How exactly does one achieve room filling sound?
Example 1: super old school gramophone with one single large horn speaker. My audio memory is hazy but I distinctly recall one of those could really fill a room with its sound.
Example 2: the Sonos One is advertised as having “room filling sound”. I’ll admit to not having actually listened to one before but I’ll take Sonos at their word.
So the reason why I am wondering is - I’m in the process of furnishing a 25” by 9” (longish rectangular) room which will be roughly split in half, with one side a study (desk against one wall) and the other side a TV area with a sofa. My options are:
A: TV mounted onto one of the short walls, stand mount speakers which can, hopefully fill the entire room with sound. This would include me in the study area listening to music while I WFH. Based on how I will probably setup the study area though I would be perpendicular to the speakers, I.e the sound will come at me from my left (or right) side.
B: TV mounted on the longer walls, separate speaker setups for the TV area and the study area. Depending on where I am I would use different speakers in the room, setup for the optimal listening positions.
Apologies down the longabout introduction but this brings me to my problem - if one can achieve actual room filling sound, it should not matter where in the room the listener is in relation to the speakers? And where the listeners ears are actually facing? If this is actually achievable then I would of course have a preference for option A above, and be able to invest my budget in one great system instead of two good ones.
But what would a setup like that look like?
TLDR: how to setup a sound system in a long rectangular room such that there is great sound in the room no matter where the listener is sitting, and which direction the listener is facing?
Honestly, “room filling sound” is snake oil.
People that have high end 7.2.4 systems and Dolby Atmos think about it in terms of being inside a sound envelope or bubble.
The know the speakers surround them, so it’s a matter of setting it up correctly…
…or getting it professionally installed.
I have standmounts, about 6 feet apart, 3 feet from side walls, toed in only a little. I sit 5 feet from speakers so tweeters pointed right along side my ears. I am enveloped in “room filling” sound but only when seated. I am in heaven when listening seated.
85% of a movie’s audio comes from the front speakers, so feel ok to use lesser cost, but good quality speakers.
A single good subwoofer is 10x better than a pair of crappy subwoofers, if money is an issue.
And ported subwoofers can produce a similar sound as a much higher priced sealed subwoofers.
-A decent ported subwoofer will sound closer to a movie theater.
I use sealed subwoofers, but it just boiles down to individual taste.
Sealed subwoofer have a much tighter sound, but some people like that and some don’t.
A room filling sound is not the problem. Just get a speaker like a Sonos something and turnup the volume!
Another question is how to get a good sound. This requires good speakers but the listening position matters too. Bass is not the issue, it is omnidirectional so you will hear it everywhere and good regardless of your listening position. Midrange and higher starts to lobe. The more you are off axis the less refined the sound become as you are not listening to the direct sound but to the indirect sound reflecting from walls, floor and ceiling.
I would start with the short wall and have the speakers fire straight into the room, 25" ain’t that big. You really need 100% when WFH?
It will be very easy to fill a 25 inch by 9 inch room with sound.
Turn up the volume. Ever notice how volume relates to space within a vessel etc? And it also means the amount of sound on an amplifier. Whattttt?
Sound pressure.
My opinion is: wide dispersion cone from the speakers, with frequency response that extends to 20 Hz, is the big sound. I have got a pair of Genelecs that do it and orchestral pieces are just massive sounding, for instance someone hammering the timpani makes a punch you will feel in your body. It very inherently sounds “large”.
The wide dispersion angle’s effect is more of a conjecture. Whatever kit you buy, it has a dispersion angle inherent to its design, and that’s what you are stuck with, so it is not easy to show that this one matters. It’s also a parameter that rarely is measured and shown in speaker specifications, but sometimes you see off-axis measurements from the manufacturer and you can estimate how much the level is reduced at, say, 45 degrees off axis horizontally. If it is about 6 dB or less, that is definitely a wide dispersion angle speaker. In any case, if much of the sound energy is radiated also on the sides of the speaker, it will reflect from the room’s geometry and that usually gives it a spacious, expansive feeling.
A speaker with good off axis response will probably fill a room better than a speaker that beams.