I had to move my setup and now it sounds pretty bad. One speaker is shoved in the corner, the other speaker is in the center of a wall with the opening for a staircase right behind it. My listening position is right against the back wall. I'm currently using full range markaudio a10p drivers in pencils, they sounded great when I had the room arranged differently, but now the two speakers sound lopsided and there is little to no imaging. Are there any speaker designs that would be less affected by the weird placement?
Nope. Your placement dictates much of the sound due to reflections and resonances. No speaker is immune to it. You can get a DSP that can somewhat compensate for it at your listening position but it’s location of the listener specific. Try moving the speakers slightly and change the angles for slightly better sound. A few inches can do a lot.
I have the same problem with my modest medium size room. Wall #1 (long wall), is half filled with windows, wall #2 (short wall) is solid, first half of wall #3 (long wall) is open to another room starting ~ 2' out from wall #2, and half of wall #4 (short wall) opens to another room, again off-centered opening.
My small room is really only suitable for a small 2-way or small single driver speaker and so confining. The rest of the audio rig can easily get out of hand fast and completely dominate the room. End up being one of those super lonely looking listening rooms with one chair located in the laser focused sweet spot and nothing else but audio equipment. Not much fun to be had there.
Single driver or 2-way monitor with a very well behaved and tight 0º, 30º, 60º off axis performance, wave guide or front horn to control early reflections, IDK, discouraging to hear that your single driver A10p Pensil MLTL doesn't work.
You might find an omni-kinda speaker. With the A10p perhaps some sort of shortish end loaded ML-TL with the driver mostly facing up. Will splash around the room more, might work.
dave
dave
Would you provide floor plan? I am sure you would receive better advice.
I can draw something if you guys want, but I was really more interested in general, what type of speakers are least affected by room shape.
Generally the poorer the room acoustics in the sense of the reflections degrading the perceived sound more than enhancing it the more you want to raise the level of the direct sound relative to the indirect sound. It won't match what could be achieved in a room with good acoustics but is more the best compromise in less than ideal circumstances. This is achieved by sitting closer to the speakers and by the speakers having a narrower beam width.
I suggest this unorthodox speaker: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...rectional-full-range-with-3fe22-build.344096/
It is sort of omnidirectional and quite enjoyable almost independently of room placement. A quick mock up with paper tubes and a pair of full range drivers can be done in a short time. It might be worth trying out to find out if you like it or not.
Another unorthodox solution could be a single stereo (matrix) speaker - https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/stereophonic-sound-from-a-single-loudspeaker.200040/ or https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...ns-on-matrixed-single-stereo-speakers.257110/
A quick test would be to place the existing speakers back to back and move them around the room - for me it worked in the corner or in the middle of a wall, too. A little expermenting this way might get you onto something.
It is sort of omnidirectional and quite enjoyable almost independently of room placement. A quick mock up with paper tubes and a pair of full range drivers can be done in a short time. It might be worth trying out to find out if you like it or not.
Another unorthodox solution could be a single stereo (matrix) speaker - https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/stereophonic-sound-from-a-single-loudspeaker.200040/ or https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...ns-on-matrixed-single-stereo-speakers.257110/
A quick test would be to place the existing speakers back to back and move them around the room - for me it worked in the corner or in the middle of a wall, too. A little expermenting this way might get you onto something.
I imagine you've seen/heard similar in bars, etc., so obviously have some early reflections and why I used triangular baffles to blend them into the corners rather than suspended and have also done them as a triangular TL either constant or sloped/flared taper from the bottom up for small rooms, college dorms, etc..
Run 2 pairs of them speakers. One pair can't comfortably cope I'm guessing. Always 4 for me. Can't go wrong