Thiel Audio Products CS6 manual Large listening room speaker placement

Some rooms, especially narrow ones, can benefit from placing the speakers along the long wall. Although space behind the speaker and behind the listener is reduced, this positioning increases the space between the speakers without side wall interference, and can improve overall performance. Figure 4 shows the same average size room as Figure 3, but with long wall placement. The speakers should be at least a foot from the rear wall, but the amount of toe-in can be adjusted, along with listener position, as well as the amount of spacing between the speakers.

In a larger room, the optimum posi- tioning suggestions on pages 2 and 3 are easier to implement. Figure 5 shows one set-up with the speakers five feet from the side walls, three feet from the rear wall, and the speakers aimed straight ahead. This arrangement provides an ample amount of space around the speakers to reduce unwanted reflections and should give excellent spatial performance and a very “open” sound. Other placement options in this room include: wider spacing between the speakers, adding toe-in as the spacing increases; increased space between the speaker and the back wall to improve imaging depth. Various listening position distances can also be tried.

As mentioned at the beginning of the positioning section, all rooms are different and no hard rules can be given. Even rooms with similar dimensions can have differ- ences in wall, floor and ceiling construction that greatly affect the sound. Also, “live” rooms with hard surfaces, glass, and little damping sound much different from “dead” rooms with heavy carpet, drapes and plush furniture. In other words—EXPERIMENT.

	18'
1'		1'
4'	10'	4'
		8'	14'
		10'
		8-10 ' Listening Distance
Figure 4. Average listening room with long wall placement
	18'
3'		3'
5'	8'	5'
		8'
		12'
			25'
		8-12' Listening Distance
Figure 5. Large listening room speaker placement

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