When I upgraded my bookshelf speakers to towers, my wife said she prefers the look of the towers more. I was like...cool. Damn I love her.

Never give any of components away because you will never be allowed to buy them again.

Paul had already gave one more suggestion about square room and that is to put bookshelves in the corners and that is excellent advice that works

You are great Marriage Therapist! 😀 You saved so mamy couples by this video! Thumps up!

Fantastic demonstration

thanks this is much valuable information for me

Super helpful vid! I 2nd! - trade in the FS's for a small sub. Always wondered what the setting up diagonally would be like... No good for you, though nearfield-ish in the middle of a small damped room can give a superb soundstage lighting up the back wall. ...or get more Wives - great acoustic dampening.

I would advocate for the towers. 1 if space is tight and you bump the book shelf. It is going to fall. 2. Put the towers on furniture movers. If you just want sound, push them back. If you want to listen, mark on the floor where they sound best an pull them there and push back when done. Not optimal but at least practical. 3 give it all up and go for headphones.

This is exactly why I reflect my sub off the front wall. Bass is amplified-lowered (a whole bunch), I use a 45 degree mounted board (toward the floor) in front of sub to reflect back up onto the front wall. Which has a PJ screen. Works wonderfully.

I love the idea of bookshelf speakers paired with a subwoofer. They give you the best of top end clarity and adjustable dedicated bass output. BTW, KEF LS50 paired with a REL subwoofer is a match made in heaven.

I had this conversation with myself before I bought my floorstanders, Decided that since I wasn't in my "forever" home I'd keep the FS's for the future room

A couple additional suggestions. Consider mounting the bookshelf speakers on wall mount arms but on the side walls a few feet from the back wall, angled into the stereo sweet spot. Also there are companies that make acoustic treatment with graphic prints on them (stock or your own art). Two acoustic art panels on a back wall and one on each first reflection point can do wonders in a small room. Further, a book shelf with random sized books makes a great diffuser as well. And finally, a Helmherz (sp?) resonator box can be installed behind a couch to absorb problem bass frequencies. Suddenly, your small room looks and sounds great!

Hi Paul. I have a small room of 11x11 and I'm listening to a pair of Russell k red 50s and they sound so yummy in my small room...

I find that asymmetrical speaker placement in any room to work wonders.

Any speaker set up properly will be in the way.

Use bookshelf speakers with a subwoofer...and one beauty of small rooms is that you won't have so much multi-path echoes, which is great if you lean more to a studio ambience than a live music concert hall ambience.

Maybe I'm weird because I prefer the aesthetics of a smooth floor-standing over bookshelfs on stands. Thanks for the video, Paul.

Keep the floor standers by all means I have a pair of Cerwin Vega XLS215’s along with a 18” JBL powered sub in a 12x12 room Sounds great all over the 2600 sqft. house It even sounds great across the street at my neighbors yards

What about K&M 24496 ceiling mount? They are strong, can load 25 kg each, are available on amazon. You can change angle 0 to 45 deg. and swivel it up to 90 deg. There are some active bookshelf speakers (Meridian DSP 3200, Genelecs, Neumann KH120, Tannoys, Focal Shape, Pioneer (TAD) RM-07 etc.)that can easily be mounted (k&m have a .xls list if them in their site). I personally plan to use K&M ceiling mounts in my 12 square meter kitchen - our main listening space. They will be 0,5-0,6 (1/5) meter away from window brick wall with heavy curtains and acoustical treatment, 0,7-0,8 meter from the side walls (1/5). Concrete ceiling will also have some dumping. I plan to use Genelec 8040 (similar to G4) without subwoofer and some streaming DAC (maybe used PS Audio Direct Junior), unfortunately without phono stage. Is it a good idea? Or not, because 8000 / G series have cheap Wifa drivers? Is it better to go passive with better drivers and Sprout 100 + Mac mini with Roon and turntable with a good MM (I already have one)? The problem with passive is that I have to drill holes for furniture nuts on the back side of them. And most of them do need a subwoofer, so I have to put a carpet under the dining table to damp the floor (it will be difficult to clean it).

Hi Paul, 1. would a front ported speaker be better suited when you need to push the speakers closer to the rear wall? 2. Bungs, I feel the speaker Bungs help me push my Q3030i closer to the real wall.

