Guide to Speaker Set Up

[Buckeyefan 1]

Just spent the last 45 minutes reading different opinions on speaker set up. Primarily the two mains. I've been trying to find the exact distance to place my towers from the rear wall, the side wall, and the amount of toe in. I thought I'd share the best article I found on the topic. My room is a complete sponge - lots of fabric, carpeting, furniture, etc... so my goal is to find the best possible speaker placement and angle possible.

www.audioasylum.com/audio/faq/audiophysic.html

Here's the Audioholic's version - lots of similar ideas.

www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/loudspeakers/loudspeakerplacementguide.php

 

[mwheelerk]

This Is Your Best Possible Set Up

Your best possible set up is your ears and whatever sounds best to you. The recommendations for the "ideal" speaker placement are generic at best. There is no consideration given to your speaker design, the shape of your room, the construction of your room (reflective surfaces versus absorptive, etc). Some speakers are designed to use the wall and floor boundaries for bass loading. Some speakers are designed to stand free from rear wall boundaries. The exact distance between and toe-in of your speakers will be dependent upon your listening position and the soundstage your speakers can create given all the other variables. Use those recommendations as a touchstone, a place for you to begin. Do not consider them the commandments etched in stone.

 

[sjdgpt]

You ever play the game with W called "honey, let's move the furniture"?

It is a fun game. My mom was nuts with the game when I was a teen. I told the W that she could hire some movers if she ever wants to play the game.

Well, speaker placement is just like "honey, let's move the furniture".

There are no good rules for placement. Anything should be tried at least twice. Maybe three times just to make sure you didn't really like it the first two times. And if a rule is written, it must be broken.

And then the next week, some idiot (my name for the W), rearranges the books on the far left bookshelf, and I have to rearrange my entire HT just because she thought my collection of James Michener hardcovers shouldn't be displayed on the top shelf.

Ok, end of my tirade.

Now you understand how difficult speaker placement can be.


My suggestion .... play with the position, sometimes just an inch of movement can be a significant improvement.

By the way, I have my sub located freestanding in the "middle of the room" (it is actually 2' from the wall), and I am currently tweeking (rotating) the sub in 5degree increments. I may never get the right position.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I spent hours yesterday with speaker placement. Everything makes a difference. It's amazing. Just cantering the towers in or out a few degrees can make or break the system. I also found out you get less than optimal sound putting the towers equal distance from the back and side walls. They actually sound livelier as you move them closer to you. There's a point though that the W will put a stop to your encroachment upon the living area. It sounds 100% better, and I'm not convinced it's perfect...yet.

 

[Krazykaj]

It seems that you have done your bit of research already
However, i just posted elsewhere a list of sites on speaker configuration/setup, so i thought i'd post it here as well, possibly for other peoples benifit

Audioholics
Some interesting stuff here at Carada
Some stuff from SoundStage Network
Heres some good infor at Ecoustics
The Dolby website
some stuff from
Enjoy the music.com
Good reading from AVguide
Chesky Audio's site
Good Sound article
Some stuff from Crane Audio
Some great stuff from Polk Audio download their handbook, and check out some of their articles
Some info at 5dot1

Cheers
KJ

 

[saurabh]

Well well untill and unless you have a separate room for the HTS, first fix your seating space and then try to adjust your speakers around them......to the extent practically possible.

HTS are here for our comfort and not vice-versa. So will it make a diff if they sound 5% better ?????....so think about this and place them according to your seating and room decor.