Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Speaker Placement; Bass Null

I'm hoping for feedback on my speaker placement, and if I'm really lucky how to eliminate a bass null that I think I just created.
I have to start by saying this in a room that my wife has layout control over, so some obvious options are not available. (I get other rooms, like the theater room, but the living room is hers.)
Up till this weekend I had the speakers about 2 feet more narrow and the chairs artificially over to the left. It didn't really work visually, but more importantly the stereo separation wasn't as good as I thought it could be. On the plus side the bass seemed decent.
Now I have the speakers a little closer to the side walls, and the chairs in the middle; but I seem to have created a bass null in the center, right where I sit. The null is the rounded-corner rectangle. (I didn't notice it at first, until I was playing music while walking back and forth tweaking tow-in and placement.)
Overall I like the new placement better; but would love to remove the null.

So, what do you guys think, any other suggestions for placement? And is there anything other than removing the chairs I can do about the bass null?

[img]https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/D5yAymbUgjJSOTbVKi8g69e2tqp8mpNSZgXmPIX0k8Z[/img]
[img]https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/pG1Xuw1wEo9hkP5Asu9TeTke4DHnd22ZpJ7tgE69jSk[/img]

I assume that you don’t have a sub … if you do, I’d try moving it around … do the sub crawl. If not consider adding one or two If you have the money. 2 to 4 small subs would be the easiest way to even out the lows … otherwise you can try playing with the mains position more … as to method, someone else might have a better answer but … my first thought, and this would be an experiment, would be to try the sub crawl using a main speaker. Get a feel for where in the space you’d like to set them up. Might work if you have enough leeway in the positioning of the mains … then see if you can get them to image. Never tried that myself but it sounds like it might work. Like to know your solution once you get it … have fun ….

P.S. if you have the space to get around them you can try moving the mains a bit further into the room and/or away from the sides. You might even have them hug the chairs and walk around their backs (if you don’t have the space to get around the fronts)

Personally, I’d try setting up the speakers first and then come up with furniture arrangements to work with them.
From there you might discover a decent compromise.

P.S. I love the invisible man with the party ballon’s

Try toeing them in, moving them closer to the wall behind them and moving your MLP back.

I think though your real problem might be the bad audio juju channeled by the disembodied giant toad skeleton hanging on the right. Throw that shit in a hot fire and all will be well.

So no magic bullet, huh. Thanks guys, I'll keep playing and moving them around.
I should have mentioned the sub, my wife didn't want one of those either (so I got the HPs). But there are a few spots that wouldn't be intrusive and I should be able to "negotiate", so I'll experiment with an existing sub to see if any of those spots work.
They are toed in by-the-way, about 7 degrees. I found a few sited that said aim for directly behind your head. Separation-wise, that's working pretty well.

Ha - thanks! Quick background on that - about 15 years ago my daughter wanted a mannequin to make costumes (she was in community theater). But we go the wrong kind. Instead of taking it back it sat there, and over time everyone in the house took to dressing it up in whatever floated their boat: party animals, weather related, vacation destinations, ... We've had some good ones along the way. Although, people coming into the house for the first time do think we're wacko. Oh well.

You know, that *does* look like a disembodied skeleton! It's actually a weird clock and a bunch of angels. But the next time we're sitting in there drinking I'll make sure to point out to my wife the similarity to a skeleton.

Maybe OW in that room and you could get your sub too?

Can you still get a good holographic Center image with those chairs in between them? I know you’re dealing with the limitations of sharing the room.

Believe it or not I originally suggested OW and she declined. The next time she regrets her decision to let speakers in I'll see what happens.

I completely forgot that at one point I did remove the chairs to see the difference, and it didn't seem to be much at all. That surprises me as I type this so I'll do that experiment again. I will say that I am getting a center image, but the overall effect is L/R heavy. That's actually one of the reason I posted, as I was thinking maybe I went too wide. But at the time I was separating that effect with the bass null; which now sounds like a really obvious miss.

She doesn't want on-walls because they'll interfere with her wall clutter. Maybe she can nail the voodoo doll to the ceiling.

The other alternative is to just forget about traditional tower speakers and see if there's an aesthetically pleasing all-in-one wonder that might suit the wife. If not the AxiomAir Force 2 or 3, then maybe a B&W Zeppelin, Sonus Faber Omnia, or a couple of Sonos Fives.

I don't think you'll be doing critical listening with any of these, but maybe they might be good enough, and might even alleviate the bass null at the seating position.