Speaker placement along the long wall

Could you put your speakers flanking the opening to the dining room? I bet this would give great depth to the soundstage.

I have always prefered setting up speakers along the long wall. Dunlavy and Audio Physics have some interesting thoughts about this arrangement on their web sites.

My main concern would be if the new 8' listening distance gives the drivers a chance to gel together. If memory serves the drivers in the Rev3s are somewhat far apart, so this may be an issue. If you experience a lack of coherence between bass/mids/treble you may need to back the speakers up closer to the wall. It might not turn out to be an issue at all, but it would be something I'd watch for.

Tim

Tim brings up a very good point! Intergrading drivers at the listening position may compromise ideal speaker to room boundry positioning. I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of us deal with some compromise in this regard. What did Hales recommend as a starting point? Trial and error may be your only resolve.

Gentlemen, thanks for all the encouragement/insights. I moved the speakers last night as a trial and I'm quite surprised by the result!

I placed the speakers a foot away from the wall and 7' apart (inside edge-to-edge) with a slight toe-in. I couldn't believe my ears! Much better left-right staging and precise image localization. It felt like I could reach out and grab any particular image. Oh, the thrill of having Leonard Cohen's larger than life presence in between myself and the speakers! I only listened to two CDs last night but I'm sold on the long wall method.

Some other observations:

- Lack of soundstage depth -- doesn't project out behind the speakers that much. May need to pull the speakers out a little.

- Increased bass response. May be it is all real and I just had a null before. Or, it may be the distance/driver-integration that Tim pointed out.

- I lost the dog! Amused to Death by Roger Waters, which is QSound encoded, has a dog barking behind you. In fact, the album projects a lot of images behind you. I seem to have lost all that. This is probably due to the fact that I'm seated next to the wall as opposed to in the open between the two rooms.

Looks like I'll be busy this weekend optimizing the new set up. Thanks a lot to you all.

P.S.

Bob, you're right. It even sounds better in the dining room.

Rives_Audio, I'll check out you website.

Sean, I also have a distaste for ported speakers. I can't give an educated reason for it though.

Nighthawk, this change was necessitated by demands of unobstructed access to the dining room.

Unsound, the Hales manual, though very detailed, is a study of Fields and Waves in itself! I haven't looked at it in a while, but I don't think it covers long wall placement.