Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Bookshelf speakers height

I am new here, so greetings to all forum members!

I was watching AHT videos about speakers placement, so I was wondering is my setup at least a little bit good for my situation.

The problem is that the room where I have my Hi-Fi is small, and one of the few options that I had is to put the bookshelf speakers on top of the mounted wall shelf unit. The height is approximately 201 cm (yes, I know it is way above the ear level), but I have them angled with a pair of wooden DIY door wedges, and they are angled quite a bit (around 20-25 degrees). In this way the speakers are firing more or less towards the listening position. I have another option - to put them on a lower shelf, but that would take quite a bit of reworking on a shelf plus I am not quite sure about them being enclosed from all the sides, even if they are not rear ported speakers.

So my question is do you have some advice for me to make this poor soulution a little bit better, or should I leave it like that for now? The speakers that I am talking about are JBL Control One.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome, "AG"!

My guess is that probably have them in the preferred position, but have you tried temporarily putting them close to the other position? It may not answer whether or not there might be an issue of "boxing them in", but at least you'll know if the height change is worth exploring more options or not!

I have mine above ear height in my bedroom and to compensate I turn them upside down. A little tilt will help as well.

I will clean the room tomorrow, and I will try to mess around and put them on lower shelves. I will let you know the outcome



You mean upside down so that the tweeters are down, but the speakers are still vertical?

AG, welcome to Axiom. In your situation the most important consideration would be to have the tweeters pointed as much as possible toward your ear level. So, your present solution of angling the speakers downward with wedges is likely to work as well as your room will allow.

Thanks everyone for their welcomes!

OK, today when I was cleaning up the room and the shelves, me and my girlfriend tried to move them down on the lower shelves. And the sound was "boxed", muddy and not that clear as high above. So I am definitely keeping them up there. Although they are angled quite a bit, hopefully they will not fall down in case of some earthquake or something haha

Putting them in the shelving created a midbass/midrange boost and increased loading issues. Get them on stands and into the room for better results. Buy some M3s here.

Yes, especially mid-range boost while they were in the shelves.

I will consider the option with the stand in the future too, for now they are doing good on top of the shelves and angled. Thanks!

Another vote for upside-down (yes, tweeters down). I spent quite a few years in the same situation, where "on a high shelf" was the only option.

Get them as far away from the wall as possible (even if that only means having the front edge of the speaker an inch or so out from the edge of the shelf), and if you're angling them down try to rig some kind of safety setup so you don't slam a door one day and have one or both slide off onto the floor

And welcome !!

EDIT -- hmm, turning them upside down only lowers the tweeters by about 3", so maybe not that important. On the other hand they do seem to be small enough that you have all kinds of mounting options including maybe mounting them under the shelf (depending on whether it's a shelf or a big-ass wall unit).

Yup, they are like half an inch from the edge, but they are solid and stable when i try to shake them. Managed to get those wedges beneath so that it keeps them in place without moving and bouncing. Good thing that I have the slide doors so no way to slam them

Big ass wall unit it is I was considering to mount them underneath one day, but I will see, especially because of aesthetic reasons (they look quite good on top of the shelf plus I have a bad-ass mouflon ram trophy skull between them haha :))

That would make a good picture.

Anyone not knowing the size of the speakers would think the skull came off an animal the size of a Triceratops.

Here it is


Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

I see the problem now... the horn section is too big.

But seriously, lower the speakers to ear level.

Good one, Scott!

Welcome AG! I'm glad you rearranged only the speaker placement. The beer bottles are simply adorable right where they are!

You've inspired me to also try using (or just storing) recyclables next to my speakers. You should try substituting cans and see if the speakers sound any different. I'm going to start saving those big Tide jugs to try out.

Lol.

First of all, no need for such sarcasm. The bottles are nowhere near the speakers, even if it looks like on that photo (perspective). I came here for a suggestion about the speakers, not to read your rambling about the "interior design" If you got nothing smart to say, please uphold from messages like this one, and cure your frustration elsewhere - not on the internet

Whoa there AG, you are new here and need to understand that people have different personalities. As one of the longest posting residents of this board, I can tell you with great honesty that most people here are honest, open and ready to help. Some do this with a flair for humor, but nobody - well very few but they are easy to spot - mean any harm

Bob is a unique individual, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Axiom 30th anniversary. He does tend to spin advice into humor, but he is a well respected veteran of this board.

If everyone simply filled a form or ticked boxes for posts and followed the masses, this board would be as frustrating as others.....but the refreshing tangents here make this a family.

You need to realize that every forum out there has those people that have a hidden agenda and will use every opportunity to further their cause. Here we have Bob. His agenda is to add some humor in the form of sarcasm and it is not all that well hidden when he posts and it has that effect on many first time posters. I know when I first posted, I was taken aback by his comments and took everything he said in the totally wrong tone. Now a year and a bit later, I actually look forward to what he writes as it's a great smile for the day. If you can't laugh at yourself, then how can you laugh at others?

