New Room - Setup Advice Needed

Jay

New member
Joined
Apr 30, 2013
Messages
84
Location
New York, NY
Well, it's been a busy 4 months for me moving into a house in Westchester from my apartment in the city. I have yet to make any changes to my rig, but it will be changing soon. I'm hoping to use the collective wisdom of this group to help me along the way. The room is fairly large and will serve as our main living space with a dining area, sitting area, and tv / stereo setup. The room is 22' X 32' with a 10' opening to a sun room that is 13' x 18'. I may put up a wall to separate the rooms. Here are some pics:

P1040328.JPGP1040330.JPGP1040312.JPGP1040314.JPG

My current plan is to put the equipment on a single width rack in the far corner left of the fireplace, the left speaker to the right of that and the right speaker to the right of the doorway that leads to a hall. I'm going to run the speaker wire through the floor into the basement an back up the other side to the rt speaker. There will be a small sofa with a couple of chairs where the dining table is (it's moving to the opposite wall). This is also a temporary couch in the picture as it will be moving to the sun room. A larger sofa, an 8x10 rug, and window shades are on the way with curtains coming at some point in the future. The fireplace is going to be modified with a 65" TV above that will be built in with an ability to hide it behind doors or something (still working on it).

So, the speakers will be ~16 feet apart and ~17 feet from listening position. There will be 5 feet or so behind the listening seat to the wall.

My questions are:
- Is this a setup that could sound good?
- Are there issues (other than cost) with 20+ foot long speaker cables?
- Ideally, I want to move to floor-standing speakers that ideally could be driven by my current 60 watt tube amp (at least for a little bit)
- I want floor-standers that look good (waf), and can image well bc they will be so far apart
- Speakers need to have removable grills as I have a baby on the way - want to be sure that I prying fingers don't poke at the woofers
- They also need to be able to be fairly close to the rear wall I can get the fronts out to about 30" before my wife starts protesting :)

Budget is $10-20k for speakers and I'm very open to used equipment. I love the NOLAs, but they will be going up for sale.

So far, I'm interested in hearing Nola KOs, TAD E1s, YG Kipod or Carmel, Sonus Faber Olympica, Revel Studio 2s, and maybe Magico S5s if by some miracle they pop up on the used market.

What do you think? Any and all advice is welcome! Also, I think I'll need some room treatments...any recommendations that look nice or have some architectural / funky appeal?

Thanks in advance,
Jay
 
Hi Jay,

Congratulations on your new place! It looks beautiful.
 
Check out these two videos on room acoustics and room treatments as this may be of some help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raAyF5ksbkk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_DQWB0mAOo

Also check out Jim Smith's book/website: Get Better Sound (www.getbettersound.com)

All your ideas sound right. You will probably have to play a little bit with speaker widths and distance to optimize image stability/focus with soundstage width and depth. Big rug, curtains/shades all sound good. You may also want to consider large plants behind and to the side of the speakers or even in the corners as diffusers.

Good luck.
 
1. Don't put any separation wall; your room is fantastic like that, wide open. :cool:
2. 16 feet apart and 16 feet from your speakers is very wide; best is to have big full-range speakers in that special application; methinks.
3. But do experiment. You're going to have all sort of room's reflections (floor, windows, walls, ceiling).
4. Best is to have a dedicated area; reasonable for the speakers you are actually using.
5. Room treatments (in that specific area); definitely it would help.
6. Revel (full-range), Sonus Faber (beautiful looking), Magico S5 (magic); all great speakers.
7. The biggest, the most beautiful, and the most full-range speakers with the best sound quality you can have the better in your lovely room.
8. A nice Afghanistan rug in the center of your listening area.
9. Those large windows; definitely some nice looking drapes (and thick enough).
10. A subwoofer (two better) perhaps, with integrated Parametric and quality DSP EQ. ...Or a separate Low Frequency Parametric Band EQ.
11. I think. :)

P.S. Cyril, good post just above.
 
Hi Jay,

Congratulations on your new place! It looks beautiful.

Thanks Joe.

Check out these two videos on room acoustics and room treatments as this may be of some help:

Acoustics 101 with Anthony Grimani - Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
Acoustics 102 with Anthony Grimani - Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

Also check out Jim Smith's book/website: Get Better Sound (www.getbettersound.com)

All your ideas sound right. You will probably have to play a little bit with speaker widths and distance to optimize image stability/focus with soundstage width and depth. Big rug, curtains/shades all sound good. You may also want to consider large plants behind and to the side of the speakers or even in the corners as diffusers.

Good luck.

Plants...I like that idea. I'll check out those videos and the book. Thanks!
1. Don't put any separation wall; your room is fantastic like that, wide open. :cool:
2. 16 feet apart and 16 feet from your speakers is very wide; best is to have big full-range speakers in that special application; methinks.
3. But do experiment. You're going to have all sort of room's reflections (floor, windows, walls, ceiling).
4. Best is to have a dedicated area; reasonable for the speakers you are actually using.
5. Room treatments (in that specific area); definitely it would help.
6. Revel (full-range), Sonus Faber (beautiful looking), Magico S5 (magic); all great speakers.
7. The biggest, the most beautiful, and the most full-range speakers with the best sound quality you can have the better in your lovely room.
8. A nice Afghanistan rug in the center of your listening area.
9. Those large windows; definitely some nice looking drapes (and thick enough).
10. A subwoofer (two better) perhaps, with integrated Parametric and quality DSP EQ. ...Or a separate Low Frequency Parametric Band EQ.
11. I think. :)

P.S. Cyril, good post just above.

Thanks Bob....I've thought about the subwoofer route and think I would prefer to go with full-range speakers instead. Hopefully getting some more furniture in there and the rug will make a difference. It's pretty lively in there right now, but still sounds pretty good to me.
 
Here's a good quality digital Parametric EQ (discontinued but you can find used on eBay sometimes for only $150 if you're patient, and $300 or so if you are less so); the Yamaha YDP2006 (click on it).
{It was originally retailing for around $2,400 and it is the best one in its category; one of the very best.}

And here for more.

And more here (scroll down).

* I'm sure your room (and many other member's room) can benefit from such a useful quality pro tool like that.
And for between $150 and $300, anyone can buy a couple of them.
Look at it as another quality room treatment. Used in conjunction with REW (free PC program; you just need a calibrated mic; roughly $50) you're on your way to EQued sound paradise in your own room acoustics.
 
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