Speaker Position alcove & chimney breast?

[admin_exported]

Hey I have my stand in a corner of a room which is an alcove and I have both bookshelve speakers on it either side.

But my listning seat tends to be the middle of the fireplace to the left of the alccove.

Would I benifit from running wire underneath the fireplace and moving it to the other side so its more spread out?

I know its hard to say yes or no without a pic, but maybe some general thoughts.

The only reason I have not done this so far, is becuase the wife likes them were they are and feels it will be uneven with one bookshelf and a centre on the stand, and the other about 5 feet away.

Thanks

See below: its the top right hand pic, thats not mine but same setup, but i dont have a bay window and my tv is on the wall about 3 feet up from the stand.

http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=active&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=tv+in+the+alcove&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&start=0

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the early bump, but was going to get some more wire after work.

Does anyone know were the left bookshelf speaker would best fit?

 

[Anonymous]

Well its almost home time?

Can anyone help?

Should I put my left bookshelf on the other side of the fire ?

Thanks

 

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canada16:
Well its almost home time?

Can anyone help?

Should I put my left bookshelf on the other side of the fire ?

Thanks

Simple answer: IMO No

Explanation:

My previous house was a Victorian terrace. I had the TV in the LH alcove (next to the chimney breast and fireplace) and the main listening/viewing position was along the opposite wall - 2.4m sofa, 50cm from LHS wall, so main seating position was to the right of the TV (which was angled into room) to opposite RHS of chimney breast. Now the room had a bay window and the fireplace wall was slightly longer (about 30-40cm). I was using a KEF 2005.2 system and had the speakers positioned as follow: Centre, LF on stand LR on LH end of mantlepiece, Surrounds wall-mounted - Left 1.8m up, 50cm to left of sofa and Right 1.8m up, just to the right of the sofa (door in way)

Sorry that's a lot of detail - hope it all makes sense.

I found putting the Egg at the RHS of alcove made the sound very disconnected from the TV and also caused the overall soundstage to become less coherent, no matter how I tried to re-balance things.

We've moved house, but the plan was to attach the L&R eggs to the walls on either side of the alcove and route cables - jury-rigged this for a test and it sounded very good - probably the best I could get with the room layout.

I would say don't put the speaker on the other side of the fireplace - I had KEF eggs and they're pretty forgiving about placement and it didn't work for them, anything fussier would sound even worse.

You could try it (assuming you've got spare cable - aah see you're talking about getting some) just to see what it sounds like...

Let me know what you decide.

 

[Anonymous]

Actually I do have a cheap 99p cable, forgot will try it.

Thanks for your advice.

 

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canada16:
Actually I do have a cheap 99p cable, forgot will try it.

Thanks for your advice.

That's OK - sorry I took so long in replying - had a note to so do, but got caught up in other things.

Let me know what you think.

I think what you will probably find is that the extra separation is good for playing stereo music, but that the soundstage and coherency of surround sound will suffer unacceptably. There may be no happy compromise, short of having a separate pair of speakers for stereo duty, oh yes and a separate amp, etc