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Wireless speakers are one of the best achievements of modern technology and they have become quite popular in recent years. We are constantly trying to make our lives easier by buying devices that are more practical and easy to handle. We use them all the time, at home, at work, even on vacation. One of the most popular representatives of this group of devices are wireless and Bluetooth devices. The most popular products are probably Bluetooth headphones and earbuds but we can’t really say that wireless and Bluetooth speakers are less popular than the headphones.
There are many reasons for their popularity. They don’t have those annoying wires that can make a real mess in any room no matter how big it is, you can move them easily from one room to another or use them even in front of your house (as long as your wireless signal is strong enough for the speakers to work without cutouts).
However, if you have thought that you can simply order them, unpack them and turn on, you have been wrong. They do make our lives easier but they aren’t that simple. If you want your speakers not only to work but also to deliver the best possible sound they can, you have to try harder and spend some time on their adjustment and setup.
In this article, we will try to explain why is this so important and list all the ways for achieving better speaker performance. As we are aware that many people decide to buy wireless speaker systems for their houses or apartments, we are going to refer to the adjustments of this kind of wireless speakers, which doesn’t mean you won’t be able to use some of the advice in case you have a single wireless speaker.
How to Improve Speaker Performance?
Speaker performance depends not only on the speaker specifications. You can buy the best speaker system on the market and still be unable to hear the best of it because the speaker system elements aren’t positioned correctly, acoustical characteristics of your room are bad or you haven’t explored speaker possibilities enough. Here are the things you can do in order to improve speaker performance and believe us they always work. The best would be to try all of them because they are interdependent so we have explained all the procedures thoroughly.
Choose the perfect position in the room
The main rule of speaker placement is to place them in a way that they form a triangle (also known as the “equilateral triangle”). The important thing is that the distance between the speakers and the distance between you and each of the speakers in the speaker system is the same (equal). This is quite easy to achieve with 2.1 speaker systems but it gets more difficult with more complex systems.
The usual layout is that the main speaker or the soundbar is in front of the listener (below or above the TV) and the two remaining speakers are at the ends of the imaginary triangle. In case you have more complex speaker systems, you will have to place the other speakers behind the listener, also making sure that the distance between the speakers and the distance between the listener and the speakers remains the same.
The second important thing is the position of the listener. He should be in the center of the whole arrangement, sitting in the “sweet spot”.
Proper speaker placement depends on the room acoustics that will be explained in the text below. If the room acoustic properties are good, you can place the speakers in the way we have described above. In the opposite case, you should try placing them differently. For example, putting a subwoofer in a corner, close to the walls, can make wonders when bass performance is concerned. It also can make the bass too boomy, so be careful about that.
Use speaker stands to optimize general performance
Speaker stands can improve speaker performance a lot. Of course, you won’t use the stands unless you have the kind of speaker that is predicted to be placed on the stand although any speaker sounds better if it doesn’t stand directly on the floor.
The way you use stands also depends on the type of the room where you keep the speakers. This is where the height is very important. For example, if you’re using the speakers in the kitchen where you are standing most of the time making meals, the stands should be placed at the approximately same height as your head and ears are. Also, if you’re buying stands for your living room, they should be smaller as you will probably be sitting most of the time while watching TV, listening to music, etc. The important thing is that you calculate the right stand height because you will hear the music better if it comes directly to your ears without obstacles.
In addition, you can choose special stands that improve sound quality thanks to their built. For example, the stands that are filled with sand help reduce resonance.
Make some changes in your furniture arrangements
One of the crucial things to remember is that room acoustics affect speaker performance a lot and that the acoustical characteristics of your room are defined by every single piece of furniture, every single detail, even the shape of the room where the speakers are located.
Bare walls, glass windows, doors, arched ceilings and bare wooden floors reflect sound, create vibrations and echo. If you have too many of these surfaces in your room, your speakers won’t deliver the best possible sound. They cause poor bass performance and quite muffled sound.
Rooms with perfect dimensions (the rooms that form the perfect square, for example) affect sound in a negative way while the rooms with uneven dimensions improve the general sound quality.
Too much furniture and different kinds of accessories absorb too much sound and make it quite unnatural and unpleasant for listening. On the other hand, if you use the right amount of carpets, pictures, curtains, sofas, chairs, etc. they will absorb the right amount of sound that would otherwise be reflected, prevent those annoying vibrations and echo, making the sound more natural and pleasant.
One of the main rules you would have to obey in this case is to place most of the reflecting surfaces in front of the listener, leaving the absorbing elements behind him. This is one of the best recipes for the good sound quality in any kind of room.
Download an app
Many wireless speakers today come with the app that contains all the necessary settings that you can experiment with in order to get the most out of your speakers. These apps come with single speakers as well as the surround sound speaker systems. They enable you to adjust the sound to your taste and the space you are living or working in.
You can download the app on your phone or tablet and the only important thing is that all the devices are using the same WiFi network. When you open the app, you can use the equalizer or set the distance between the listener and each of the system elements. The app will memorize the settings until you move the speakers into another room or reposition them. Whenever you are making these changes, you should delete the previous settings and go through the process all over again for the best results.
Although most of these app settings can be deleted, we have to warn you that some manufacturers don’t allow you to change once established settings.
Explore speaker and amplifier settings
Many speakers have their own settings just like the amplifiers and they have to be thoroughly explored because they can make the great difference in your speaker performance. For example, you can use the equalizer and set the amount of bass that is pleasant for your ears. Also, you may not know that but subwoofers aren’t the only ones that can deliver bass. Speakers can also deliver low-frequency sounds and the amount of bass delivered by them can be set by using the amp’s settings.
