Detrimental effects of having speakers close together

penbat

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For convenience my Dali Zensor speakers are only about 2 feet apart. Is stereo separation the only thing depreciated or is there anything else ?
 

BigH

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Probably quite a few other aspects as well, such as soundstage, too much bass which could swamp other frequencies and therefore lose clarity, also the stereo effect will be reduced or lost and it maybe just like listening in mono. Its generally best to have them 5-7 feet apart depending on the room size and how far you are from them.

How far from them are you?
 

penbat

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About 8 feet - quite a small room.

Incidentally, speakers built into flatscreen TVs are of course generally awful but to compound it, they are close together as well.
 

mikeparker59

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If you are 8 feet away from speakers then having them 2ft apart isn't really allowing you to get the best from them. May as well be listening in mono.

You say it's for convenience, presumably because of other furniture or where your doors are in the room, maybe a re-think and a bit of furniture shifting is needed to get those speakers at least 5-6 feet apart if you are still going to be sat 8 feet away.

The accepted ideal is an an equilateral triangle with the two speakers and listening position on the points of the triangle.
 

penbat

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thanks for responses, ive manged to give them a 4 foot separation and it sounds much better. Anything more at present would involve a major furniture reorganisation.
 

danrv

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Hi
My room is the same size and I sit 8' from the speakers.
I get the best sound with the speakers just over 8' apart.
They are pretty much in the corners but around 18" from back and side walls.
It's worth re-arranging furniture etc...if possible to get the speakers much wider apart.
I have tried my speakers closer together,although not as much as 2' and the system just sounds like a portable CD player.
 

sheggs

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Positioning in a room is so important to avoid low frequency issues. It really is always worth experimenting with moving your listening position and speakers. Some general starter guidelines are -

a) Don't have the speakers too close to the wall to avoid boundary interference; bass is omni directional
b) Try to attain symmetry where your speakers are positioned, if it is not symmetrical it will actually effect the stereo imaging (soundwaves hitting a surface can actually reach your opposite side first). Remember a corner can also be used to achieve this
c) Always face the short wall where possible to avoid as many room modal issues as possible
 

sheggs

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One of the main things that you can come across with speaker placement is room nulls or peaks. So when I say low frequency issues it can mean that the bass is too loud or too quiet (it would depend upon the room and your position within it).

One of the main culprits with bass issues is known as SBIR; here's some more informaton on it from one of educational articles -

SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response)[/b] – This is a term to describe how the proximity of a speaker to a hard boundary (wall/ceiling/floor) will change the response, especially in the low end. This is something that not a lot of people understand nor consider when planning a room.

Sound radiates from a driver in different ways. Higher frequencies act like a ray and move in straight lines from a point. As you get lower in the spectrum, they begin to radiate more like a sphere. By the time you get below 500 Hz or so, you’re getting pretty spherical radiation. By the time you get to 125, it’s purely spherical.

That said, imagine sound coming from a driver at say 100 Hz that is coming directly at you. There are other waves that are wrapping around the cabinet and bouncing off the front wall and then back at you. When 2 waves of the same frequency meet in this way (one direct, one having bounced off the front wall) there is an interface of the 2 waves (some describe this as interference).

Constructive interference[/b] occurs when the 2 waves happen to be in phase with each other. This yields a reinforcement of that frequency or a peak in response. Destructive interference[/b] occurs when the 2 waves are 180 degrees out of phase. This yields a partial cancellation of that frequency (the bounced wave has less amplitude) resulting in a dip or null at that frequency.

This can cause WILD variations in frequency response. However, one can sometimes use this to your advantage. If you play with speaker positioning in relation to the front wall (behind the speakers) and the side wall, you can ‘tune’ the response changes. This can be beneficial when attempting to smooth overall response. See our video Positioning the Listening Spot.

Let’s say that you have peak at your listening position at a given frequency. If you can find a place that images well and works with the video positioning that will create a slight dip due to SBIR, the net effect is a smoother response at your seat. It’s kind of like using an EQ without having to put one in your system.

Generally, your best off if the distance from speaker face to front wall, driver centers to side wall, and driver center to floor are 3 different dimensions in order to not reinforce any specific set of harmonics by having all the boundaries generate the same SBIR effect.

If you still have issues, you can treat the walls directly beside and/or behind the speakers with appropriate materials to further reduce the intensity of the reflected wave to it’s impact when interacting with the direct wave is minimized. If you have issues say from 125Hz up but OK below that, then a thinner panel may be in order – say 2″. If you have problems all the way down, then something thicker may be appropriate.

Also remember that there will be interactions between the sub and boundaries and also between the sub and mains and their boundary responses.
 

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