Home office redesign · working draft · updated Sep 13, 2026
TV centered on the north wall, easy chair centered on the south wall with its back to the windows. Same equipment and placement rules as Layout A, turned 90°. Starts as an exact copy of Layout B-1.
All dimensions in inches. Speakers are toed in so each aims ≈12″ outboard of the MLP on its own side — wide of your shoulders rather than straight at your head (dotted lines) — as a starting point. Computed positions are marked ≈; measured ones are exact.
The same ≈280–420 Hz back-wall cancellation as Layout A, but the surface behind the headrest is Window 1 / Window 2 glass. Covering the windows is fine, so a 4″+ absorber mounted over W1 and W2 behind the headrest handles it — standing off the 2″ sills. With the A/C venting through W3, W1 and W2 can be covered all the way down.
First reflections land ≈56–63″ from the north wall. On the east that's drywall; on the west it's the shut south door leaf — 2 × 5 glass lites. Since that leaf stays closed, a panel can hang over it, but untreated the two sides won't match.
With speaker fronts 28″ off the north wall, the reflection off that wall cancels a band around ≈120 Hz — above a typical 80 Hz sub crossover, so EQ can't fill it. Thick (4–6″) absorption on the north wall behind each speaker makes it shallower; measure before settling on the crossover.
Front-to-back is now the 130″ dimension: the MLP sits on the peak of the 52 / 104 / 156 Hz modes, close to the 56 Hz height mode. Across the 158″ width, the centered MLP is in the 43 Hz null and on the 86 Hz peak.
The NW bookshelf sits ≈4–5″ from the west LS50, while the east side has open wall — so the west side will run bassier. Options: plug the west LS50's port, move the bookshelf, or measure and let room correction even out the sides.
At ≈8.1–8.5 ft instead of ≈9.5 ft, both pairs play ≈1–2 dB louder than Layout A for the same amp power, with wider stereo angles (≈48–52° LS50 outside, ≈37–42° Q3 inside).
The screen faces all three south windows and their transoms. Blinds and transom shades help; panels over the windows would remove the glare entirely, at the cost of daylight.
The 28″ bookshelf fills the NE corner. 4¾″ south of it sits the sub (see below), leaving the ethernet jack (≈28–32″) reachable in the gap. Flush south of the sub, the door desk runs along the east wall (47¾–127¾″ from the north wall, pulled 2¼″ off the south wall like the west-wall group), facing west: two leg cabinets with drawers opening west, the 80″ × 24″ door across them, a third file cabinet under the door flush against the north leg (62¾–77¾″, drawers west; ≈35″ of knee space to the SE leg), and the wine rack on its SE corner over the SE leg (≈63″ tall). Seated at it there's ≈28″ to the recliner's east side table. The SE leg cabinet sits ≈9″ from the A/C, and its drawers now clear W3's sill but still run into the A/C. The north end (cabinet + door, ≈31″ tall) sits in the east-wall reflection zone (≈56–63″ from the north wall), much lower than the old ≈63″ stack there.
The recliner's former east side table now sits in the SW corner against the south wall, facing east, its front flush with the desk front (5⅞–29⅞″ from the west wall, 118½–130″ from the north wall). The 58″ × 28″ desk sits flush north of it, facing east, pulled ≈1⅞″ off the west wall so its front lines up with the 30″ bookshelf's east edge (60½–118½″ from the north wall) — ≈13⅝″ from the outer of the recliner's two 10″-wide west side tables and ≈34⅝″ from the recliner. The 30″ bookshelf sits against the desk's north end, facing north (46⅞–60½″), ≈7⅝″ past the active door leaf's swing. The west-wall reflection zone (≈56–63″) now straddles the bookshelf and the desk, both below ear height, so a panel above them still works.
Two identical racks sit side by side on the north wall directly under the TV, backs to the wall, meeting on the room's centerline (47.2″ wide together, 55⅜–102⅝″ from the west wall — inside the screen's width at every TV size). The TV's bottom edge has to clear their 30.3″ tops, so the screen sits high — tilt it down toward the MLP. The racks stay below tweeter height, ≈4¼–9″ from the inner Q3s depending on TV size, so the speakers' paths to you stay open, and cable runs to the TV and speakers are short. The sub sits on the east wall between the NE bookshelf and the door desk group, facing west (32¾–47¾″ from the north wall, 4¾″ from the bookshelf), pulled ≈10¾″ off the wall so its front lines up with the file cabinet fronts, ≈100″ from your ears. That's about a third of the way down the room's 130″ length, where the sub drives the front-to-back room modes only partway. In a simple room model it's the smoothest position tested: unevenness at the chair from 30–90 Hz drops to ≈10 dB (vs ≈23–24 dB under the door desk or beside the rack), the deepest dip is only ≈−4½ dB, and level is ≈3 dB higher than under the door desk. It's sensitive to position — ≈30–50″ from the north wall stays smooth, but by ≈60″ the deep dip returns — and real rooms usually show a smaller gain than the model, so measure. Room correction mostly has small peaks to trim.
The active door opens beside the west speaker pair; with the speakers pulled back there's a ≈43″ walkway between them and the chair. The A/C sits ≈3¼ ft from your ears. Side tables flank the recliner, both slid back against the sills: two 10″-wide tables side by side on the west and the 11½″-wide table — with the IR senders and headphone amp — on the east.
Compared with a 77″ TV in both layouts. Bold marks the stronger option.
| Layout A | Layout B-2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Viewing angle | 30° on a ≈21″ arm | ≈32° flush on the wall |
| Distance to speakers | ≈10.5–10.8 ft | ≈8.1–8.5 ft (≈2 dB louder) |
| Stereo angle | 44° LS50 outside · 36° Q3 inside | 50° LS50 outside · 39° Q3 inside |
| Speakers to side walls | ≈6″ (south LS50, group shifted south) | ≈32″ (LS50) |
| Furniture conflicts | None within 12″ (rack now under the TV) | West LS50 ≈4½–5½″ from the NW bookshelf; inner Q3s ≈4¼–9″ from the audio racks; east LS50 ≈6½–10″ from the sub |
| Rear-port clearance | ≈16″ | ≈16″ |
| Front-wall cancellation | ≈120 Hz | ≈120 Hz |
| TV vs speaker fronts | ≈5″ behind | ≈24″ behind |
| Side-wall reflections | Drywall north, W2 glass south — both treatable | Drywall east, shut glass door west — both treatable |
| Wall behind your head | Drywall and shut glass door — panel covers both | W1/W2 glass — panel covers it fully (A/C is on W3) |
| Screen glare | Windows to the side | Windows facing the screen — panels or blinds needed |
| A/C | Stays at Window 1, ≈25″ from chair | Moves to W3, east of the chair, ≈3¼ ft from ears |
| Entry | Beside the chair | Past the west speaker pair |
| Open wall for a desk | North wall, beside the NW bookshelf | Desk in the SW corner facing east; door desk on the east wall facing west |
Existing conditions and equipment dimensions are listed on Layout A.