You have a lovely looking space like @terzinator with Harbeth, which I used up to December 2020 and which benefited with a subwoofer with some music, but subs would ruin his space. He has put in some colour-coded panels, although unless the speakers have no toe-in I would question their benefit.
You then have the hardcore dedicated room approach of @RsZk. I don’t know how many people would have such a space available, probably the minority. It’s a matter of taste, no doubt many people could enjoy such a space, personally I could not. He’s gone to a lot of trouble to get it right, along with measurements.
If in theory I were to get subwoofers, it would be the same REL S/812 that @RsZk uses, but they would be horribly obtrusive and lots of wires.
I suspect these two systems are good examples of the extremes of what people put in their homes. Enjoying music at home is as much about being comfortable in the listening space and the level of domestic compromise necessary. I suspect the reason why Harbeth speakers are so popular is because they tend to sound really good in most rooms without many set-up issues. I’d still have mine if my wife hadn’t hated the sight of them.
I’ve always had to compromise with having cables all bunched up together, power and speaker cables. This seemed to cause some level of interference noise (I was using Sommer cables at the time). Subjectively Townshend cables eliminated that issue and I’ve not given it a second thought since.
I’ve not posted a picture of my layout that I can link. I’ll do one later and it will be apparent that any subwoofer would be horribly obtrusive, let alone four.
My room is 12 x 18 feet, designed for listening to music, reading and having a drink with friends. Lots of people have audio rooms this sort of size, a spare bedroom, a loft room or basement room. There are no tables and nowhere to put a subwoofer that would not be visible. I suspect my domestic limitations are quite typical and am very fortunate to have such a room given I live in a city with that is usually ranked in the top 2 or 3 for property prices in the world.
A wonderful and comfortable space for sharing music with friends. I feel as though I can hear it from my seat. Considering the space I too would skip the subwoofers.
Thanks. There is only one listening chair, from where the photo is taken, the chair is identical to the one opposite. Because the speakers don’t look like speakers, we can sit in the room with friends and not really notice them. If we want ambient music there is a ceiling system as well (6 speakers).
The tendency for quite a few people is to put the audio system in the largest space possible. We rebuilt and enlarged the ground floor, making most of it open plan, and closed off this smaller space. These speakers like being quite close and the optimal seating position is about 1.10 to 1.25 times the distance apart from the from the centre line, so not much off an equilateral triangle.
I don’t know if it easier to manage the acoustics in a smaller or a larger space. I have an odd situation in that I have folding glass doors 8 feet behind the listening position. You might think this would be a problem. Actually, not really. If I fold the doors back the listening space becomes 50 feet deep and 30 feet wide, really quite large, but sometimes there is horrible reverberation.
So I was not surprised to see the first pair of FR30 performing well in a really small room, even smaller than mine, and with the corner bass traps removed.
Few people talk about lighting, but for me it’s really important. I think Mackintosh hit on something with their blue lights. I don’t have any audio lights, but very adaptable ceiling lights. My usual listening is Night Light, 5% brightness and 3,000 Kelvin.
Yes my music room space is dedicated, hence its all out assault on trying to get to the grail. My living room space is however the opposite. Minimize audio foot print and have a great gathering space.
They are custom chairs! They are used as listening chairs at my dealer, we got in touch with his designer and had some made. They are very comfortable.
About the topic of Fidelium cables and what @CinDyment is proposing quite adamantly about them…
I don’t think simulations and the “perhaps”, “could”, “might”, “possibly” type approaches are valid when one hasn’t listened to the cable’s effect on sound!
Yes, those are interesting hypotheses and even real theory but you really, really have to confirm by listening before proposing such concrete claims, right?
If I had the money I’d buy the Fideliums to compare against my TPC Iconoclast. Would be real interesting because these cables are in a way “opposite” approaches!
Iconoclast is all about optimized complex geometry, and the Fidelium is all about specialized metallurgy with a very simple, though distinctive geometry.
Yes. True. Of course there’s an effect!
But we have to take into account every aspect of the cable, metallurgy, geometry, dielectric, all of it! And most importantly, listen.
Yes, could be true the Fideliums might be a bad match for some systems. If so, it’s not a good general purpose cable… The philosophy on if a cable as a special purpose one as opposed to generally fitting one is something to think about.
What makes a good cable? They ARE components. Certain components fit certain configs better.
The Iconoclast is fitting for ANY system, by design. That’s an achievement, still, I also appreciate it if a certain cable fits a certain system better while being detrimental for others… Just difficult for consumers, you know.
To be honest, it doesn’t bother me, cables have been here years, poor old Max is probably chatting away in his heavenly abode and the music is coming through crystal clear (Mingus at Ronnie Scott’s RSD release).
Well metallurgy is not meaningless. The electrical characteristics you mentioned actually are unchanged when we adjust different metals for same electricals, yet, they will sound different, see reports of Iconoclast copper variants.
