Horizontal Floorstanding Loudspeaker...?

J

jdelaute

Audiophyte
I have a 4' tall floorstanding loudspeaker that inside contains a sub, a woofer, 5" midrange, 3" tweeter.

In my living room there is a loft about 10 feet up.

I would like to put the floorstanding loudspeakers sideways / horizontal on the ledge. Can I do this? What ramifications does it have on the sound? If I go ahead and do it, what modifications might I make to the angle and/or placement of the speakers to improve the sounds?

To the best of my knowledge this is the first time this question has been asked in this forum.

Thanks
JD
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
I remember seeing someone here was/is using floorstanders placed sideways for rear surrounds. If that can be done, no reason why it cannot be done for the Mains.

That said, the floorstanders are optimized for vertical orientation. The vertical line of speakers creates a lobe of sound in front of it, for which the timber characteristics vary depending on if you are on axis or how far off it. As long as you mount the speakers such that your seating is on axis, it will minimize the loss of sound quality.

Now the on-axis vs off-axis property helps greatly in creating a soundstage, that is, the impression of there being sound sources outside the speaker and spread out in in the listening area. That is why placement and toe-in become important items to consider when judging speakers. With a horizontal orientation, this lobing effect will not be as expected (due to speaker use against design considerations). Therefore, it will impact your soundstage in an unpredictable manner.

All that said, give it a shot. Try the vertical orientation and get the best possible sound. Now change the orientation to horizontal and see if you can recreate the sound without any perceived deficiencies. If it works for you, why not.
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
In my living room there is a loft about 10 feet up.
JD,
I missed this nugget. In addition to all the junk I talked about in my previous post, conventional speakers (tweeter, mid, sub arrangement) are designed to have the tweeter in the plane of the ears when seated.

Putting the the speaker significantly higher than lear level will definitely mess things up.
 
Warpdrv

Warpdrv

Audioholic Ninja
jdelaute

What Make and model speakers are we talking about...

Needless to say, agarwalro is correct in that speakers are meant to be utilized in the manor they were built/designed for... and will likely perform best if used in that way...

Another thing to say, when you lay those towers on their sides, and hook them up to power - they will play and put out sound - whether or not you like what you hear is for you to try... their dispersion patterns will likely not be the greatest but they will still play music...:)
 
L

Loren42

Audioholic
I did that with my speakers, about 9' above the floor. The sound was not good at all, no matter which way I oriented them.

You lose the soundstage and the bass was almost nonexistent. I was happy to return them to the floor.
 
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