So much about getting your speaker’s full potential has to do with speaker placement. Whether it’s a low- to mid-range Bluetooth speaker or one of the top tailgate speaker options, location can make all the difference in your listening experience.
Getting the Most Out of Your Speakers
Help your speakers produce their best possible sounds with these quick and easy tips:
1. Correct Placement
Yes, there is a right and wrong way to position your speakers. Just know that it’s more wrong than right if placed anywhere too close to a wall on either side. It’s not that your speakers won’t be giving off pleasing sounds in this arrangement; it just won’t deliver the best sounds.
Speaker placement requires considering your listening position and wall distance. Basically, you want your speakers situated at a good distance from the walls and forming an equilateral triangle with your listening spot. In most cases, this is what leads to optimal listening.
2. Speaker Separation
That’s eight feet for floor-standing speakers and four for bookshelf speakers. Any closer and the sounds might blend too much and become muddy. Problems can also occur when speakers are too far apart. It creates a gap between the stereo image’s two halves, bringing the sound quality down several notches.
3. Wall Proximity
We’ve already talked a bit about this, but we’ll be more specific this time. Yes, you shouldn’t place speakers anywhere closer than two feet from a wall. Doing so can maximize sound reflections, leading to a false representation of the playback.
4. Speaker Height
Speaker height placement has to do with its tweeters, the small drivers responsible for delivering high-frequency treble. These parts have to be around roughly ear height to deliver optimal treble range.
5. Speaker Angle
Speakers should be angled inward towards the listener for an optimal listening experience. Specifically, you want them angled at a point behind your head for a more focused sound and decrease the toe-in for wider sound coverage. Adjust the toe-in as many times as necessary to hit that sweet spot.
6. Room Arrangement
The acoustics of a room can factor heavily into the quality of sounds produced by your speakers. Thus, there should be no obstructions standing between your speakers and your listening spot.
This takes into account wall proximity (discussed above) and speaker and furniture arrangement symmetry. The latter is often an overlooked issue and one of the common reasons people can’t get the most out of their speakers.
Basically, you should arrange the room in a way that minimizes sound reflections.
7. Turntable Separation
The isolation of the turntable is a must for producing quality speaker sounds. When both the turntable and speakers are on the same surface, disruptive vibrations that interfere with your listening experience get created. You should be able to bypass this using a desktop speaker stand, though even this structure has its limits.
Even when you get all of these right, you might still not get the sounds you’re after. That’s because sound quality can sometimes be subjective, and sometimes the only way to nail it is through trial and error.
Thus, continue to make adjustments until you notice the sound has locked into place. Just don’t forget to apply the above tips to make finding that sweet spot faster and easier.
Stereo Imaging
When stereo imaging is accurate, it makes the impression that each sound comes from different points. You don’t want the sounds of an entire ensemble of instruments coming from the same point. That tends to sound loud and unpleasant.
Sounds shouldn’t be stacked on top of one another, as this creates a bad stereo image. Instead, you want to unpack these sounds so that every single instrument sounds like it’s being played from a different point. In that way, it would be as if you were listening to a group of musicians situated in different parts of the stage.
To find out if the stereo image is how it should be with your speakers, listen for the following:
- Emptiness in the middle of the sound
- Overlapping of instruments and voices
If both are absent, you’re good. On the other hand, you may need to make some adjustments on your speakers’ placement or toe-in to remove the presence of both. They’re prime indications of a poor stereo image, something you want to avoid to ensure a great listening experience.
Buy Great Speakers
One way to help ensure you won’t be on the receiving end of poor sound quality is to purchase a set of speakers from a good brand. Then again, there are only so much premium materials and advanced technology can do where music is concerned. To help your grade-a speakers deliver their full potential, position them optimally in height, distance, and angle from your listening spot. Do that successfully, and you should be golden!