Placing 2.0 speakers directly to the side of body

I was listening to my headphones when I thought of something. Wouldn't my 2.1 speakers sound better if I placed the two speakers to the side of me instead of in the front? By placing my speakers to the side, I can hear the unique sounds emitted by each speaker. As opposed to placing it in front of me, in which it sounds similar to a mono speaker. It won't be like surround sound or anything, but at least the sound will envelop my ears evenly instead of being polarized to the front...

It's a bit of a hassle with lots of wires to move my speakers to this interesting setup, but I wanted to get some community feedback on whether or not this is really a good idea. So what do you guys think?

 

That's pretty much how you setup speakers actually. You should set them up at an angle from the NE and NW direction towards you for best effect. Not just straight 90 degree angle. Distance depends on the strength of the speakers though. Play around until you get the best setup

 

No. And if you do that, it will sound terrible. You see, the sound is recorded from the front perspective and that's how you have to play it back.

With a stereo pair, best approximation for placement is directly in front of you--since for the most part, that's where the action will be. Headphones on the other hand, are designed to be worn on the side of your head and are adapted for their placement.

Think about it: if your watching a movie while wearing headphones and someone is positioned in front of you on the screen, you hear them from the front, not from the sides. This illusion has to do with the timing of the sound and how your brain interprets it. Just as a single voice is heard even when played from two speakers.

The exception to this of course, is in a multi-channel system, where the sound is "located" to each individual speaker (for a more natural enveloping experience). In that case, the speaker placement is critical since it was recorded with a "side" (or rear) playback in mind.

 

I see what you are trying to say, but it doesn't seem correct to me. A pair of headphones IS 2 speakers, and for the most part replacing those headphones with two speakers on either side of your head would be the same. If you are watching a movie or TV show, in order to produce sound that is intended to come from the center (assuming 2.0 or 2.1 and no center channel) the volume is simply equal in both speakers, which creates the illusion that the sound originates not from both the right and left sides of the screen simultaneously, but from the center. You can set up a sort of "phantom speaker" and sound WILL seem like it is coming from a center channel that isn't there if the speakers are not too close together. Headphones do the exact same thing in the exact same way. If the speakers are equal distances away from your head on both sides they will be essentially the same as headphones.
Of course it will not work as well because most speakers have drivers that are not concentric and therefore you need to be a certain minimum distance away from them for one of the drivers to not seem slightly louder than it should (however some speakers, most notably a lot of Kef models actually have tweeters INSIDE woofers where the dust cap would be).
Another issue that might occur is interference from the sound waves. In headphones the drivers are completely isolated form one another, so there is not really any chance of any destructive or constructive interference occurring. With speakers pointed directly at one another the sound waves are free to interfere if they are in phase, which could produce unwanted results.

 

No, don't do this. L/R stereo speakers should be in front of you, pointed at a 90-degree angle to you.

Audio outputted to a 2-channel stereo configuration is engineered, assuming that the 2-channel stereo speakers are in front of you at 90 degrees. The sound that comes out of one speaker does not just enter one ear. It enters one ear first (whichever ear is closest), and then eventually also enters the other ear (farther ear). This effect is called crossfeed.

This effect is critical in producing the proper stereo sound image the way that the audio engineer intended it to be heard. When you move the speakers off to the side or at angled configurations, you destroy this stereo sound image.

This is also the reason why music sounds different from a pair of headphones. You are destroying the stereo imaging effect, and changing the way that the sound was intended to be heard. Some people actually get headaches when listening to music through headphones, because their brains have a hard time processing sound that does not have crossfeed.



If you want a sound effect that envelops you, invest in a good pair of headphones + surround processor (Creative Labs CMSS Headphone, or Dolby Headphone). The virtual surround effects you can get from high-quality (and relatively inexpenive) audio hardware like that will completely immerse you in an environment-heavy game.

