listening position and correct room layout

The secret of the correct listening position

When equipping listening or recording room, speakers are a basic pillar of quality sound. If you already have them at home, try asking yourself: do I get the proper audio I paid for?

The speakers try to tell you a rich sound story, but your room changes and disturbs this narrative. If you want to hear the story clear and true, you must first set up your room correctly. The best Hi-Fi speakers will reveal their full glory only if you set them up correctly, in an acoustically correctly designed room.

In this section, you will learn how to organize a room for music studios, listening rooms, or home theaters to achieve highly accurate sound reproduction.

Unless otherwise stated, we will work with the placement of two studio speakers on stands. Remember that the speakers must be decoupled from the desk or controller, so if you have them located there, feel free to equip yourself with small stands. Or rather get yourself a proper speaker stands.

 
Basic scheme of speaker placement relative to listening position.

Basic scheme of speaker placement relative to listening position.

 

Step 1: Find a listening position

In the first step, it is necessary to find the perfect listening position. Start by facing the shorter wall of your room. A rectangular floor plan is ideal, but if you have no choice, this guide will help you acoustically treat any room you might have at home.

The back wall should ideally be at least 3 meters away from the listening position. If it’s closer, don’t worry, in the next sections of the guide, we will advise you on how to deal with such a situation.

"Rule" 38%

The theoretically optimal listening position in a rectangular room can easily be found using the "rule" of 38%. This is more of a clue that should be taken with a pinch of salt as it is based on compromise, but this is a great starting point for setting the room (later other settings can be solved acoustically using acoustic panels).

Calculate 38% of the length of your room and place the listening position so far from the front wall, in the middle between the right and left sides. Here is the scheme:

 
Basic recommendation for the location of the listening position

Basic recommendation for the location of the listening position

 

Be sure to avoid the position directly at the back wall. If you do not have a wall behind treated with massively thick absorbers, the sound would be strongly blurred by the reflections of sound waves from the wall. Also remember that if you plan to place the diffuser on the back wall, you need space for the sound waves to scatter.

If you can't place the listening position on 38% of the front or back wall, experiment with different positions between 35% - 43%. Avoid positions that are known for their room modes, such as 50% and 25%. It is then ideal, of course, to take frequency response measurements at different locations. We’ll tell you more about that in the last section regarding the acoustic treatment.

Feared bass in the middle of the room

In rectangular rooms, a dramatic decrease in frequency response is observed at half points between the parallel surfaces (between the front and rear wall, parallel side walls, floor, and ceiling). This causes an unpleasant drop in bass response and we can talk about a quiet area of the room. The listening position is inappropriate here.

  • Do not place the listening position within 50% of the length of the longer wall.

  • Also, do not allow your ears to be halfway between the floor and the ceiling.

  • This rule also applies to speakers: they should not be in the middle of the distance between the floor and the ceiling.

  • However, for an accurate stereo display, your listening position must be centered between the side walls. Symmetry from left to right is essential.

The area of drop in sound pressure in the axial mode of the room halfway between the walls is caused by the natural way of propagating sound waves in the room. This is not where the listening position belongs.

The area of drop in sound pressure in the axial mode of the room halfway between the walls is caused by the natural way of propagating sound waves in the room. This is not where the listening position belongs.

Step 2: Speaker placement

Speaker placement is a powerful variable that is easy to control.

The basic rule states: the listener and speakers should be placed in an equilateral triangle. This is what most manuals will tell you, including the one you find on your speakers. This is the only way to achieve accurate stereo sound.

However, in professional acoustics, a reference point is used instead of a listener. Designers of recording studios tend to place it at the level of the listener's ears at a distance of up to 40 cm behind the listener’s head. Therefore, if you want to be really precise and professional, place the top of the equilateral triangle behind your head.

How to do it practically?

  • From the reference point, look straight ahead and draw two imaginary lines: one tilted 30 degrees to the left, one to the right.

Try to have the angle accurate - you can sketch the whole geometry just with a string on the ground and measure it with a classic protractor. Then place the speakers on these lines. Quick check: from the reference point, you should only see the front partition of the speaker - not the sides of the speaker cabinets.

  • Place the speakers on speaker stands or use good anti-vibration pads. Speakers need to be isolated from your working station because of the vibrations they produce.

The distance of the speaker from the wall will be discussed in the following section.

 
A sketch of the speakers' location relative to the listening position.

A sketch of the speakers' location relative to the listening position.

 

Height and tilt of speakers

Studio speakers should be at least 120 cm above the floor. We want to achieve a direct reach into the ears of the listener in the listening position (while sitting). The standard height of the non-tilted speaker in the studio is 120-140 cm.

  • Make sure that the location is not in the vertical center of the room (half the height from the floor to the ceiling).

  • If you have the urge to tilt the speakers, 15 ° should be the maximum. However, be careful, you still need to point the speakers to the ideal listening position.

In a professional studio with built-in wall speakers, the position is often higher from the floor (up to 150 cm). The reason for this is a fact that a person in an ideal listening position can not only sit, but also stand.

And what about surround sound?

Almost every professional will advise you to set up 5.1 or 7.1 speakers a little differently. However, the basics do not change, so again we present the ideal basic settings.

The ITU-R International Standard recommends that the right surround and left surround speakers be positioned between 100 and 120 degrees relative to the center front speaker. 110 degrees is the best place to start, and if you also place a subwoofer, it is recommended to place it at the front left or right just next to the center line of the room and the front speaker.

 
Basic surround speaker settings.

Basic surround speaker settings.

 

If you start looking at other manuals, you can read different values. For example, placement in the range of 135-150 degrees. This fact is mainly due to the not very well standardized formats for the placement of multi-channel studio speakers, which are constantly evolving.

So you can experiment with speaker placement to see which position creates the most realistic surround sound reproduction. You should feel connected to the music!

Distance from the wall is important

Don't put speakers up against the wall mindlessly if you want them to serve you well! Why? You'll find out in the following article.