Audiophile Sound in Small Rooms?

#speakersetup #speakerplacement #tutorial
No Listening Room? No problem!
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reminded of what is important when it comes to hifi. That is, listening to the music and enjoying it. While not everyone out there has a dedicated listening room, I wanted to give some tips, tricks, and ideas to maximize your experience wherever you’re listening.

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[Roof_Pizza]

Stuff like this is way more helpful to most than reviewing a $2k DAC (or whatever).

[nickmimi]

I tried this and your LOTS suggestions where I took my time and moved my seat and speakers till they disappeared in both my main and secondary rooms. I’m sitting much closer than would normally be my preference but it’s wonderful when the speakers completely disappear and you get immersed in the performance. The way you describe is simply superior and easier to follow and get results compared to most everyone else. Thanks a bunch!

[denniswade]

Very good and helpful video!
I've always been saddled with smaller rooms for my HiFi listening, and have done a lot of experimenting to see what I could do with what i had.
The results have usually been pretty much everything that you demonstrated here.
Putting the speakers on stands, moving them out from the wall behind them, and angling them in usually always gives the best results.
Sitting closer to the speakers helps to remove a lot of the room's not-so-good acoustical problems, and can create a very nice sound stage and really does help the speakers to disappear.
I think you have done a wonderful job of helping people to learn how to work with what you have!

[budgethometheaterandhifi]

It's a good topic. I think too often we talk in terms of the ideal when it's rarely attainable in real life, at least for most of us. Thanks for the vid.

[Benvos]

I’m from the UK and listening to this being called a small room is funny. This is on average a medium room over here! I have Spendor D7.2s in a room this size and they sound incredible, I get everything I want from them from a wide range of music including AC/DC. They’re attached to a Hegel H390 and the source is an Auralic Aries G2.1. You don’t need a tiny system in a room this size if setup well, I have mine along the short wall not in the corner. And yes, my speakers have space both behind and to the sides, there is enough space in a room this size!

[riccitone]

So great that you're addressing this! My listening room is even smaller: 11x12 and 8.5 foot ceilings. I made one of the longer walls a front wall, speakers about 19 inches forward, drivers aiming just behind my head, and put my chair about 2 feet in front of a closet, being part of the back wall. Removed the door from the closet and used a sliding fabric screen in place of said door. When I slide open the screen, stage seems to improve (possibly) due to the combination of the increased space and dampening behind me (lots of soft stuff in the closet, plus also bass trap?) and the screen (possibly) controlling some of the reflections toward the room entrance. Some GIK treatment to address room gain / bass, and a couple of diy diffusers for early reflections and good.

[jonathanjenkins]

Good stuff - I moved my speakers close to the sofa in my last house. Near-field is always good at reducing the influence of the room acoustics - most of the sound gets to your ears before it starts bouncing around the walls!

[garyganser]

Getting real! Great video. Thank you for the corner recommendation. You are the only person who has addressed my L shaped room which can have speakers on stands in the corner. And my 10'x10' office could use your second idea. Thank you!

[stanley]

This really does work. My situation is similar but not the same. I have my system in the living room, which is larger than a "small" room, but between "LOTS" advise and PS Audio's guide, I ended up moving my speakers pretty much to the middle of the room. So not as close as in this video, but much further than what PS Audio was originally recommending. I'm getting an amazing 3D audio out of 2 channel system. A solid central "ball" of sound behind the speakers for the vocals and the wide and pretty deep stage for the instrumentals.
Placement and setup of the speakers is the first thing to get right. Equipment is secondary to that, as you can get phenomenal enjoyment out of a VERY modest setup if you have it tuned to the room properly.

Thank you for the videos and advise!

[Atheistic]

From 25+ years of personal experience. Do not have an audio stand (or anything) between your speakers, get the gear off to the side and low. Have NOTHING on the floor between you and the speakers except for any floor treatment. Declutter the room. Try to duplicate one side if the room to match the other side, a.k.a. keep the room symmetrical in shape and size. Play with speaker placement. Then spend $ on acoustic treatments. You can make a $1500 speaker/amp/source sound amazing. Also, and most importantly, listen to lots of music. Listen to audiophile recordings, research what recordings are audiophile. Listen, listen, listen....

[jonboy]

I have a 12x16 living room where my first system is located much to my wife's chagrin - she hates my music and will not even allow me to play it in her presence without a row. So when she's out I have to lift my left hand Mordaunt Short Avant 609 left hand speaker out from behind the end of the couch and then shift the flat screen tv to expose the right hand one that hides behind it. These floor standing 2.5 ways are heavy but deliver hugely and the work is worthwhile as long as my back holds out and I can get everything back before she gets home!

[whiskeyweekly]

Man, I absolutely love your gentle and honest approach. This was really enjoyable to watch so thank you for the content my man.

[johnholmes]

fifteen foot is considered roomy in many British homes, I don't consider it small in the slightest

[edmatzenik]

I was just about to fill some speaker stands with sand, and I thought "if that sand ever gets spilled I'll never get rid of it all." So I went to a garden supply shop to buy some clean river pebbles. It was such a small amount I needed they gave me them for free, and they work great.

[francisdelacruz]

Near field works really well, coaxial coincident speakers like ls50 would lack height so not all speakers do well in near field. For cheaper room treatments you can frame 3 towels on top of each other this would absorb deaden sound. Cheers and Happy Listening.

