Placement of Cornwalls in living room. Suggestions?

[Northman]

We are  building a new house.. and this is the living room. Its 29.5 ft Long x 16.5ft Wide.

 

I am thinking of placing a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls in the middle of the room.

There is a 7ft long "section" we are placing the speakers between.

 

At the opposite side, there is a fireplace, and two 11ft long, floor to ceiling windows. 

 

 

The drawings are obvious not 100% to scale... but this is the placement we are going with.

[scallywagger77]

Either flat against the wall or in the corners.  Looks like you have two good corners so  use them for the Cornwalls and let the rest fall where it may.  Wish I had corners for mine but they do fine against the wall too.  Home theatre is a different deal, I'm just talking two channel with a possible center to bridge in case that wall is too long.  Paul wrote a lot about speaker placement so just google speaker placement for more ideas and good luck.

[Tony Whitlow]

Corners! Many people are not fortunate enough to have two good corners. USE THEM!!!!


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[thebes]

Given what you want to do looks fine by me. Keep them close to the wall, and toed in just likein  your graph, but spread them as wide as you can.  Move chairs and speakers in an out and adjust the toe-in until your sweet spot is broadest.  Do not angle the chairs.

 

I had Cornwalls for over a decade and they will sound great the way you want to use them.

[dtel]

Yes placement is important............. place them all the way in the room, it's very important to make them reach the wires. 

 

Couldn't help it I was bored,  they should sound good in a room setup like that, you have a little space.  looking forward to hearing what you think.

[DizRotus]

I agree with @thebes on this, and most things.  Just don't ask him for advice about The Beatles. :-)

 

Elden, aka @dtel, seems to agree with Marty, aka Thebes.

 

There are no perfect solutions or perfect opinions.  In that space, I would use them like you have them shown, but follow Marty's advice to spread them as far apart as possible, while keeping them close to the wall and toed in slightly.

 

If you were designing a dedicated 2-channel listening space, rather than a living room, my advice would be different, as probably would be Marty's and Elden's.

 

[svberger]

If there are going to be curtains, preferably heavy curtains, why not try them at the opposite corners near the windows? Seems from a seating arrangement perspective that would be better anyway, with the speakers pointing towards the sectional.

 

Just a thought.

[Chris A]

A little REW simulation of your room* (assuming 8 ft ceiling height)...

 

First the room dimensions and overall boundary absorption coefficients:

 

 

...and the predicted frequency response at a notional listening position 7 feet from the wall the Cornwalls would be on:

 

 

A little ragged in the bass and midbass region...but acceptable.  Spreading them wider creates apparent issues in the bass region:

 

 

Chris

[boom3]

My two front Corn IIs are out from the corners by about 18 inches. The back two are close to the back wall of the 25 x 16 listening room, perforce, but they are not toed in (balustrade on one side, patio door on the other).My experience is that Corns boom in corners. Maybe the Corn IIIs with their different woofer offset may not have that problem.

 

Try locating them on either side of your listening area, so that you and your guests sit between them. It's an odd set up and it doesn't work with every speaker, but it can create the effect of "giant headphones". It will place your ears at zero degrees from the drivers, instead of 90 which is usual. Again, worth a try. Downside is that the backs of the speakers are visible and you will have to route cables under the carpet. 

 

I'll ask the question so far unasked...where is the sub, if you're using one? Corner of course . My Corns are set to cross over at 60 Hz to a Rhythmic Audio 12" servo sub in our best corner. That has taken the boom out of the Corns and of course reduces Corn bass distortion to its absolute minimum.

[muel]

The way the room is arranged and your furniture you don't have a lot of choices.   I don't like the cabinet in between the speakers.  It would help your sound stage a lot to have nothing in between them if possible.  Not always a choice though. Try it temporarily if you can.  That couch will affect things a bit.  Play with distance from the back wall and your toe in.  I see from the chair arrangement you are trying to share the sweet spot.  A sharper toe in can broaden the sweet spot a bit but it won't sound quite as good dead center.  Putting Cornwalls in corners sounds great but I never got the sound stage I wanted.   Another thought I have is flipping it all to the other side of the room.  

[Chris A]

51 minutes ago, boom3 said:

My experience is that Corns boom in corners.

Were you using bass traps in the same corners?

 

Here is the predicted frequency response if the Cornwalls are alternatively placed in the corners on the 16.5' (short) wall and the listener is about 6.5 feet away, seated, with ears at 3 feet above the floor level:

 

 

Chris

[Schu]

I don't like the sound of CW's in corners either... I may loose a margin of LF response by moving them out or along the front wall, but the sound is more spatial and pleasing.

 

it's very easy to play with this OP... once you've found your Left/right spacing (as wide as possible given the space restrictions) and listen position, you can merely move the cornwalls forward and backward along the axis line to your listening position until you find a placement that is either closer to or further away from the front wall... I'd be willing to bet it's further away from.

[edmjm]

I think your design should work fine as you have it now. I suggest room treatments will have a huge impact. with the width of the room bass nodes in the corners should be far enough from the listening position to not have that "boominess" too bad but the width will play havoc with first reflections giving you an echo effect & those large windows on the back wall will also bounce sound back at you. look into hanging absorbition panels on walls & a couple well style diffusers on back wall.

if you can have speakers 5 to 8 feet apart you'll be sitting far enough away that risers (not stands) will be a benefit.

like the others say playing with distance from wall & toe in will be a matter of personal preference & will be the major factors of soundstage (width & depth perception & sound envelopment)

[boom3]

On 6/13/2017 at 9:16 AM, Chris A said:

Were you using bass traps in the same corners?

 

Here is the predicted frequency response if the Cornwalls are alternatively placed in the corners on the 16.5' (short) wall and the listener is about 6.5 feet away, seated, with ears at 3 feet above the floor level:

 

 

Chris

Interesting prediction, but my experience in real rooms and different placements tells me that Corns do in fact boom if tucked into corners. I caveat this by saying it applies to Corn Is and Corn Its which have identical bass systems. The Corn III with its elevated woofer may not have this issue.