[jimdgoulding]

I think everyone with much experience will agree, your speakers need to be optimumly placed for optimum results.  It'll cost you the price of a tape measure (and maybe a little wife acceptance).  Sound waveforms spread when they leave our speakers and are reflected by large objects and then are combined with the information just arriving from our speaker drivers.  This is destructive to the information in your recordings and to what your system is working in earnest to deliver.  The biggest offender are nearby walls and corners.  Waveforms actually load to corners which can make your botton end sound too abundant relative to everything else and less succinct.  Placing your speakers out from room surfaces and boundaries means that reflected information will arrive later and be perceptively lower in level and more benign.  Instruments captured by the microphone in studio, club, or hall settings will contain ambient information many times and this will become more audible and realistic when first arrival information is freer of reflected information.  Instruments will separate out in all directions and image more realistically.  A good rule of thumb is to place your speakers out three or four times their width from your side walls and four or five times their depth from the wall behind them.  And, if possible, move your listening position out a ways from the wall behind where you sit.  Waveforms are loading to and being reflected by this, also. 

Use a tape measure so you can duplicate the precise distances to this and that of both (all) speakers and write down where you've been so you will know what's what for reference.  You should want your speakers to be precisely the same distance from where you are sitting at the apex of an equilateral triangle.  Experiment with this and the angle your speakers fire forward.  A few audio related companies make corner traps and absorptive wall panels to lessen the stength of reflected waveforms, a plausible next step.  GIK is one of the more affordable ones.  The very earliest source of reflection for conventional box speakers with surface mounted drivers is our speaker baffles and cabinet edges.  Diffractionbeone.com, my very own design, is an effective solution for that.

You can see examples of AC members speaker placement in the Gallery circle here and a source of detailed information can be seen at www.realtraps.com.  I have no affiliation with any of the companies referenced other than diffractionbegone.  Better listening through understanding.  Happy trails.

Also- http://www.tweekgeek.com/_e/page/1037/SpeakerPlacement.htm. - tho I prefer MY speaks out as described.

[jimdgoulding]

Slight modifications to the above info.  Thanks.  Out.

[wedweb]

Saw this is another site....

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=room+setup

It even has a pdf and room calculators at the bottom....

Bo

[richidoo]

Search AC for Master Set. I have tried it, works pretty good. You gotta use your ears, and a lot of listening and moving.  Movements as small as 1/8" are easily audible. The end result was very cool, and very educational.  If nothing else you will learn what a big difference speaker position can make. Ten you can start to learn how to do it in a way that works for you and your speakers. Supposedly there is a DVD coming out on how to do the Master Set procedure sometimes this fall. I hope it is still on track. Another good speaker locating instruction is in the new book by Jim Smith "Get Better Sound." You can also google 'Wilson Audio speaker placement'  (wasp) to find out how they do it. It's all by ear. RPG makes a program that will input the room dimensions, speaker type, etc and spit out the optimum location for speakers in standard rectangular rooms. I have not tried it, costs about $100, I think?  Phase accuracy in higher frequencies is good for imaging, but at what cost? Flat smooth bass is much more important to the overall presentation and satisfaction of music listening than acoustic tricks like imaging. Live music doesn't "image."  Get the speakers and chair setup to play MUSIC not sound effects and then your acoustic fetishes and anxiety will fade away, along with gear churn. Place the speakers for flat bass first, verify with a computer if you want, but the ears rule. Then treat the walls for mids to taste. The placement of the listening chair is just as important if not even more than the speakers. Floyd Toole's excellent new book, "Sound Reproduction" talks about speaker placement, and a LOT of other goodies.

Setting up speakers takes a long time, is hard work and requires a good ear and some good test tracks. But it is the most important step in building a great system.

[lonewolfny42]

Search AC for Master Set.

Here you go......
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=65908.0

[stvnharr]

Search AC for Master Set. I have tried it, works pretty good. You gotta use your ears, and a lot of listening and moving.  Movements as small as 1/8" are easily audible. The end result was very cool, and very educational.  If nothing else you will learn what a big difference speaker position can make. Ten you can start to learn how to do it in a way that works for you and your speakers. Supposedly there is a DVD coming out on how to do the Master Set procedure sometimes this fall. I hope it is still on track. Another good speaker locating instruction is in the new book by Jim Smith "Get Better Sound." You can also google 'Wilson Audio speaker placement'  (wasp) to find out how they do it. It's all by ear. RPG makes a program that will input the room dimensions, speaker type, etc and spit out the optimum location for speakers in standard rectangular rooms. I have not tried it, costs about $100, I think?  Phase accuracy in higher frequencies is good for imaging, but at what cost? Flat smooth bass is much more important to the overall presentation and satisfaction of music listening than acoustic tricks like imaging. Live music doesn't "image."  Get the speakers and chair setup to play MUSIC not sound effects and then your acoustic fetishes and anxiety will fade away, along with gear churn. Place the speakers for flat bass first, verify with a computer if you want, but the ears rule. Then treat the walls for mids to taste. The placement of the listening chair is just as important if not even more than the speakers. Floyd Toole's excellent new book, "Sound Reproduction" talks about speaker placement, and a LOT of other goodies.

Setting up speakers takes a long time, is hard work and requires a good ear and some good test tracks. But it is the most important step in building a great system.

Once you have heard a professionally done Master Set, you'll likely forget about all the other ways of doing speakers.  However, as a diy procedure, Master Set is very hard to do perfectly.
No matter how you set up your room, it's always good advise to keep the speakers as far away as possible from side walls, and don't sit close to a wall.  If you only listen by yourself, just sit at the point of the triangle and toe in the speakers directly at you, and sit fairly still.

[werd]

Hi All

Speaker placement is about soundstage tastes. It doesnt make your gear sound different, not in the way a Brand manufacturer can change the sound but in a way where the phanton centre channel appears and its focus. Also it lets you make adjustments to bass extension and freq. It really is a freebie though for improvement, it costs no money and can generate astounding results (if your wife/partner will allow  the changes).

Go goofy, try different crazy arrangements and leave them there for days if possible. I currently have my left speaker about 5 feet from sidewall and 1.5feet from back wall pointing straight forward. And my right speaker 1.5 feet from sidewall and 5 feet from backwall toed in, exactly opposite from one another in comparison to the reflecting walls. This helps me utilize a one sub arrangement and keeps the sub from sounding too off axis, off in one channel. I have the sub right next to the left speaker.