Speaker Width?

I imagine ditching the girlfriend is not in the cards.

I hate to break up the party but getting back to cold hard reality for a second, as it turns out, generally speaking, speakers should be a lot closer together rather than a lot farther apart. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “but the soundstage will be wider when the speakers are far apart.”

Am I high?

Hey, here’s an idea. Why doesn’t someone compare Jim Smith’s speaker set-up method with the speaker set track on the XLO Test CD? 

On the other hand his speakers are 12 feet apart. So, his living room cannot be too small. Besides, as I’ve oft commented, 12 feet is waaay too far apart. Perhaps if the room was 50 by 50...

It’s hard to generalize because different speakers produce different radiation patterns, the same speakers generate different acoustic patterns in different rooms, the listener position is variable and rooms without quite so many acoustic anomalies have a better chance of finding ideal locations. Rooms with no acoustic treatment have almost no chance, forget about it. But for those in a hurry try 5 feet apart. That should get you pretty darn close. No toe-in.