ESLs in 11x14 foot room with 10 foot ceiling!

[leifsundstrup]

Hi all.

I have a set of ML ESL speakers and a Dynamo 600X Sub. I can place them anywhere in the room - 11Wx14Lx10H feet (small room).

My question: How far should I place the ESLs from the rear wall considering the space left for listening? For example, If I place the ESLs 5 to 6 feet from the wall, I will only have 8 feet left for the listening position.

Where would you start to experiment in this size room?

Cheers, Leif.

 

[Brad225]

Welcome leifsundstrup

I would start with 5' behind them with some absorption and, or diffusion on the wall. You can move yourself to within 2' of the wall behind you but again you will need some absorption or diffusion. Which will be your sound preference. Thy keeping them at least 2' from the side walls. You will need to carefully move them around accurately positioned the same.

Good Luck

 

[JonFo]

Welcome aboard!

I concur with Brad's recommendations.
Based on your location, I gather the room construction is solid, like cement, in which case room treatments are going to be critical, or that small room will ring like a bell in the mid to high frequencies. Plus, given the squarish dimensions (that 10' height is a big part of it), you will have some serious low-frequency room modes.

To mitigate the mid and high-end stuff, besides the absorptive panels (4" thick, with no reflective elements in them), I recommend trying a rug dropped across the wall behind the listening position, offset from the wall by 3". Make it as big as possible, you want >80% surface coverage. Optionally, do the same on the front wall if possible.

For the low end, go buy one more Dynamo 600X, and place one sub center-front, and one sub center-back. Use a processor that can set levels and time delays for two subs (Audyssey SubHT feature, or Dirac Live Bass Control). Run the room corrector to clean up the lumps that are left over. Those two subs in those locations (do NOT put them next to the mains, that's the worst location) will even out many of the worst LF room modes simply by their placement.

 

[Nuri58]

I'd try to put some preferably diffucion of what you might have which can serve that purpose and see if you find an improvement. In general the human braln will filter out reflections when the delay is >5ms. That would translate to 3' sp I'd start there, then move the LS +/- a feet at the time to jugde what sound best - keep it one woofer diametre from the wall as minimum. Next put a mattress or heavy curtains behind the area and judge what that yields. What ever sound best to you is the right position. But you meed to get the toe the speakers correctly every time. Personally I use Moody Blues' Desolation for this purpose. Not great recording but when the rain fills the entire room I stop there.

For the subs more are merrier - two smaller ones. If you have bass management for multi subs then anywhere, if not put symetrically in the front. Wavelenght are big so you should not run into trouble calirating as one sub.

Hope you have a long weekend and some one to help you.

 

[jtucker]

For what its worth, I have my Montis placed with the panels 3 ft from the front wall. I have plenty of room to move them out farther, but I like them there. My room is totally different from yours though...

 

[AuBrisbane]

Hi Leif,

That is an very interesting question.
I guess this would be your dedicated listening room and if so you should have a plenty of space to set your ESL.
Your ceiling is very high, which should be a good thing.
I also have pair of ESLs in my home theatre settings and don't have much problem with their positioning against Rear and Side walls. One thing I was paying attention to is not to set them at equal distance from Rear and Side walls (for example if they are 6 feet from Rear wall I would set them 5 feet from Side wall to avoid cubical positioning of the ESL in relation to Rear and Side walls).
6 feet is, as you said it, way too far from Rear wall in your room.
My question to you are:
- do you feel and hear that your ESLs are missing something?
- what did you find by experimenting so far?
- how loud do you listen to your music?
- what kind of amplifier is driving them ?
- it would help if you could supply some photo of your current setting.

Kind regards.
Zoran from Australia

 

[leifsundstrup]

Thanks so much for all the great info. I will start experimenting when I get back next week. It is a concrete room and I currently have a Cambridge Audio AXR100 amp. I was planning on buying some Hofa Bass Traps along with the suggestions of carpets and curtains etc. I was also planning on using my MacBook Air M1 with Audirvana Origin and use Dirac Live in Audivania (AU Plugin).