Bad setups

[yani]

As I await the arrival of my KEF R300's I have been looking at Youtube for people with the same speakers. On doing this I have also naturally looked at different setups with different speakers. What amazes me is just how poorly some set their speakers up. They invariably end up in alcoves or cabinets where they are fully boxed in. Some have one speaker at one height with the other quite a bit lower. Equipement fairs no better at times being placed on shelfs or just sitting on the floor.

I wonder sometimes if these are the people who invariably criticise their equipment saying it is not living up to the hype. Bass is poor, muddled sound, no soundstage etc. I have even seen speakers where there is a substantial piece of furniture blocking one side. Some setups looked absolutely fine while others looked horrendous.

It just seems a little unfair on manufacturers. They produce decent gear but get flak all beacuse of poor setup by the user. Just makes you realise that when you read other peoples comments that there may be other reasons for poor sound other than the equipment itself.

 

[CeresHilton]

Totally hear you on this point, but people sometimes have to make a silk purse out of a sows ear, 90% of homes are not hifi friendly, my speakers are set with perfect tow in and tape measure accurate in placement, but my listening position is totally skew wiff (i think thats how you say it) to appreciate the perfect speaker placement.

If you live in a 3 bed semi with 2 kids your hifi speaker positioning fits where it fits and thats that

 

[yani]

I take your point with that. I suppose you have to live with what your home (or wife) allows. My point is that people may criticise the sound they are hearing when really it's how the system is set up or positioned. I think some folks forget that speaker position is pretty critical to how a system performs.

When someone commemts on this forum of finding his speakers are rather 'boomy' we should first consider how they are set up rather than point to what we think is a better speaker.

 

[Gazzip]

Totally hear you on this point, but people sometimes have to make a silk purse out of a sows ear, 90% of homes are not hifi friendly, my speakers are set with perfect tow in and tape measure accurate in placement, but my listening position is totally skew wiff (i think thats how you say it) to appreciate the perfect speaker placement.

If you live in a 3 bed semi with 2 kids your hifi speaker positioning fits where it fits and thats that

Not in my three bed flat they don't. The kids share a room, my wife and I share the second room, and the BB5's get the master bedroom. My setup even has its own en-suite but I don't think it uses it.

 

[CeresHilton]

Totally hear you on this point, but people sometimes have to make a silk purse out of a sows ear, 90% of homes are not hifi friendly, my speakers are set with perfect tow in and tape measure accurate in placement, but my listening position is totally skew wiff (i think thats how you say it) to appreciate the perfect speaker placement.

If you live in a 3 bed semi with 2 kids your hifi speaker positioning fits where it fits and thats that

Not in my three bed flat they don't. The kids share a room, my wife and I share the second room, and the BB5's get the master bedroom. My setup even has its own en-suite but I don't think it uses it.

Haha well your one of the lucky ones bud, you and your hifi are living the dream

 

[yani]

I convinced my wife to stop at one kid as I needed the spare bedroom for my hifi. My daughter (now 22) thinks this is hilarious and thinks It's such a laugh.

I never have had the heart to tell her it was true and the reason she has no brothers or sisters !!

 

[TrevC]

It's surprising how many supposed listening rooms have bare walls and solid floors. The speakers can't possibly give of their best with all those sound reflecting surfaces.

 

[Gazzip]

It's surprising how many supposed listening rooms have bare walls and solid floors. The speakers can't possibly give of their best with all those sound reflecting surfaces.

Indeed. Hard surfaces and minimalism look great but are not as you say so good for hifi. I have given up trying to convince my clients of this as for many of them it is not so much about the sound, more about appearance. Crazy.

 

[gregory]

That's the way of the world now, to be honest I don't give a hoot how people show of their hi fi on you tube, 15 minutes of fame I suppose, but some people really don't know about music and how great it can sound, luckily sites like this exist for the unenlightened.

 

[lindsayt]

When I look at photos of people's systems, only about 1 in 20 is set up how I'd set mine up.

As well as the issues already mentioned: poor speaker placement, bare echoey rooms etc another one is placing turntables on floor mounted stands right next to or between their speakers.

 

[davedotco]

I still get asked (only occasionally now) to check out peoples hi-fi and few if any are well chosen to suit the room or the actual requirements of the user.

System set-up is hardly a dark art and choosing the right equipment in the first case makes it all pretty straightforward but so many people simply get it wrong. I try to avoid the obvious comments, blaming the messenger is far too widespread.

The re-emergence of vinyl playing systems have made this worse, I have come across several people in the last year or so who have bought vinyl playing systems without any decent advice and ended up more that a bit dissapointed that they are simply not getting what they expected.

 

[JoelSim]

True. I remember we had a fire and obviously got everything out of the room to redecorate. Out went the sofas, rugs, curtains etc. Anyway to start the redecoration I need to set the hifi up to provide some much-needed joy to help the painting.

Wow, empty rooms don't sound very good. Just horrible.

