Recently I got a new player that allows me more flexibility in speaker placement. Because I was disappointed with the imaging I was getting from the front speakers, I moved the listening position further away. That has improved the imaging considerably. However, in order to maintain an equal distance between the front speakers and the listening position, I would have to spread the front speakers from 6 feet to 8 feet apart. That means also moving the sub and the furniture along the front and side walls. I am trying to decide whether I should leave the speakers where they are (I am delighted with the improvement) or go ahead and do what I would have to in order to move them another two feet apart.
First of all, you are giving too much credit to the distance of a foot, or two feet, or three feet. Do you think someone in a theater is scrooed if they aren't exactly in the center?
Say you throw the surrounds off by 2ft distance. The differential in time is only less than .002 second, and if you measure to the opposite ear, I believe it could even be less than .001 second. (It would take about 10x that amount of time for us to distinguish reflected ambient audio from the direct sound, just for comparison).
Now for the sub. Subs have greater delay involved, normally, because of the built in Eq/filters, DSP, in addition to the physical distance. IOW, you try setting the phase after you find the best freq response in the room. Your advantage by using subs is that you should be able to have better bass precisely because you don't have to place them exactly as your speakers; only placing with best bass performance in mind.
One thing that causes me to hesitate is that I do not have a center speaker and the manufacturer no longer makes a center speaker comparable to my main speakers. In any event, positioning a center speaker would be awkward with the setup I have now. The sound stage is plenty wide enough as it is (I have no complaint there), so I'm wondering whether I would gain anything by moving them further apart and whether I would begin to notice the absence of a center speaker if I did. The sub is well situated where it is now, without the need for EQ adjustments, and I have few other choices about where to put it.[/SIZE]
Yes, you can* move speakers too far apart where you now have a hole in the middle, relative to where you are seated. It should be pretty easy to listen for. If you love these speakers so much that you will always use them, and that you can find another identical speaker, you can use that in the future as a center speaker if you ever go the way of front projection combined with an acoustically transparent screen. You can pull of a nice combo for about $2k, disregarding light control, or IOW, for the price of a decent flat panel.
