Thread: Repositioning my setup in the living room yield tremendous results

A few weeks ago, the talented CTO of Magico LLC, Mr. Yair Tamm, visited my house.
After a fascinating conversation about various topics, most of which are not related to audio, we turned to listen to the audio system, at the end of the listening, I asked Yeir for tips on maximizing the setup.

Yair's advised me to reverse my listening direction by 90 degrees so that at the sitting point there will be no wall close to my head, and the speakers will stand next to parallel walls (instead of the typical Israeli living rooms constellation, where one speaker finds itself next to open space and the other next to a wall/window), and in addition, the living room dresser won't be placed among the speakers.

A few days after Yair's visit, a dear friend volunteered to help with the project of disassembling and assembling the living space and the system, moving it to its new location so that it would be placed at 90 degrees from its previous location.
After tedious work (due to the weight and quantity of the components) the system was assembled so that the speakers stand parallel to the side walls and are about 70 cm away from the parallel wall next to them.

Behind the speakers is a wall and the glass showcase of the living room, covered with a thick curtain with many folds.
The audio cabinet is now placed between the speakers.

In the current configuration, the distance between the tweeter to tweeter is about 2.70 cm and the distance from the listener is about 3.1 meters from the front of the speakers.

The sofa was moved, so that its place was set in front of the speakers, behind it a large space with the nearest wall being far away in the kitchen at a distance of about five meters from the listening point.

Without mincing words, the improvement I received from the new positioning is tremendous in every dimension you can think of (including the visibility of the living space which feels and looks bigger than before - even though the square footage has not changed of course). The size and depth of the stage, the neutralization of interference, and the sounds of Mid's are floating in the space with so many layers and depth in the lower notes.

The speaker's drivers work as one unit (coherent) to produce a wall of music (you can feel the stage depth and wide), while being able to increase the volume to an unimaginable intensity, and still get a clean and clear sound and tonality. Micro and macro dynamics capabilities had also increased for the better.

The amplifiers feel as if they have received huge reserves of power and as much as it may not sound logical, me and the friends who visited all claim to reduce the gap between the capabilities of the digital and those of the vinyl.
What hasn't changed is the whizzing of the system, it remains neutral on the verge of slight warmth.

A day after the change, Mr. Tamm honored me with another visit out of curiosity to listen to the change in sound that took place due to the new location (the smile and superlatives left no doubt about his opinion of the result).

For me, this is the biggest upgrade I've received in sound (and I think also in the appearance of the space, which looks bigger and more open than ever), and this at a cost of 0 (if you don't count a busy back).
In short, I recommend to those who can play with the direction of your system, who knows, you might make a big profit.

Here are some pictures before (first pic) and after the placment change.

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

I was at a guy's house who has his system set up in a bad way similar to yours originally. He has the same preamp as me and just replaced the amp with the Levinson 534, he has different speakers than me. When I first heard the system it was so off I asked if perhaps it was out of phase. I didn't realize how insulting that might sound, LOL. He dropped in the 534 and the sound improved over the other amp but it still didn't sound nearly as good as my system with a lesser amp due to his room configuration. Basically, he has one speaker in a corner though spaced alright but the other speaker has no wall or boundary by it.

You learned and illustrate a good point. I suggested to that guy he changes his system around but he gave some excuse not to. A shame, waste of money.

I sold my brother my Infinity Kappa's many years ago, these do great bass. So he does his set up to where the left speaker was by the opening to his hallway. Let's just say the Kappa's never achieved good bass in the home.

Not everyone can cop with criticism on there setup, most will be emotional on the matter.