Can speakers be placed horizontally? 

Giving myself a pat on the back for also coming to conclusion that the tweeters would be better on the inside. But the big difference between Paul and I is I didn't have a clue as to why.

I agree with Bruce, and so if I were ever to turn a speaker on its side (which I have) and because of not knowing the 'details' of that particular design, I would remove and reorient the Tweeter so that it was positioned as it was when the speaker was standing up as normally it would be (Yes, even if that meant a little bit of massaging / refitting of the Tweeter back into the cabinet). And yes, Tweeters to the inside for sure.

A lot depends on the tweeter. Domes and cones will be fine with the enclosure flipped horizontal, but ribbon tweeters and AMTs, especially the small ones typically found in bookshelf-size speaker systems, won't disperse well if turned 90 degrees and that will make "the sweet spot" for listening very narrow.

The bass is omnidirectional, so it does not really matter if it’s on the inside or the outside in a horizontal placement. But treble is pretty much unidirectional, so placing the tweeters further away from each other (on the outside) will, theoretically, make for a better stereo imaging. On the opposite, if you place your tweeters next to each other, you get more like a mono sound, no matter how further away the woofers are.

I have surround speakers that are mounted horizontally (well actually at a slight angle to the horizontal), so the sound bounces off the ceiling. It works well for the surround channels. I don't think that's what you had in mind though.

Yes you can place them horizontally and my set up has the tweeters in the center at the same height as my ears and it works perfectly fine. That being said, everything i am about to say is valid for dome tweeters, not necessarily ribbon tweeters. The only theoretical issue is that the waves from the tweeter and the mids/mids speakers will interfere on the horizontal plane where your ears are (instead of on the vertical plane where you wouldn't hear it). In practise that is not really an issue. As for the centre channel speakers, the higher end ones generally place the tweeter and the woofer off axis ie not parallel to the axis of the speaker so that theh are never vertically or horizontally aligned. But, as I said, that is theoretical and i have never heard a noticeable difference, my PMC speakers sound excellent horizontally and fantastic vertically (maybe ever so slightly better but i am not even sure that is the case).

I have experimented with this using a pair of Kef reference 103 speakers they sounded best on their sides with the tweeter on the centre of the baffle and the cabinet set on its side so that the woofer was outside of the tweeter. Toe in was based on an imaginary plane connecting the centre of the woofer and the centre of the tweeter. This plane was then pointed at the listening position. I am now considering a new set up where the cabinets are upright and the baffle rotated so that the tweeter and the woofer are side by side. Time to experiment again. Cool question.

During the late 1990s, audiophiles lucky enough to find a good condition JBL 4312 three way studio monitors found out that they sound like Sonus Faber standmounts if you place one on its side on a sufficiently sized stands and tweeters on the inside.

Yes, my Elac CC501 is kind of an Elac FS507 on the side. Just KIND of since they're not exactly the same.

Listener position relative to speaker placement can have a significant effect here,and as Paul says, the off axis response of the design is influential too.If one requires the tweeters to be directed to the ears for best hf response,then when you sit between them,tweeters on the inside would be best.Also,i would add that the tweeters potentially be angled back slightly relative to the woofer/midrange to aid time-alignment.Having said that,if the design took into consideration that the tweeters were to be placed on the outside,then the designer could tweak the response to compensate for that to a degree(although their distance apart will alter how far they are off axis relative to the listener's ears too).Some tweeters are more directional than others(as a function of their geometry,and/or wavelengths involved),so there are many variables (aren't there always?!).Best to have a play,then make your choice.All good fun.

At church, I use my 4x12 speaker cabinet horizontally, but facing up. It makes everything work perfectly, it can be cranked, and no one is beamed except for me if I put my head in line.

Having a different distance to the woofer and tweeter will affect the frequency response. Listen vertically and see if they are better when above or below. For example Mission's that have their tweeter below the woofer so it is farther away, you'd want them upside down if vertical at ceiling level or tweeters outside (I'm picturing there was little or no chance for toe-in). Or there's designs with the baffle tilted back for time alignment. For 1st and 2nd order crossovers with in-phase driver connection, tweeters outside, reverse phase (more common actually) inside...

A centre speaker from a surround system usually has the tweeter in the middle and two bass woofers on the side. Its the same as the satellite speaker with an extra woofer. What about buying these for your stereo if you want extra bass and place them vertically?

There is a phenomenon of Diving with a tweeter will dive down and vice versa if you flip them upside down because of time delay between the two drivers and off-axis response. This would still be the same if you put them horizontally but in the horizontal plane. Having the tweeters in the centre will cause the top end to actually expand out not the other way round. Be interesting if you flip them around what your opinion is get back to me! how does the soundstage sound with the tweeters on the outside and tweeters on the inside and the reaction to the side walls depends how close they are has a bearing.

I can just see those guys in that conference room so confused because the imaging is so off on those Powerpoint sound effects. "The woosh used to pan from left to right on a new slide, now it just sounds like a jumbled up mess! I can't work like this!"

ive been listening to your posts for a long time as ive been upgrading my hifi.tonight i listened to you saying not to toe in the speakers too much and tilt them back a little.so i did.and what a difference.its opened up the sound stage to where now the image i have is great.as if the band is in my room.i also have the speakers now disappearing.so having 30mins with the light off listening to Pink Floyd ,my experience has totally changed.im running a set of monitor audio platinum pl300's with the emotiva xpa dr2 gen 3 amp ,streaming for my computer through a sound blaster sound card ( i know your not a fan) but i do have the yamaha 3040 receiver too.plus a top line panasonic bluray for cd's.so thankyou for all the advice and tips over the past year or so...cheers

I use a pair of Bose 6.2's for my LF & RF home theater speakers. They are placed on end to raise the driver positions. Being that the tweeter array is mounted on a bridge in front of the woofer, they never did face forward. Now with them at 90 degrees I get effects from overhead as you would from a soundbar but with more substantial sound.

