CLX Room Placement

[marck]

I wanted to reach out to owners of CLX's and ask about their respective room placement.

I am a bit stuck in terms of side walls - my room is 14.5ft wide, so they have to stay where they are. However in terms of length it is 24.5ft so adjustments can be made.

The speakers are currently around 3 ft from the front wall - that is to the panel. My seat is just under 4ft from the back wall. My subs are / will be placed in the corners at the front of the room.

So what do you recommend in terms of placement?! I will experiment for sure but wanted to get some first hand feedback too.

Thank you
Marc.

 

[jmschnur]

Just a question: can you place your speakers along the long wall?

 

[marck]

Nope! They have to stay on the shorter wall

Marc.

 

[tsv_1]

Hi Marc,

Ideal placement is dependent on total room geometry and is of course impacted by treatment (and/or active EQ). There are some extremely knowledgeable folks in this forum who can speak to both physical and digital "treatment", so I'll tread lightly there. One thing for sure though, the further out from the front wall (gap behind the speakers), the better. My CLXs are 5 ft out from the front wall and I wouldn't want them any closer. I've tried closer, but ended up at 5ft because to my ear, that's where they seem to sound the most natural.

Some here would argue that if you could eliminate (or significantly minimize) the rear facing wave, then you'd erase any interference with front wave propogation and this would help to minimize smearing or defocusing of the image. Others argue that eliminating the rear wave will negatively impact the life and presence of the sound. I think I fall more into the latter camp, but conceptually the former argument seems logical. IMO, the happy medium is to pull the speakers out from the rear wall a bit further to help ensure a larger delay between the primary wave versus that reflected off the front wall. You are always going to have some interaction, and there's more too it than just trying to attain flat frequency response... but for those of us who dont (yet) employ digital EQ, while employing some physical room treatment... IMO, increasing that gap between the front wall and the speaker is a good place to experiment.

As for your seat being 4 ft from the rear wall, that seems like a good distance but again, the ideal position will be dependent on total room geometry... and taking some measures to implement some diffusion on the wall behind you isn't a bad idea either. I have a book case that takes up some of my rear-wall as well as a plasma screen (which I keep covered with a herringbone throw during listening sessions).

As for subs in the front corners... that may well not be the place you end up positioning them. Subs in corners are often overwhelming and hard to tame. Check out this vid from ML on sub placement. Good stuff

OK, I've said too much and have likely opened the scary room-placement flood gates

BTW, your setup is beautiful.

 

[JMAUSGP]

Hi Marc,

Todd knows of what he speaks....and he knows CLXs too

I have CLXs in a specially built room with double walled construction. The room is for listening to music and only music. There is nothing in the room except speakers, audio equipment and a love seat with two side tables, that's it. There are 4 CLXs set up in a 5.1 surround sound configuration with a Stage for center and JL Gotham for sub. I experimented for hours and hours and found 5 feet off the walls to be the magic distance.......no magic mushrooms included

I have the CLXs 5 feet off both the front and rear wall and then I balanced the sound via a sound meter and acoustic treatments placed all around the room and the ceiling. The love seat is right in the middle of the room and the middle of the CLXs. I know the acoustic treatment has an impact but as far as sound and imaging goes the CLXs just immediately come on at 5 feet. My room is 14.5 feet wide and 26 feet long so it is close to your room size FWIW.

Hope this helps......what am I saying, this probably just muddies the water for you, but it does mean that in the big picture you can buy two more CLXs and your placement issues will go away

 

[Bernard]

Hope this helps......what am I saying, this probably just muddies the water for you, but it does mean that in the big picture you can buy two more CLXs and your placement issues will go away

Joe, trust you to come up with that perspective

 

[User211]

Dammit Marc I was in East Shene Sat/Sun and I could have knocked on your door and begged for a listen

Didn't think. Life is full of missed opportunities.

Anway, I expect the next post will be from someone with 8 CLXs / Descents Joe seems to be slowing down on CLX aquisitions these days and is going to get trumped soon IMHO - if he hasn't been already

 

[marck]

Hi Todd, Joe, Justin,

Thank you for your comments, very much appreciated. I do feel I am reaching that point where I might actually be happy and not want to upgrade. Well unless a new Reference cd player comes out by ARC .

I will try pulling them out further and report back my findings. My sub install has now been put back to Thursday afternoon. I reckon it should be a fairly large improvement. The current sub is connected via LFE so the filter is not being used. My new subs will be connected using RCA (Transparent Ultra specifically calibrated for low level frequencies). I am also using high level power cables. Out of interest has anyone tried Transparent PowerLink's on the CLX's?!

I have recently moved a bookcase to the back corner of my room so that should help too. I have not started the room acoustics path. I am lucky that my room happens to be very good in terms of sonic attributes.

Oh, and the likelihood of me putting anymore speakers in this room is zero. The Mrs is still coming to terms with the CLX's!! Mind you I do have a separate cinema room with Scripts, Theatre I and Descent sub. So I can't complain.

Last question, have you found that you need to tighten the top bolt on the speakers?

Thanks again
M.

 

[JMAUSGP]

Yes, you do have to tighten the top bolt now and then. It is kind of dependent on how often and probably what you play on them. I tighten them up about once every six months, YMMV. I probably tightened them more in the beginning, but now I have several other hobbies that are taking more of my time and leaving less time to just sit and listen, like I used too

The way I got my wife to accept......not sure that is the word....my CLXs. I put a really nice 7.1 surround sound system in the bedroom, complete with Stylos, Motif, and Voyages with a SVS sub. She spends most of her time watching things and listening to stuff there. Its her own personal HT. She doesn't cook, so she spends most of her time in her 'Sex and the City" closet, which has a flat screen and a sound system in it, or the bedroom HT or she is outside with the animals. Now that I think about it, the closet is more of a factor in her acceptance of the CLX man cave. She rarely ever comes down to the CLX man-cave, which actually is underground and 3 floors below her closet, why would she?

 

[marck]

Joe, I think you have the Mrs sorted!! I had to struggle to have some ceiling speakers in the bedroom.

Only another day or so and my subs will be here

M.

 

[JMAUSGP]

Joe, I think you have the Mrs sorted!! I had to struggle to have some ceiling speakers in the bedroom.

Only another day or so and my subs will be here

M.

Mirrors on the ceiling......speakers in the walls......you need to get that part right

 

[marck]

Now I know where I have been going wrong!!

 

[hifiaudio2]

If you can, try your subs with one at the front wall midpoint and one at rear midpoint. Or side wall midpoints. This is where the extensive research that Harman came up with as the theoretical best places for two subs for rectangular rooms. I have my Submersives in those spots with my CLXs and the bass is crazy smooth. So many bass notes are missed with single subs or multiples not optimized. I measure almost flat from ~80hz to ~5hz with XTZ.