Proper Asymmetrical Speaker Installation

[AVphile]

Next week, my new, and quite expensive, new loudspeakers are being delivered to my home. In discussing their installation today, I was told by the dealer that his guys will unbox them and position them where I want them to be. Essentially, that is it; they are simply a delivery service. I am hopeful that I can obtain some helpful insights for addressing a potential problem with my room, which is 22' x 21'. The problem is that, while I can position the two speakers an equal distance from the back wall and toed-in at the same angle, I cannot position the right speaker equally as far from the right wall as the left speaker from the left wall (the left speaker will be about 5'9" in versus 6' for the right speaker). These positions are pretty much fixed because the main speakers need to be positioned at the sides of a large screen with the accompanying center speaker position put, naturally, exactly at the screen's mid-point.

What I am most concerned about is the possible negative effect of the timing difference between their respective first reflections. Would this cause a problem in precise imaging? If so, some way I can address this if it is an issue?

 

[Puma Cat]

When you say "back wall", do you actually mean the front wall? The front wall is the wall in front of the listener (and behind the speakers). Technically speaking, from a room acoustics set-up perspective, the back wall is the wall behind the listener.

If my hypothesis is correct, and you're actually referring to the front wall then regarding your question specifically, my thought is you quite likely need to place an acoustical panel on the side wall that is farther away, i.e., for the right side speaker. A GIK Acoustics 4" SlatFusor panel may well solve this problem for you because then, the distance between the left and right side wall surfaces would be almost exactly the same for both speakers. Link to GIK Acoustic 4" SlatFusor panels here: SlatFusor.

I use a mix of both GIK Alpha 4As and I have a SlatFusor panel on the half-wall that separates my living area from my kitchen counter in my small home. It's very well made, attractive, and works very well. Here's a picture of mine with my black leopard, Ringo, on top of the counter over the SlatFusor.

Just a suggestion for your consideration.

Here's a photo of part of my front wall (not the "back wall") with six of my GIK Acoustics Alpha 4A panels, as well as a black and white GIK Impressions acoustical panel behind the main audio rack, back when I using my Harbeth 30.2 speakers. I also have GIK Impressions panels at the first reflection points on the left and right side wall, for a total of 10 acoustical panels (counting the SlatFusor). I cannot emphasize enough the importance of getting the room acoustics right. In my experience, it is the most important factor for a stereo system set-up, more important than the amplification gear used or the speakers.

Here's a more current photo with my Buchardt S400IIs in the system. In this photo, I don't have the Alpha 4A panel I place on top of the half-wall when listening critically.

BTW, all the acoustical products from GIK Acoustics are superb. Very well made and high quality, and they handle orders and logistics with superb level of customer support. Highest possible recommendation.

Having been in this hobby for a long time now, in my experience, the most important and primary factors determining how your system actually will sound are 1) room acoustics 2) power distribution and 3) ground-plane noise reduction. The other factors, the speakers, amplification components, and source components, etc., are secondary to these primary factors. If the room acoustics suck, trust me, it doesn't matter how good the amplification gear or speakers are.

A specific example is that a really nice expensive DAC doesn't do much for the musical presentation if the room acoustics are sh*t. Just my 2¢ from a lot of hard-won experience.

BTW, my local SF Bay Area audio club made a trip to Magico Speakers in Hayward, CA recently to hear the new Magico S5s. Here's a photo showing just a portion of the room acoustical treatment. You can see here that Alon Wolf of Magico fully understands the importance of room acoustics. There were also acoustical panels all along the right side and back wall (behind the listener) as well on the ceiling.

Yup, room acoustics are critical and foundational. Just sayin'...

Cheers.

 

[rbbert]

FWIW, Peter Moncrief (of International Audio Review) was a big fan of slightly asymmetric speaker placement, and IIRC there was at least one in-depth analysis and some recommendations in that magazine (if you can find it anywhere). He was also a big fan of ASC and his recommendations probably included using several of its products.

 

[crwilli]

As I have a room of similar dimensions, I suspect the biggest issue you will have to tackle, is not timing and imaging but rather, the low end bass. A square room is a beast to tackle and it has taken me years to sort it out.

Fortunately, I don’t have any limitations on where my seat or the speakers were placed in the room so I followed Jim Smith’s advice and tried a 45degree angle setup. That went a loooong way to resolving most of the bass issues but I have still needed to use two subs and two active bass absorbers (AVAA PSI213).

What is your ceiling height? Is it close to 10’??? That would be a trifecta of symmetry.

Good luck.