I have them with the tweeters to the outside. I find them sounding better. More sound resonating from both tweeters and woofers off the wall and shelf of my bed. Oh, funny I did this just a day before this found me. So I wasn't so original, but I like the sound cus it gets more bass and high end from the tweeters.

In a conference room, absolutely nobody sits in the magic spot of a "triangle"... it is called conference room, not music room. Also, they don't listen to Mozart, but to BS Bingo...

Many a monitor speaker is mounted from the ceiling this way in playback rooms of recording studios ..usually above the viewing window into the live room.

Placing the woofer inside the triangle will place the lower frequencies closer to the listeners ears. The lower the frequencies the slower the frequencies will progress through the air. This would reduce the muddling of the image due to the timing of the individual drivers.

Excited to see the new speakers!

Great video, answered my question in full

My center channel speaker is a pair of ATC scm 11's on their sides woofers to the outside.. Sounds superb

Cool idea on that modular speaker design. Very good.

The Design Acoustics' PS-8 bookshelf speakers worked well with a down firing woofer about 30 years ago.

Paul, what speaker cables are you using here?

Do speaker directivity and room interaction defines the in room frequency response at the listening seat? Is the horizontal speaker directivity equal to its vertical directivity? If not, how much of a difference between vertical and horizontal directivity is necessary to alter the speaker in room response?

Thanks for the answers, I was wondering the same thing. BUT I guess the question was rather about "does it matter mechanically for cones to be in one direction or another"? I.e. are they designed to play the same, 360 degrees around, or does some part of it rub against something that it shouldn't if a speaker (cone) is installed in a different way that the speaker cabinet is designed? (I'm not sure if I'm clear...)

Wow that setup looks absolutely stunning... What amp is he got in the background

If your new speakers are to be placed away from the back wall, can subwoofers (if used per your recommendations) be placed against the back walls? Would this incur any detrimental effects?

Does PS have an audio assisted program like guvment cheese for us Po Fokes? Love you Paul

Do you plan to make an active bass absorber like PSI Audio AVAA?

Searching for your channel for a long time! Just wanted to ask you...if earpods and big speaker produce the same db ....why do we hear speaker when we are away bfrom it but cant hear earphones from even less than half a meter? What sound property is related to explain this?

I have my floor tower speakers hung horizontally from the roof in my garage and they work really well!

Thanks for this!

Remember the Yamaha NS 10M in studios? 😬

they call that MTM speakers Paul mid-tweeter-mid thanks again Paul !

Why does an AV tech not know the answer to this?

In natural live music, light sound objects ar upper, lower and heavy sound objects are down... High frequancies top, low frequancies down... Is the natural way....

My brother has a pair of old B&O speaker's (2400, 3-ways) and they are specifically designed to be placed horizontally. As the tweeter is in the middle of the speaker and the midrange just above it you get that the midrange is the most in the middle. This causes that you get quite a nice soundstage and hear instruments very clear but not too bright because the tweeter only just "brushes" your ear.

Where can one go to listen to a great sound system near them?

'Ole Audiophile to Paul: Why I like your posts? We have little in common other than we seem to come up with nearly identical conclusions for audio problems or we seem to think an awful lot alike for some reason. Got me as to why. Problem first posed, my first inkling was why woofers in?, I had to laugh & did. In this very instance, my mains as in front L/R mains are three way powered active that implement a tweeter/midrange structure that can be turned 90 degrees in either direction so they CAN be laid on their sides. FYI, they make em.

What about making it isobaric 2 drivers would be better more efficient I know this is generally done with with woofers but should work well with mid-range to lower frequencies make the driver more efficient and have control over the drivers like a servo control principal. If you take the enclosure from both speakers the one that's going on the bottom with the two drivers 1 driver on the front baffle as it looks now and one inside magnet to magnet facing, with a port at the top with a dome top, the same for the other speaker place it on top of the bottom unit, with a dome so you have a three quarters of an inch gap between the port and the top of the other speaker make this slope bevel about the same as the ls50 on both cabinets. You are creating a Venturi what would work in both directions some tuning of the bevel might be needed if you want it more sound waves facing forward in its projectory

i wish you wouldn't call those small drivers woofers

mission speakers have tweeter on the bottom and woofer top

Very helpful

Thanks good thing I only have one Yamaha HS5 monitor speaker 😂 So I can lay it horizontally without worry

Thank you

Depends on the speaker. RTFM.

that remind me Roger AB1..separated woofer

I have to....and let me guess...the revised speaker will be 20k....his price has changed 3 times already

Sounds like your new design is just copying Polk Audio's design from their 5000 series 15 years ago?

Human Ears Aligned Horizontally!!!...NOT VERTICALLY!!!😉...My Favorite configuration is MTM D'Appolito Configuration!!! 4-Ohm Mid-Woofers wired in series with custom parallel Zobel network....also with a silk dome tweeter!!! Dynamics Awesome & Sweet!!!😉

Why question would be . . . why?

If one sells a 30000 dollar speaker and pretends its magic that way the few audiophiles with no education would jump in circles

Working like beavers!

"First off, were not going to turn these speakers on their side..." WHY NOT? try it?! Listen to it! Tell us what happens?! Your conjecture isn't very scientific...

sure can

haut-parleur deux corps

Sounds like the an-3 project is getting out of hand. Someone needs to reel Paul back in to reality

eh... the questions are getting more and more boring lately.

Well thats good news. Some of us have two channel and multichannel systems, The wife will be pleased. :-} Less speakers dominating "her" living room.