The simple answer is to choose another room even if its smaller. I say this not because of your wife but because the room is square and no speaker is going to work in there. Small satellite speakers and a sub in a 6x8ft room will sound a lot better. If you must use the square room then make one end, ideally behind the speakers as damped as possible to try and flatten the uneven lower bass. Typically +10db at 35 and 70hz and -10db at 50hz. That means booming lower bass with no speed or punch. Playing at low volumes won't help!. Use speakers that dont go too low say 60hz and a sub that stops around 40hz could help you work around and with the rooms issues and if possible try a near field listning position. Tannoy Autograph would be a prefect option although they are expensive. Good luck

I’m not sure how that can be said when one of the first things to do to get proper “sound stage” & proper sonic functioning it to locate (tweeter, midrange & upper bass) speakers @ roughly 1/3 out from the wall.

Elac BS-312 are very nice speakers for small rooms. You could squeeze them anywhere.

Audio. The most important. I'm in a similar size room. Run heresy's (purchased in '84, STILL AWESOME!) and 2 R-51m's. Arranged as much into the corners as I can. You sit in the middle, set volume, it's beautiful! Women (in general) don't get it. They just don't.🤔

The first house I bought (called a shotgun) had a 12X12 living room. I had a pair of IRS IIIa's at 4 feet tall in there. Always knew I would move one day and lucky enough I left the ex wife behind also.

H Paul, great help and amazing demo how walking close to the wall has such a profound influence. Do you have any recommendation about the maximum frequency of a subwoofer to avoid its location being revealed (too much)?

There are speakers that are specifically designed for wall-mounting, like the old Technics SB-F1, which factor wall coupling into their overall sound.

Hahaha,, Paul is also talking to the wall!! LOL 4:25min.. Many of us do that in these corona times…

Woohoo I’m the first great video Paul thanks for getting me through another day wonder what the 1000th question will be?

if you have a "wireless sub", place it next to your listening position (behind typically)

There are speakers designed to be against the wall i know the Klipsch Heritage line for 1 also a sealed or front ported speaker would get you closer to the wall. Just be careful in the corners as it does change the sound.

sealed speaker well engineered one not a boom box everytime. never needed subs to destroy the sound of my Atc scm11 .

That's big mine roughly 8 by 10 if that I wish I had your meeting room

i get what your saying about speakers and the wall but most people dont face their speakers at the wall tho!

This won't work if you have a wife, but I removed a big couch from my audio listening room and have a nice comfortable ekornes lounge chair and getting rid of that large couch really helped the acoustics.

Anyone have good experiences with Magnepans in such a small room? The rule of thirds in a 12 foot room puts them about 4 feet away from you.

BTW, my speakers are over 6 foot high and i don't give them away!! NEVER!

Paul, if this is the room you are using for video conferencing, you really should consider using some acoustical treatment in there. The reverberation is obvious and is negatively impacting the audio quality of the room. Especially important for an AUDIO products company.

Aerial Acoustics 5t's will do the trick.

Some wall mounted monitors like the Polk M3II/M5 to make the room feel more open. (that's what you tell the wife, it's actually to kill off any lingering aesthetics) Some KISS, Led Zeppelin, AC~DC, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd fleece tapestry hanging all over the walls for diffuse. (that's what you tell the wife, it's just the cool factor) Super huge lava lamps in the corners for bass traps. (that's what you tell the wife, it's just for the cool factor) Dense thick ribbon shag rug to kill first reflection (that's what you tell the wife, it's just to cradle your bare feet in luxury after a long day of dodging human interaction). A most comfy sitting apparatus.(for one, let the wife use the sub and hold your beer) 16" SVS Subwoofer to fill in the lows (that's what you tell the wife, it's actually to hold your beer when your wife leaves you) Drop a needle. RELAX... Don't do it. Franky say.

Perhaps consider selling both sets of speakers and buying a soundbar...only kidding. Sell both and buy a good set of front ported standmounts and a sub. Then the standmounts can be placed right up to the wall with minimal effect on sound quality. I also agree that sub placement matters but life is a compromise and a sub placed discretely but not ideally is much better than no sub at all.

I have Dali Oberon On Wall for Rear. Performance and Looking is great.

Better imaging with bookshelf speakers.

