HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Just nosey

I have been playing with speaker position a lot and currently mine are 5 ft apart from centre of mid bass to centre of the other mid bass. I tried them 7 ft and did not like it.

Isn't there a golden rule about speaker separation and listening position?

Something like speakers 2/3 the distance from listener.

Here's one theory...

https://www.russandrews.com/understandi ... placement/

Russ Andrews says my speakers are far too close together. It was an interesting read and highlighted a few things , thanks for posting it. One of many theories I should think.

His mention of getting speakers as close to the wall as possible to reduce reflection times definitely goes against a lot of people (experts ????) who are very 'vocal' about such things. He also advocates putting speakers as far apart as possible, even in corners and tuning placement from there.

I will try his method and report back although I already try to get speakers as close to the wall as possible.

karatestu wrote: ↑Wed Jan 27, 2021 2:33 pm Russ Andrews says my speakers are far too close together. It was an interesting read and highlighted a few things , thanks for posting it. One of many theories I should think.

His mention of getting speakers as close to the wall as possible to reduce reflection times definitely goes against a lot of people (experts ????) who are very 'vocal' about such things. He also advocates putting speakers as far apart as possible, even in corners and tuning placement from there.

I will try his method and report back although I already try to get speakers as close to the wall as possible.

Domestically, I think most people will find it tricky to have the speakers in the corners and then still have 1.25 times the distance available to their listening position. But. it's an interesting theory, still, and if you are able to try it...why not?

My room is almost the ideal dimensions, but a window and an inner porch are on one short wall, and a doorway is in the middle of the other short wall, so I have to have the speakers along one of the long walls. I've settled on having the speakers around 5 feet apart and me about 6 feet away with speakers toed in to cross just in front of me - no science, just listening. Mostly direct sound in a well damped room - thick underlay, wool carpet, rug, thick curtains, textured wallpaper.

My speakers are about five and a half foot apart as close to the back wall as possible allowing for the toe in. The listening sofa is around six and a half feet away and close to the wall. This works out well in the large oblong shaped room with soft furnishing and a rug in the imediate listening area. The thicker rug was my cheapest upgrade.

In my room which is about 22ft x 14ft with an 8ft 6ins ceiling, I use the Audio Physic method and it works for me.

Divide the room into the smallest even number of squares you can. Set the speakers at the intersection of the squares closest to your chosen wall and place your chair at the opposite wall. I can't manage to get the chair in the correct place so it has gone in the middle of the opposite wall to the speakers and the same distance from that wall as the speakers.

Then turn the speakers in until there is a strong centre image. Then space the speakers as far apart as they will go without being up against the side walls. Adjust toe in to suit. After that, use your ears for minor adjustment.

I get a tight bass and incredible imaging. Happy days!

My wardrobes are 8 foot apart and i am 9 feet away. No toe in, no hole in the middle.
The left speaker has the record storage unit a foot to its left so is essentially almost in a corner, the right hand one has nothing to the right as that side is the dining room which is open plan.
Its better than it was when they were 6 feet apart.
With mine you need to sit bang in the middle for everything to be perfect because they beam, but i mostly cant be arsed with sitting bang in the middle of the sofa. I like to be able to reach my cup of tea

Thanks for the replies so far. It's good to know I like them at a similar distance to others .

I tried the speakers 8 ft apart but when you are positioning across a corner they end up being quite a way along each wall. There was never a hole in the middle, in fact the instrument separation was really good. I have experimented with distance apart and settled on 6 ft. At that distance the speakers are about 5 ft from the same corner.

I have 11" from the wall to the centre of each up firing mid bass. I have been able to get them much closer to the wall since I placed the speakers across a corner. With bipole speakers it is said that you need space between them and the wall because they do the baffle step compensation for you. I had the double 5" version of these speakers actually touching the wall and it was good.

Tweeter pods are toed in firing straight at my head, but with four tweeters per channel the little buggers are firing everywhere Still messing about with them.

I have a concrete floor with vinyl tiles on top of which is carpet with underlay, Mr Andrews doesn't even mention that type of construction. The gas fire prevents the Hi-Fi from being between the speakers.