 

I see, so I guess speakers up front is the best way to listen to them. It's a pity, since my Klipsch speakers cost a lot more than my headphones yet I can only hear them from one direction. I pulled my ear right next to my speakers to test, and indeed they sounded much better than my headphones.

 

Proper speaker placement is one of the most important factors to your sound system. You should have them spaced about 6 feet apart and in front of you. As the other have mentioned, most music is meant to be listened to in a 2 speaker set up, its not supposed to be all around you, but in front of you.

Speakers sound better than headphones in most cases, obviously not when you have 30$ speakers and 3000$ headphones. But with speakers you get something you can never get out of headphones, you can *feel* the music. And the sound-stage of properly set up speakers will destroy that of nearly any headphone.

 

You left out the most important part: it's natural!

In nature, sound does not get to our ears via a sealed enclosure.

 

I would say this generalization isn't entirely true in certain price ranges. I have Klipsch promedia 2.1 speakers on my computers as well as Sennheiser HD280 headphones, and there is no question that I can hear more details from the music with my headphones, even though they are $100 headphones and the speakers are $150. The speakers have a subwoofer so they have more bass, but the headphones actually have more volume down below about 40 Hz than the 2.1 speakers do, so I can "feel" very low range sound a lot more.

I would say that in the 100-500 dollar range headphones are going to sound better than speakers that cost the same amount. In order to get better sound out of speakers you either need studio monitors or a multi speaker setup with AT LEAST a separate receiver (if it is a home theater setup) or a separate amp and pre-amp for a high end stereo. I have a high end Mcintosh stereo as well as Kef Reference speakers (in my home theater setup) and although they do sound better than my headphones they are not in the same price range, and obviously a 5.1 surround sound system will make you feel more like you are "there" than simple headphones will.

 

I have the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 as well, and as good as they sound, I kinda miss the feeling of envelopment that my $30 Koss headphones provide. I suppose 5.1 is necessary for this feeling then.

Still, it's good to know that moving my speakers next to me isn't the best solution, as it saved me a lot of work.

 

A decent pair of headphones is really what you need if you want to sound to be completely around you; a 5.1 setup won't help unless you are listening to music mastered in 5.1.

 

Well, there are a lot of things you can do to maximize the value of your current desktop speakers though without shelling out for a complete replacement (a decent receiver + surround sound setup + stands + wiring can get expensive REALLY fast depending on how many speakers you throw into the system). It won't be surround sound, but it'll be decent 2.1 sound! (for desktop speakers anyway).

Spacing and angle were already mentioned above, but you should also experiment with height, or at least vertical angle.

And if you're experimenting with height, you should try different materials for the stand.

And you can also experiment with varying distances from the wall....


I.e. the key is to experiment with different setups--there are good rules of thumb that people start with (e.g. ear-level), but those aren't really that helpful since each setup is different, and each person is different.


Although I suppose if you find yourself really getting out a protractor and measuring angles and distances, and eyeing your walls and speculating how hard it would be to do some fishing, you're probably no longer satisfied with the Klipsch 2.1 setup by then

 

I only use a 2.1 system and its very involving. Although I have some of the best imaging speakers you can get for under 500$. With the right recording I can close my eyes and *hear* the sound coming from what sounds like behind me.


And yes, if your that into positioning then the klipsch are probably something you've grown out of. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't position the klipsch to maximize their potential.

 

Alright so this might seem kinda obvious, but I just figured out what I did wrong. I had my 2.1 speakers smack dab next to my 17 inch monitor because my computer desk is very small, but I was just watching the video Klipsch has of its product and the recommended distance between the speakers was 3-5 feet! So I grabbed my larger stationary desk and placed the speakers 4 feet away from each other and the difference is phenomenal! Definitely better than my headphones. Problem now is that I have to move my laptop away every time I want to do homework but it's a small price to pay for much better sound quality.

