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How do you choose speaker location?

Over many apartments I have always put my speakers at the outer wall (window) and have them fire to the long axis of the apartment. And I end up sitting halfway/partway back (I have never sat at or near the furthest wall)
My usual way of starting to decide the distance is to measure the room and calculate the odd order fractions of the distance.
My current Magenpan speakers are 1/7 the total distance to the far walls, and 1/5 the distance to a wall hiding a pair of closets poking out between the entrance hall and the kitchen.. At 45" (average) speaker face to back wall. Average since the flat panels are angled.
I rotated them mainly to get the best (most!) bass response.

Anyway, with various schemes to locate speakers, including using Golden Ratio. etc..
What sort of scheme do YOU use to start placement?
(I naturally assume we all then adjust the speaker by ear a bit.)
elizabeth
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
Undoubtedly this thread will receive quite a few replies. There is no absolute "scheme", and given what you have stated it appears you already have a good understanding of placement.

In my case, "practical aesthetic" played a primary role and I tweaked placement from there. Even though I have a "dedicated listening room", it opens up to a "dedicated dining area" at the back, and the front has "dedicated double hung windows". :)
rpeluso
521 posts
 
I use the guide in the Vandersteen owner's manuals, they are all free on his web site if you want to take a look. Then one can tweak move, if desired.
brownsfan
1,238 posts
 
Elizabeth, as you know, Maggies are a different animal.  Less effected by first reflections from side walls, but they like a little space behind them since they are dipoles.  If you have not downloaded REW software (room equalization wizard) I suggest you do so.  It is much easier and quicker to optimize your speaker position for the flattest possible response in the clarity region (below 300 Hz).   I think you will find the long wall configuration with your chair out from the back wall to be the best option, but REW will help you optimize around that, and enable you to add some room treatments to further optimize.  I did this about a year ago in my listening room and it made an unbelievable difference. 
oranda
3 posts
 
Haven’t tried this personally, but found this suggestion for speaker placement interesting:

"RMAF14: High Fidelity Stereo - That’s not Natural! How to make it that way"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Pf0ycbyBM

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