Hi I'm looking for some advice on speaker placement in my kitchen/diner room - photo attached.

[img]https://ibb.co/LNV2Dqq[/img]

The room is about 3.5m wide and 8m long with high ceiliings (probably 3m at the top of the cathedral windows).

I'm looking to upgrade my audio setup (aiming to spend ~£1-2k) but am concerned on what to do with the speakers - what type and where to place them. The obvious aesthetically pleasing place is in the tall alcoves (where they are in the photo), but I've now read lots of warnings that glass nearby is a really bad idea. Before reading that I was thinking of either having higher stands or floorstanding.

It feels like my only other main option would be wall-mounted speakers in each corner higher up, but I haven't read good things about that approach either!

In case it helps this my goal is great sounding music, I'm less fussed about the tv\cinema experience.

Thanks in advance for suggestions!

Where do you sit when listening to tunes? Across the TV or on the couch in the photo?

Either facing the TV, or at the dining table which is the same central position but another 2m back or so.

We’ll need some context. How is the rest of the furniture and room arranged? Do have pictures of how the kitchen and dining area are situated? Would you consider moving the TV and hifi into the right corner? Do you want the TV to be the visual focus of the room?

Generally, stereo requires symmetry in the room and layout to do its magic. A multichannel 5.x or 7.x setup running Dolby Digital or DTS:X is a great equalizer (see what I did there?) for anyone with a suboptimal room for stereo music playback or who wants multiple listening positions to experience the sweet spot.

And for unsolicited advice, that coffee table has to go.

Without any doubt, I say on-wall speakers on the outside of each window. Axiom M2, M3 or M5OW would work well. I find it difficult in my living room to decide between M2 and M5. I have both and switch between them to keep things interesting. While I've never heard M3OW, I have the bookshelves and really like their retroish, mellow sound.

If you had answered that you'd listen from the couch, I'd have told you to not even bother with speakers.

P.S. I also have M50, LFR1100 active and used to have M80 and M100.

I think a corner placement would have worked if that was the case. It would involve moving the TV off the wall and onto a corner stand. I had that setup before, and it sounded fine.

The interior designer in me wants to replace the wood cabinet with a small chair and pouf ottoman, lower the TV by 6 inches, put a white soundbar or white VP100/M2's on top of the white cabinet, and replace the coffee table with a pair of movable nested tables on top of an area rug.

Outside looks inviting. The outdoorsy audiophile granola cruncher in me wants to rip the walls out so the speakers can be freed from nasty acoustical boundaries and operate in free space.

I perhaps should have mentioned that I moved into this place last year. The TV is a Samsung Frame, and replaces the one that the previous owners had there. It works well as a centrepiece for the whole room (normally showing artwork). And the cabinet is needed as the only place to hold the amp, hue player, consoles etc. Anyway, moving on from justifying the interior layout...

Thinking through a little I've realised that roughly half the time I'll be sitting listening to music, but often I'm moving around in the kitchen area, and would still like to have good music quality reaching me. Right now even I can tell that it's a little muddy, which I'm putting down to the alcoves the speakers are in.

It sounds like I should look again at mounting speakers into the corners. Given the overall height of this room (~3m) should I still aim for roughly head height if I went down this path? Should I be thinking of adding in a sub as well if I do this?

If you are buying Axiom on-walls or bookshelves, aim for the tweeter centers to be 3" to 6" below your seated ear level. If that's impractically low, you can raise them but you may lose some transparency.

On-walls also need to be mounted flat on the wall as they rely on the wall for bass response extension.

If you go with M5s, you don't need a sub but for sure a sub provides a benefit. Go without a sub to start.

As for fidelity while working in the kitchen, that won't be a problem. My kitchen is 20 feet away with a partial floor-to-ceiling wall in between. Sounds great!

Don't mount in the corners. Mount them flat where they'll give you the best presentation when you're doing 50% of your music listening.

Thinking outside the box, I think you're a candidate for a portable loudspeaker placed in the kitchen. It can be something like an AxiomAir Force, AxiomAir Freedom, Sonos Five, Marshall Woburn III, or Sonus Faber Omnia.

If critical listening is a priority, a wall mount or bookshelf setup with subwoofer makes sense. A subwoofer is worth stretching for, good bass makes up a third of our perceived music enjoyment.

Don't block your windows with speakers. Just...don't. Particularly since Axiom did such a nice job with the on-wall sound.

Thanks both for the ideas and feedback.

The suggestion of a portable speaker did give me pause for thought, but looking at the room again I suspect I'd just end up leaving it in one place anyway, so I may as well go for fixed positions.

Good tip as well to avoid the corners, and the recommendation of starting without the sub makes sense I think.

Thanks again!

One thought on this, I bought wireless M3's and portables with the idea of being able to easily move them around. I was not concerned about them audiophile quality, just music in the background. I came to the conclusion that M3's are too difficult to drag onto the deck, but the portables (non Axiom) have become speakers that travel to many areas of the property, and beyond. For example, I take one into the garage when working there, when gardening in the yard one sits on ledge, I pair 2 for deck parties, most hotel rooms have poor audio/video for music, , so tossing one in my luggage gives me my streaming services everywhere!

I use this and stream YT music and internet radio via BT when I don't feel like lugging around the Force or Freedom. Awesome engineering!

PRUNUS J-288 Radio AM FM Small Portable Radio Stereo Dual Speakers with Sleep Timer, Ultra-Long Antenna, Rechargeable Battery Operated, AUX Input & USB Disk & TF Card MP3 Player(Blak) https://a.co/d/0lOsp2u