Horizontally Opposed Speaker Placement

Due to the shape of the living room it is impractical to place both speakers to the front of the listening position. Blue indicates ceiling to floor windows. What do you guys think about a horizontally opposed placement with speaker directly to the sides of the listening position and facing each other? How about a 90 degree placement perpendicular to each other?





The speakers are ML EFX on-wall electrostats driven by a Peachtree Nova125 2-channel 125w x 2 chn amp. The only sources right now is the Toslink out from the TV, BluRay player serving as CD player if needed (COAX Digital out) and USB input from an iPad serving as the main music library (MP4320K & Apple Lossless files). There are no analog sources, no surround speakers, no subs (although I might add one later when money permits).

Wow, looking at that room, you have a tricky placement problem. I don't think you'll get natural imaging or soundstage with either of the two placements you've suggested. If rearranging the room is out of the question, I wish you luck.

slowGEEZR said:

Wow, looking at that room, you have a tricky placement problem. I don't think you'll get natural imaging or soundstage with either of the two placements you've suggested. If rearranging the room is out of the question, I wish you luck.

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I know! That's why I am asking for everyone's opinion on this.

Actually rearranging the room is not out of the question, but there is no obviously practical arrangement. Tearing down the house and rebuilding is out of the question! The TV can't be hung on the windows. It can be hung high over the fire place but that's almost like a sports bar. I guess you can hang it over the stair well but that's not natural either. And, neither of those actually solves the speaker placement problem. I was think the horizontally opposed speaker placement would at least provide a balanced stereo outputs compared to having one speaker in front and one to the side.

Agree with Steve here about never getting imaging or soundstage doing what you're suggesting. How long is the area where the sofa by stairwell is? If you have room there, I would explore the idea of ditching the EFX and going with a floor standing ML model such as the Electromotion ESL. You can put the TV and speakers along that area and then move the sofa to the wall where the TV currently is. You will have plenty of room behind the ESLs for them to breathe. Just a thought..

Or a pair of Devialet Phantoms on stands either side of the TV?

TomDac said:

Agree with Steve here about never getting imaging or sound stage doing what you're suggesting. How long is the area where the sofa by stairwell is? If you have room there, I would explore the idea of ditching the EFX and going with a floor standing ML model such as the Electromotion ESL. You can put the TV and speakers along that area and then move the sofa to the wall where the TV currently is. You will have plenty of room behind the ESLs for them to breathe. Just a thought..

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About 15 feet from the windowed wall to the kitchen entrance. Behind the sofa is a metal railing without which you will fall into the stairwell.

I already own the EFXes (and the house)... that's part of the problem. If the speakers are floor standing, say a pair of Theos or Electromotions, I would simply have put one by the window just to the left of where the plant currently is. I thought about putting the TV on the stair well wall above the stairs. It is quite inconvenient though to wire the bloody thing that way -- you can forget about running a console or anything ad hoc to the TV since it'll be 12 feet in the air from the stairs. The speakers will also be in an alcove about 10 feet acrossif they are to flank the TV.

Between the 90 degree and horizontally opposed, which do you think is worse? Cabling is not an issue... I am using cheap Monoprice 12 AWG 4-conductor OFC bare cables. That's 9.5 AWG equivalent and it's $65 per 100 feet.

For this configuration and constraints, my recommendation would be to sell the EFX and get a ML Vision Soundbar to place right below the TV.
Supplement with a nice ML Sub and you'd have a well integrated A/V setup that should sound really good relative a compromised deployment of the EFX's.