Re-arranged Room Sounds Awful...How to Improve?

first pull the speakers away from the back wall at least 12 inches. then play with moving them closer together. i put a grid on the floor with tape 1 inch apart. once you are satisfied with that then play with the toe in. most people toe in to much. the more you toe in the less sound stage you will have. the leather chairs will make no difference. good luck. once you get your speakers set corrcetly i think you girlfriend will like it better

Not sure how much lyngdorf is but TacT is $10K,Is you could swing $3K (less used) check out DEQX which is amazing.It not only corrects for room in digital domain but also can make most lowly speaker sound a like a competitor that costs ten times more.Made the little NHT Xd have everybody drop thier mouths open not believing small sub and 4.5" mid driver satellites sound huge and accurate.Will take equipment and room you have to deal with and optimize,again,not just room but feeds back the tonal characteristics of speakers drivers,cabinets,drivers work best they physically can.Also great for speaker builders as it means you can build a design and use x-over in DEQX.If your budget can handle it it will act like best set up of diffusers,reflectors,corner foam which breaks up standing waves.Doubt old lady would le that swing.See review at www.6moons.com and Stereophile and NHT Xd reviews in both of those mags (at least Stereophle).Afetr I have revamped my system and will add thjis to optimze system at a level and cost effectiveness found in no other device though I know $3K isn't cheap.But if you put it in you'd never take it out.
Chazz

You've gotten a lot of good advice from the group.

Before taking any action, it might be prudent to wait a while. How many hrs playing time do you have on your system since you rearranged it? I ask because, assuming you pulled all your i/cs, cables, etc., it can take time for everything to settle back in.

I have ripped apart my system several times in the last couple of years. On at least two of those occasions, my system sounded noticeably worse (for a couple of weeks). This phenomenon is probably cable and system dependent.

I think you should put at least 50 hrs on your system before you start changing things again. If you're already there, then nevermind!

A lot of great advice and opinions to consider so far.

Pauly -- I'm using a really cool little room organizer web application that I found on a furniture site. Here is the site:

http://raymourflanigan.com/room_planner/resources/icovia.aspx

If you register with them, you can save multiple room designs which is really cool. It's great that you can use it without downloading anything (it's a Flash application), and you can specify all of the dimensions of everything you put in the room down to the inch.

Ted M Brady -- That is a fireplace behind the listening position, no doors on it.

Winstonsmith -- I have definitely noticed the bass response being variant at different spots in the room. The listening position is currently a vacuum with no bass in it, and about 3 feet outside of the listening position in any direction the bass is very strong. It is a major problem.

Chronic -- There have been maybe 30 hours of listening on the system since it was re-arranged. I'm a little worried about the "settling in" effect, because I personally believe that the settling in may actually be me forgetting the great sound I had and just getting used to the new sound.

I like Eldarado's idea of having removable acoustic treatment. I'm considering putting small patches of self-adhesive velcro on the walls in spots where I need acoustic treatment, and put the other side of the self-adhesive velcro on the treatments themselves, so I can instantly put them up or take them down.

-Dusty

The listening position is currently a vacuum with no bass in it, and about 3 feet outside of the listening position in any direction the bass is very strong. It is a major problem.

I re-iterate that it is never a good idea to sit in the middle of a room (even worse if it is a square room)....37% from a wall is a general well-accepted rule of thumb.