Hi!
The room placement and hifi gear talk on boards seems to concentrate on solutions for one listening spot. I'm trying to find a solution for my workspace where I work on different locations of the space. So rather than planing the system for one listening spot I would like to have as nice sound as possible across the room.
I would like to build the cabinets myself. I have a pair of altec 416a drivers and 805b horns. I would like to use single ended low power tube amps for the amplification.
I have been thinking about onken cabinets but it concerns me a bit that would they take too much floorspace. Another one I just found is the bit rarer altec A8 that would seem better fit since its so narrow and is designed to sit close to the wall. Any ideas on what cabinets would you choose?
The room size is 460cm (15ft) x 888cm (29ft)
The possible placements are basicly these? Most seem to think that placing the speakers into the corner is a bad idea, but I red an article where someone stated that if they are placed on corners it fills the whole room with sound instead of just one sweet spot? Any thoughts about this?
I love this image of Murakamis workspace. He doesn't seem to mind having the speakers in the corners...
The room placement and hifi gear talk on boards seems to concentrate on solutions for one listening spot. I'm trying to find a solution for my workspace where I work on different locations of the space. So rather than planing the system for one listening spot I would like to have as nice sound as possible across the room.
I would like to build the cabinets myself. I have a pair of altec 416a drivers and 805b horns. I would like to use single ended low power tube amps for the amplification.
I have been thinking about onken cabinets but it concerns me a bit that would they take too much floorspace. Another one I just found is the bit rarer altec A8 that would seem better fit since its so narrow and is designed to sit close to the wall. Any ideas on what cabinets would you choose?
The room size is 460cm (15ft) x 888cm (29ft)
The possible placements are basicly these? Most seem to think that placing the speakers into the corner is a bad idea, but I red an article where someone stated that if they are placed on corners it fills the whole room with sound instead of just one sweet spot? Any thoughts about this?
I love this image of Murakamis workspace. He doesn't seem to mind having the speakers in the corners...
Tow-in the loudspeakers to at least the center of the room at the prime listening position, then simply EQ the midbass down (i.e., 100-200 Hz) back to flat on axis response. If you "over-rotate" the Altec corner loudspeakers such that their centerlines cross in front of listeners, you can effectively make the sensitivity of listener position for stereo imaging better.
To achieve what you really are asking, I think the solution is three-channel stereo, which locks-in the center stereo image wherever you are located, albeit if you are far enough away from the loudspeakers for any phase misalignments of their loudspeaker drivers to coalesce into a single image.
The better you time/phase align your loudspeakers, the closer you can be to them and still hear a single coalesced soundstage image.
Chris
My main speakers are in a room that is 23 feet wide (the longest dimension), and the speakers are in the corners. I, too, wanted a setup where I'm not confined to listening from a small sweet spot.
I have JBL 2397 horns crossed over at about 800 Hz in combination with JBL 2225 woofers in 9 cubic feet bass reflex boxes. The boxes are tuned to Extended Bass Shelf response (EBS) and the room corners provide some low bass gain. I have bass down to mid 20 Hz range.
I like the sensation of feeling like I'm in a live music venue, and this setup provides that. Forget about imaging; it just feels like I'm there. I enjoy the music anywhere in the room, which the dining area and kitchen are part of. So, what you are looking for is possible.
I have JBL 2397 horns crossed over at about 800 Hz in combination with JBL 2225 woofers in 9 cubic feet bass reflex boxes. The boxes are tuned to Extended Bass Shelf response (EBS) and the room corners provide some low bass gain. I have bass down to mid 20 Hz range.
I like the sensation of feeling like I'm in a live music venue, and this setup provides that. Forget about imaging; it just feels like I'm there. I enjoy the music anywhere in the room, which the dining area and kitchen are part of. So, what you are looking for is possible.
Attachments
The great plains audio 1971 altec catalog does not have the 805 horn, but the 807 is good from 800 -20000 hz. The 416a ia a 15" woofer. The 807 should provide 6 db dispersion of 60 deg horizontal if not 90, adequate for anywhere in the room music from >11' away. Any 15" woofer may have narrower response above 400 hz.
I own speakers that are inspired by the VOT, SP2(2004). Peavey widened the 6 db woofer response to 90 deg by building the cabinet trapezoidal, 8" narrower at the back than the front. This allows a 15" woofer to cover to 1800 hz. That upped the watts rating of the 2004 model to 500 (AES) over the previous parallapiped case models rated 350 w that crossed at 1200 hz. I don't suggest you cross that high with a CD that goes down to 800 hz, but you could save on cost of passive crossover components by crossing at 1200 12 db octave. Since you are building the cabinets anyway. There are other tricks to manage the internal reflextions. Through the ports I see a large elastomer sheet behind the woofer folded back to front diagonally wedged in there. Further knowledge would require disassembly, and I don't have any reason to do that.
With the speakers 7' apart against the narrow wall of a 14' x 33' x 11' room, I can walk anywhere farther than 11' away and the sound doesn't change. With the speakers on poles with the horns 9' high, I can sit or stand without the sound changing. The Peavey horns are assymmetric pointing down for +10 -30 deg response 6 db. You could achieve the same situation by pointing the 807 horns down a little bit from a high location. My rooms are full of organs, pianos, record racks, organ speakers, couches, tables, carpet, so there are few standing waves and plenty of large objects to project the high freq. sound over to my ears. I tested white noise reponse from 6' away with the speaker against the wall, and I have a 200 hz peak (standing wave). With the speaker against the 1" thick plaster wall I seem to have ~3 db of bass boost under the 54 hz rolloff.
Happy building, and later listening.
I own speakers that are inspired by the VOT, SP2(2004). Peavey widened the 6 db woofer response to 90 deg by building the cabinet trapezoidal, 8" narrower at the back than the front. This allows a 15" woofer to cover to 1800 hz. That upped the watts rating of the 2004 model to 500 (AES) over the previous parallapiped case models rated 350 w that crossed at 1200 hz. I don't suggest you cross that high with a CD that goes down to 800 hz, but you could save on cost of passive crossover components by crossing at 1200 12 db octave. Since you are building the cabinets anyway. There are other tricks to manage the internal reflextions. Through the ports I see a large elastomer sheet behind the woofer folded back to front diagonally wedged in there. Further knowledge would require disassembly, and I don't have any reason to do that.
With the speakers 7' apart against the narrow wall of a 14' x 33' x 11' room, I can walk anywhere farther than 11' away and the sound doesn't change. With the speakers on poles with the horns 9' high, I can sit or stand without the sound changing. The Peavey horns are assymmetric pointing down for +10 -30 deg response 6 db. You could achieve the same situation by pointing the 807 horns down a little bit from a high location. My rooms are full of organs, pianos, record racks, organ speakers, couches, tables, carpet, so there are few standing waves and plenty of large objects to project the high freq. sound over to my ears. I tested white noise reponse from 6' away with the speaker against the wall, and I have a 200 hz peak (standing wave). With the speaker against the 1" thick plaster wall I seem to have ~3 db of bass boost under the 54 hz rolloff.
Happy building, and later listening.
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Thanks, this seems actually like a great solution. Did you try the same setup, but with speakers on the shortwall?
Hi, single speaker mono can also sound very very good, especially in such circumstances where there is no single sweetspot.
No. This room is the main area of my house and it is not a simple rectangle due to other features. There are also openings, fireplace, dining area, stairway down, and kitchen. The effective floor plan is more "L" shaped with the speakers along the long leg of the L.
As I said before, this configuration fills the room with sound and I forget about the speakers. I can sit on my couch which is about 10 feet from the wall the speakers are located at and enjoy the music as well.