BTW: I see a Wychwood Brewery Hobgoblin in the stack. Great beer from my old home. I am just sad that they pulled the November beer from being bottled any more and only now comes in casks that you simply can't get over here.

AG, I really do owe you an apology. As a newbie, you couldn't know that I am a smarmy jokester who will sacrifice most anything or anyone for a laugh.

It was also very unfair of me, because I do not know if you are old enough to buy alcohol for yourself or if your community even offers a recycling program.

Yup, still doin' it. I'm sure, like everyone else here, you will appreciate it far more when I do it with someone else.

You are young. You have oodles of time and cash yet to commit to audio/video equipment in the upcoming years. This is a very good place to start and even grow, for years.

Besides, AG, really! If you related this story to one of your friends, and they asked you the screen name of the jerk in question, how do you think they'd respond when you told them his name is SquareBobGodPants? If I could "arrive" here each time in a clown car, I would, but in an expensive suit.

P.S. Thanks, Matt! There's enough irony here for both of us!

Sorry If i offended anyone, but how can I know personality of the people here? This is a forum after all, we are all behind the PC screens. Neither can I roll the dice to see if it was in the wrong tone or not There is a good and bad place/time for sarcasm. And to be honest I am not a forum guy at all, I only post on them when I really have a problem, maybe that's why this situation came up like this. And it is my right to defend myself If i feel threatened. But obliviously this is a big misunderstanding, so again, sorry if I offended anyone.



Yup, here in Europe (i presume most of you are from across the ocean) we have all kinds of good beer

This is an unusual place in the sense that you can pretty much assume that everyone means well and not regret it.

Not at all what a reasonable person would expect from an online forum.

Generally a few minutes on almost any forum (but particularly comments on newspaper articles) make me despair for humankind. This forum is different, and it's refreshing.

Hopefully you don't mind that you were asking perfectly reasonable questions about speaker placement and we were more interested in your mouflon skull

AG, you offended no one. I have set too low a standard here for that to be likely. DO keep in mind however, that if you really feel like it, you are always welcome to stop by.

Again, MY apologies. Had I known you were European, I wouldn't have bothered with you at all. I'm kidding. I'm kidding! Some of my favorite ancestors left there.

If beer AND audio are your thing, I may not be your guy, but you HAVE landed in OZ. Stick around, share some thoughts, get some advice (lots---on everything), hang way loose, and have some fun, too!

So now, you're like the third guy on the Forum with a name from the periodic table. Hmmm?

You sold the clown car?

Hahaha, good one Thanks, I definitely will stick around

Nah, just too lazy to come up with a username



Well, the skull has 8 ohms, 2 tweeters from both eye sockets, magnetic shielding, bass reflex enclosure plus a secret characteristic from the horns and bunch of other goodies.

It's nice that everyone is just flinging around the word, "mouflon," as if no one's paying attention. Mouflon are predominantly from The Caucuses, the part the includes both Iran AND Iraq! The only ones not living there, of which I am aware, live in Buffalo, New York, at the zoo.

So, AG, if you're from Europe, like you SAY you are, how'd such a thing get onto your shelf? Huh?

Really? No one else is suspicious? Just me?

(AG, this is called "hijacking" a thread. Current U.S. street language would omit the "hi," thus leaving simply, "jacking.")

I'm going to make two phone calls in the name of Homeland Security. First, I'm calling the zoo in Buffalo for a head-count. Then, I'm calling whoever is in charge of that part of The Caucuses. Wait! That'd be, like, 60 or 70 international phone calls! Never mind.

AFAIK mouflon have been imported into game farms in the US for hunting, and the same probably applies to other parts of the world.

http://www.shootingenterprise.com/mouflon

http://www.diana-hunting.com/poland/poland/mouflonhunting/

http://www.greatspanishunts.com/en/big-game-species/search-by-species/european-mouflon/

http://www.majesticmouflons.net/

On the other hand they don't live forever so there's probably a big pile of mouflon skulls somewhere in the world.

But it is a good question.

Wow...I gave Bob a compliment and he totally ignores it...sheesh!! LOL

And I insulted him and he ignored me. Wait, that's normal.

This is really bad. I thought I had responded. I know I had written one, but I must not have pushed "submit" before something shiny with came on the TV and I shut 'er all down.

Mike, duly noted, thanks. Fred, insults from me or toward me are like bad press in show biz; "...just as long as the names are spelled correctly." So, thanks. I didn't actually go back to check if you HAD spelled my name correctly. Remember, the second "b" is smaller.

Alright, you got me

By the way, turned the speakers upside down and that solved the issue for now. We will see what the future will bring.