Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Speaker Setup?

Speaker Setup – Step 1. Choosing a Room

This may seem like a basic given, but what room layout you choose is as important (if not more so) as the loudspeakers you put in it. Fantastic speakers in a cranky room will result in a bottleneck you can’t do anything about. So, how do we choose a room that is amenable to great sound? In the following examples I ripped apart my listening room at home and started from scratch. Practice what I preach, right?

1. Choose a room that you enjoy spending time in already. Our perception of sound, and the dopamine response we get from enjoying music should go hand in hand with other stimulants that do the same. Forget all the don’ts out there that say windows are forbidden. We can deal with those issues later. Natural light is a huge plus and will lend itself to spending time in the room. Mood is paramount to enjoying good sound. Good sound also creates good mood.

2. Choose a room that has 4 walls and is a normal rectangular shape. Standing waves are much more predictable when you have a contained volume that is easier to model. The ideal position of the listener and loudspeakers can be predicted empirically before anything is purchased. More on this later. Forget about a “perfect room” or “golden ratio”. Construction of walls vs floors vs ceilings support the reflection and absorption of frequencies differently. The only way around this is to build a “floating room” where plywood\gypsum walls and ceilings are suspended and all cavities behind are stuffed with insulation. In this case we are still dealing with a floor that will break the golden ratio…

3. Choose a room where the entrance is to the rear or rear side of the room, preferably with a door. A connected volume of space will introduce weird decay behavior and can cause unpredictable low frequency behavior in the room you are in. Standing wave nulls also trend toward a boundary that is absorptive or has less reinforcement. Trending the 1st order length null behind the listener is a great way to use physics to your advantage.

4. Choose a room that is carpeted or can allow a large throw rug. We want to control decay behaviour in our rooms. Carpeting is a great way to instantly reduce global decay times by almost 50% when compared with a bare tile or hardwood.

Example Room- Measurements in Inches