 

[Al ears]

I convinced my wife to stop at one kid as I needed the spare bedroom for my hifi. My daughter (now 22) thinks this is hilarious and thinks It's such a laugh.

I never have had the heart to tell her it was true and the reason she has no brothers or sisters !!

You cad sir!

Having said that I had to move all my kit into the largest (our) bedroom so my daughter could have her own bedroom (come gym, come disco hall, come study, come whatever....)

 

[wilro15]

I think many of us have to make compromises based on whats available in our homes. My TT is on a £7 Ikea table sat in between the speakers. I know its not ideal, but its all I can do, and as far as I can tell it sounds good.

Not everyone can give their system a dedicated room designed from the ground up for hifi. If only.

 

[davedotco]

I think many of us have to make compromises based on whats available in our homes. My TT is on a £7 Ikea table sat in between the speakers. I know its not ideal, but its all I can do, and as far as I can tell it sounds good.

Not everyone can give their system a dedicated room designed from the ground up for hifi. If only.

Floor mounted turntable supports will work really well with some players, it is all to do with resonances and what frequencies are passed by the table and the turntable suspension.

Back in the day we used to supply floor mounted turntable supports for a whole bunch of players of the suspended sub-chassis variety. Mostly Linns and Roksans but they were great with any player of this type, the table effectively filtered out the higher frequencies, the suspension the lower so virtually nothing got through to the platter/arm/stylus interface.

If your Technics/ikea works well, don't fret it, the simple light tables are known to make good supports for many players, maybe yours is one of them.

 

[bigfish786]

I've seen some truly horrid setups. Looking at YouTube vids, photos etc. some people are really wasting their money.

if it was easier to post pics on this forum it would be much easier to help people who come on here moaning about poor sound, the vast majority of them will be down to poor setup.

 

[lpv]

I solved frustration with my silly shaped living room and endless speakers repositioning by pair of headphones... it's now more than ' a pair of headphones' and my sitting in front of speakers gone now really.. it's almost 100% headphones, music sounds soooo much better this way, to me... I now have dedicated room ( third, smallest bedroom) for all music related matters. I can also listen all avantgarde/ experimental schiit without annoying wife.

 

[lindsayt]

In vinyl systems, the type of turntable stand used is likely to make more difference than the cables used.

Even the most well matched floor mounted stands and turntables are likely to sound better when positioned well away from the speakers than next to them or between them. It's the sort of thing that anyone can try, if only for a few minutes, for nearly free. With the only cost being some long enough speaker cables - which could always be something like some old lawnmower flex for the purposes of the experiment.

 

[Al ears]

lpv, I was going to say that that is a lot of Schiit...... but that would be purile.

You are quite correct in the fact that many people who struggle for ages to try and get decent sounds out of a system that, quite obviously, is never going to produce them when they are living in a 'box', could easily solve all their problems with a decent headphone setup as you have done yourself. Nice collection by the way. I'm still waiting for my Oppo's.

 

[davedotco]

I have, over the years, seen a lot of systems in a lot of rooms and only a very few have been trully awful.

The trick, as always, is to match the system to the room. The basics are absolutely dead simple, do not try to generate deep bass in a small room, not from conventional speakers anyway.

The best results will come from small speakers with controlled bass, room gain will lift low frequencies and the results will be better than you might imagine. If you have to have deep bass use a good sub, with an antimode if needed.

Another way to get good sound in a small room is to use the room boundaries, there are few speakers that can do that these days which is, I think, a shame. Good active speakers are an option too, they tend to have tighter bass control and in many cases a degree of bass adjustment too.

 

[yani]

I've seen some truly horrid setups. Looking at YouTube vids, photos etc. some people are really wasting their money.

if it was easier to post pics on this forum it would be much easier to help people who come on here moaning about poor sound, the vast majority of them will be down to poor setup.

Exactly my point. Why spend all that dosh and not set it up the best you can. I understand there are limits with regards living space and wife's being happy. I just would not spend upwards of £1000 quid if I could not set it up to get the best. I would settle on something far cheaper.

 

[JMac]

Heres a couple of very quick shots of my configuration. Its a compromise from what space I have in the room and is far from ideal but it is what it is

This is the only room I can use and so have to work within its constraints.

 

[TrevC]

Heres a couple of very quick shots of my configuration. Its a compromise from what space I have in the room and is far from ideal but it is what it is

This is the only room I can use and so have to work within its constraints.

I'm curious. Why are the speaker cables hanging in mid air? Looks like an accident waiting to happen.

 

[Gazzip]

I'm curious. Why are the speaker cables hanging in mid air? Looks like an accident waiting to happen.

It dramatically improves sound quality by reducing impedence and increasing inductance whilst introducing a lower frequency tonal adjustment due to resistive forces being pulled down by gravity.

Don't you know anything about cables Trevor?

 

[JMac]

Lol,

No, it was just that I wanted to try bi-wiring/bi-amping the speakers and so bought the shortest runs necessary since it was only an experiment.