 

I told you that you need 6 feet between your speakers. 5 feet or even 4 will work if your close enough to them. Speakers of almost any quality will always have a better sound stage than headphones, they have more 'space' to deal with, which is very important in sound stage.

 

One of the major reasons that speakers are placed in front of you and not on the sides, by design, is that speakers generate a compression wave through the air. That's how sound works. Placing them in front of you mitigates some technical challenges. There's also the fact that we have good perception to detect sound coming from our left and right sides, but actually pretty poor in terms of differentiating front and back. By placing speakers on the 10:30 and 1:30 positions, we can make pretty complete perceptual spatial sound. If it was on the sides, it would sound very "left / right" with the front/back sounding empty. As it stands, you get a lot of front, left, and right, and even some perceived audio from the rear.

If you know anything about wave forms, you should know how to add them. Think about potential unintended consequences of placing 2 speakers equidistant from you on your 9:00 and 3:00 positions. The waves will cancel each other out right at your listening position.

Headphones can be very good, too. Don't discount them. They tend to produce higher quality per cost in other areas than speakers.

 

^What masterchef said. I will try to simplify.

The difference between using headphones and placing stereo speakers at the same angle farther away is pretty simple.

Headphones are small. Your head acts as a significant barrier for the sound and the speakers are pretty much sealed around your ears. With stereo speakers its not the same obviously.

If you were in 'perfect' test conditions, reversed the polarity on 1 speaker, and placed them facing each other - you would hear complete silence, at maximum volume. This is whats called negative feedback and its in fact how noise cancelling headphones work, they are recording the noise outside your ears.
For audio recorded in stereo with significant panning of different instruments or tracks you would hear the difference of the left and right, and nothing that was centered.
Sounds pretty strange, believe me. You can try it with audacity.

As sound waves are rather fast, even when both speakers have the correct polarity, some of the sound will still get cancelled out based on how far apart the speakers are or other random factors.

 

yea that seems like a good idea

 

May I just hijack this thread for a second, and ask the pros to not go into to much detail but explain why it may be an incredibly bad idea to set up your own surround sound system with 2 amps and 4 speakers?

 

If you were directly in the middle of the two speakers then that would be true, but even with phase reversal you still have interferance patterns, the waves would simply be in phase elsewhere in the room. Even if the speakers are in phase you still have regions where they will be out of phase.

 

Like 5.1 surround sound for movies? Or 4 speakers in each corner of a room for music? Doing 4 speakers for music isn't a 'bad' thing. It just takes away from the correct sound stage, but for something like a party or a room where your not sitting directly in front of the speakers with the sole intention of listening to music then its not a bad idea at all.

 

I would probably be using it for gaming.

I don't know why I asked really. In the past I remember I've hooked up cheap computer speakers for the surround and my decent (much more powerful) stereo for the front left and right, and it achieved the affect when I was gaming.
I'm not sure how I set it up but it worked.

Yea ok, I was just making a hypothetical point.

 

If that's what you're referring to then I think not. You see, you can only get out, what you put in. That is to say your original recording would have to be surround sound.

In addition, you'd need the receiver to process and steer the sound to each speaker. Therefore, your original sound recording would have to be processed and decoded in surround sound. Otherwise, all you will have is stereo multiplied by two; and that's not surround.

 

I was wondering again after listening to some music with my headphones. Are headphones somehow modified in their software to adjust for the fact that stereo music is played from the sides of the head rather than in front?

I was fiddling around with my speakers and I found that the best placement isn't really a 60/60/60 triangle with the speakers; the imaging is very narrow.... I find that a 30/30/120 flatter triangle helps a lot with imaging and differentiating the sound between the two speakers. Putting it to the side of the body differentiates the sound the most, but it sounds sorta unrealistic.

 

Most headphones don't have any software in them like that. That is why the sound stage goes to the center of your head, right in the middle of your ears. Where as with speakers the sound stage goes to the center, but out in front of you. Of course some headphones have better sound stage than others do.