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How does speaker placement effect a "flat" response. (1 Viewer)

EdNichols

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 15, 2003
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I just got the Video Essentials disk and balanced my system with it. After balancing the system and listening to some music I went back to the disk and ran a frequency sweep. I watched my Rat Shack meter and as the frequency was sweeping the meter was fluctuating anywhere from 3 -5 db through the whole range. This was happening with all the speakers. Is this common? I have heard about this with subs. but not all the speakers.

Here are some details:
I have a 16 x 20 x 9 ft. room, with the system along the long wall on one side and my couch on the other. The main speakers (floor standers) are about 12 ft apart and 1 ft from the wall and my listening position is about 12 feet centered in front of them. I have center speaker over the TV and the surrounds are mounted above and to the sides of the couch. My sub is located in the middle of the shorter wall on one side. My floor is hardwood with an area rug in the middle.

Questions:
1) How important is a flat response to the sound?
2) Can I move the speakers to achieve a better response? If so, what direction do I move them?
3) If not, what are my options?
 

Kevin C Brown

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2000
Messages
5,723
You can't really use those freq sweeps as a measure of freq response. Try something like this:

http://www.etfacoustic.com/

The demo version is free. But to at least try to asnwer your question... :) All of the speakers should be 2 - 3 ft away from walls to avoid bloatedness, boxiness in the bass. (Vandersteen suggests an odd nodal point: 1/3, 1/5, 1/7, etc, of the distance from the wall.) You could try putting your sub in a corner. (A lot of people have success using a parametric eq on the sub, as this one is the biggest effect on room interference.) Not much you can do about the center. Etc.
 

Kevin C Brown

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2000
Messages
5,723
One more thing you can do is room treatments. Stuff like bass traps in corners, diffusing material along the side walls to mellow out the 1st order reflections, etc. Carpetting is better than hardwood for the reflecions from the floor, but you mention the area rug and that will help.
 

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