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Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

So many audiophiles have commented that when your room treatment is completed, your electronics set up and tweaked and most importantly, your speakers are set up in your listening space correctly that you'll know it because everything just sounds so "right" and natural.  I just accomplished that feat in the last two weeks.  I say two weeks because I needed to play a wide variety of recordings to be sure that I'm there.  It is so great to have finally hit just the right set up.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it has taken me well over a year of experimentation to get to this point.  It's not that other placements yielded poor quality sound its just that now everything sounds like a live event (as much as any of our systems can).

I would really appreciate hearing about your journey to the promised land of audiophile/music lover bliss.  How long did it take, what were the most difficult aspects of the journey?  And if you have yet to get there, what do  you think is the "brick in your wall"?
hifiman5
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5 OP
1,611 posts
 
@wester17   Great job doing the work needed to find that ideal speaker location!  I kept measurements on notecards, you marked the physical location with tape.  Same idea, different implementation.

IMHO that is the key.  In whatever way appeals to you, keep track of where the speakers have been in your quest for the best.  It keeps you from trying failed locations tried in the search and hone in on that ideal spot.  For me the final trick was toe-in.  No kidding... I was adjusting it at 4mm. at a time until instruments locked into their positions within the soundspace with a smoothness of timbre and natural dynamics as heard at the listening seat.

The destination is worth the trip.
fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds
261 posts
 
 it's taken me a long time and a lot of listening and trying different ideas. But tonight I got a little closer, I used a tape measure. I realized I was 3/8 off on the toe in and I moved a bookcase back so as to adjust the angle of an absorption panel measured from the wall that extended it out an inch Furthur than the side that had better bloom.  Center image had been listing left lately. I guess I screwed it up when I tilted speakers back awhile ago. So much better. Lyrics are a lot easier to pick out and of course soundstage is equal. I had right side with nice bloom but vocals favoring left. Dual volume controls kept me  from getting on it, ie laziness. Sometimes you just want to listen to music but shite that wasn't hard at all in practical terms. 5 minutes. 

hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5 OP
1,611 posts
 
@fourwnds  Nicely done.  It is amazing what a relatively minor adjustment to speaker placement can do to lock in the sound!
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