Get rid of the floor standers and get some bookshelf speakers coupled with a smallish sub, maybe 10 - 12 inch at most. Then don’t listen to Paul about placing the woofer wherever you want, placement of a sub or subs is very critical to getting the smoothest bass possible. I think that maybe Paul said you can move them wherever you want because he was referring to the fact that a wireless sub has no wires therefore isn’t restrictive and is more appealing to the look in the room.

Get a pair of Tekton Double Impacts, and turn the volume on small.

Next time you're in the UK we'll show you some legit small rooms:p

Deuses Paul! Now get back in the corner your in time out! Hahahahahaha

Just ask your Mrs does she like it up against the wall😂😉 Ideally you want a front farming port speaker or sealed box or half and half. Get yourself some woolen fleece throw x2 or double it up, hang it away from the wall, you can dye the fleece to the same colour as the walls, ideally you want to put some in the corners as well that's the most important place. Another thing you can make a false wall and put the speakers in the wall slightly angled towards your sitting position. A concentric driver would work better in a smaller space. Having a mini DSP or dirac live would help a lot in bass management a must have

That is NOT a small room!

Did he say " little weenie speakers?" " doah"

2:20 Audio equipment is not about aesthetics, only lifestyle products are.

First time I've disagreed with you Paul, keep the floor stander's. After you put them on speaker stands you still have the same footprint. I love my wife but she will get used to it

"a subwoofer can be anywhere in the room/don't matter where it is". This is a serious misrepresentation....

Bookshelf speakers can be put on a bookshelf, it's in the name.😊 Harbeth and Graham audio make amazing bookshelf speakers, that you can put on a bookshelf !!!!.

My wife is fine with big speakers. 6 foot tall. 👍🏻👌🏻

'give your wife away!' LOL

I wouldnt call that a small space. Its at least twice the size of my bedroom.

Thank your Mister Pal for explainig refelcted wayev starting at 4 minetes 20 secconds. Here as a article ifind for REFLECTED WAVES... Constructive interference occurs whenever waves come together so that they are in phase with each other. This means that their oscillations at a given point are in the same direction, the resulting amplitude at that point being much larger than the amplitude of an individual wave. For two waves of equal amplitude interfering constructively, the resulting amplitude is twice as large as the amplitude of an individual wave. For 100 waves of the same amplitude interfering constructively, the resulting amplitude is 100 times larger than the amplitude of an individual wave. Constructive interference, then, can produce a significant increase in amplitude. HORNs are no autophil because of renosnce and amplitude modulation and reflced and stnding waves. it mak a choursng type of effect. Ireded some articles with math opeators DIVERGENCE and partial differental rquations. IDONT CAR, THEY ARE WRONGS liekbose DIRECT REFLCTE,or kliph FOLDEN HORM boom boom boom box! THNKES YOUES AND THMMSS USPS!

I don't disagree with you often, but this time I kinda do. I'd keep the floorstanders and skip the subwoofer. And I definitely wouldn't advise people to put their subwoofer anywhere in the room, placement matters.

As always some of the best marriage advice for all modern couples 😀

wear headphones then

A mistake I see over and over including Paul is to place your gear between the speakers in square view of the listener. So you're trying to create the illusion that it's not coming from your pitiful portable picnic player while you're staring right at it! FSS!

I would : 1. Add a little reverb... or 2. Make the room bigger...or 3. Buy a bigger room...or 4. Shrink the Music System...or LASTLY 5. Buy a pair of BOSE 901s

If he gets rid of one pair of speakers, the wife should get rid of something too. Equality doesn't work the way women think.

Just Sell all the speakers and buy a Meze Empyrean headphone and a good headphoneamp, problem solved and you don’t have to listen to you wife nagging on about the new dress she bought

Get a smaller wife.

There’s no way I wold part with any of my speakers. fact devours ore she leavs them where I put them men don’t have that many pleasers so leave the little pleaser we have alone ore else 😠😠😠😠

3 things you can do : You can do all this during WFH (Work From Home)! and make your office pay for it... You can also keep your book shelf speakers 6 - 10 feet apart (Social Distancing) You can cover the tweeters with a N95 Covid-19 Mask. (if your tweeter sneezes).

Woohoo I’m the first great video Paul thanks for getting me through another day wonder what the 1000th question will be?