[johnhpalmer]

A Very good video there Ron! I run a vintage system, sans the turntable as it's a Rega P6 from 2020 and the cartridge and phono stage is from 2018, the rest, vintage. Receiver is a NAD 7240PE from between 1987-1992 or so, and I think mine is the later variant and the speakers are from 1979, a vintage pair of ADS L810, though billed as bookshelfs, they are a tad too big to be true bookshelf speakers, but do contain 2, 8" acoustic suspension woofers however, with a soft dome midrange and tweeter for a 3-way setup.

As is, the system has balls, lots of moxie and sound very good and natural, even though my room is roughly 11x15FT and is a pass through for the kitchen, bathroom and laundry and the front 2 bedrooms. My couch sits away from the east wall by roughly a foot and a half or so, speakers no more than 21" from the front wall and I have to say, it does that well. The room has other furniture in it but as often noted, it's far from perfect, but for a rectangular room, it goes quite well all things considered.

Do the speakers disappear? Nope and that's not the ultimate goal, but imaging is and I even get image depth in this space.

Shortly after I was given the speakers, they did something I'd never experienced before, they gave me the impression of shooting out sound from them and as I had to go past them to get something from my office at the front of the house, I felt I was having to dart past the trajections. It was uncanny to say the least.

Anyway, overall imaging is decent despite it not being perfect and my rocker/recliner sits right in front of the left channel speaker, but I sit on the couch most when listening to music anyway.

Room has no special treatment, other than the speaker grills placed against the side walls to help with first reflections.

Gotta say, speakers are mildly towed in, about 21" from front wall, and off the floor by some 15 or so inches, and tilted back slightly, which was recommended and they do image well and sound quite natural. All in all, it's a good listening experience for me in a small space. I have also thought about a complete rearrangement of the space, but have not done anything as of yet.

[xxxYYZxxx]

Wow, I've used the "angle away" technique with some success, but never heard it mentioned. I've mostly switched to car audio because tweaking around with my speakers to get the "perfect image" becomes too impractical in small room, but these tips are solid. I now enjoy 3D stereo imaging over the hood of my truck. 😉

[themarklar]

After buying my very first near field setup for my work desk (very open warehouse space - 10 foot long desk) my eyes and ears were truly opened to the beauty of near field. Using a decent set of Q Acoustics book shelf speakers and a decent class D desktop amp, I am blown away at the sound quality I can get for the money. Thanks for this video Ron, always a good reminder that setup matters. 👍

[thedarkknight]

My setup:-
1989 vintage (fully serviced and maintained) Technics SU-600 'New Class A Series' Integrated Amplifier (specs available on t'internet)
2 x mid range 2 way Sony bookshelf - Main
2 x Mid range Pioneer bookshelf - Secondary
15' x 15' room with approx 10/12' ceiling height

All hooked up to my Nvidia Shield K1 tablet (upgrade planned shortly), providing video to my 42" TV, and audio through a Dragonfly Cobalt which then provides input to the Integrated Amp.

Placement:-
The 2 x Sony's are placed below the TV/Hifi stack (on a rack) angled out a little wide. I use these as uppers, mids, and mid bass (yes, I am looking to obtain a 8" or 10" sub to gain a sub bass sound, but so far, I can hear down to approx 45Hz - Amp is rated 5Hz to 70KHz).
The 2 x Pioneers are on speaker stands, placed at approx 45 degrees angle from my head, and approx 6' away from me.
Overall, a crisp, clean, full range sound, with (for me and those that I have demo'd to) a wide sound stage. This current setup sounds REALLY good for the relatively low budget that has been spent on it (goes to show what an old and still available for cheap amp can do). Live music videos come alive, and the type of music I listen to, ranging from Classical, to Melodic Techno, to Chill/Ambient, to others, really come out very well. The way I put it hahaha is like, 'Listening to a well made set of headphones, without needing to wear, headphones' 🤔😏😏
Also, being a teen in the 80's, I love the LED bar type frequency/graphic visualisers, so, I bought myself a 'BDS PP-131 2U' - 31 bar Pro/DJ spectrum analyzer, both as a little treat for myself, but also so that I can 'See' what I hear too (hence knowing my speakers drop off at around the 50/45Hz range (though naturally, I CAN adjust the tone controls and enhance down to approx 30, but I don't want to do that obviously hence the desire to obtain a decent 8/10" sub to handle that and possibly down to 20Hz...)

So yeah, there you have it, that's how I have mine set up, but yes, it is true, often, placing the speakers wide and angled direct to each ear (L + R) CAN give you a wide sound stage where various instruments play direct to each ear, and you can hear the subtle differences including maybe (depending on the track) the sweep from right on your right, through to in front and then sweeping round to your left ear... You just need to do as I did... Take your time, placing, sitting, listening, moving, sitting listening.... Your time, and effort, WILL be rewarding in the end... 😏
AND as you say, you CAN do it without spending the value of yours, your wifes and your kids kidneys in the process too! 🤔😉😉 😎🇬🇧

[mrk]

guys of a certain age have experienced the feeling of new record day and many others have not. The 70s were some good times to be a teenager... vinyl records and real musicianship were at their peak. And other reasons.