth this way.

Try that and see.
-akhilesh

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