Best Speaker Placement Rules you've used?

Don't forget the program for setting up specific brands of speakers in various sized rooms on the Rives site. I have found that it is a better starting point than Cardas but both are just starting points.

Its easy to get the initial triangle set up sounding good - its a totally different thing when you really get it perfected. That takes a lot of time and listening. Using the triangle as a basic configuration I like to get the bass down first, using a Radio Shack meter and a test disc. Once I've got the flattest bass I can get I start working on minimizing the effects of 1st reflections and getting diffusive materiels on the front and back walls. Then I start making small changes involving toe in, speaker/listening positions. Its taken as long as 3 months for me to really maximize a room set up. Be patient.

Cinematic Systems, Does this EFT devise measure things like width, height, and depth of image? Does it measure intensity of reflections from the rooms surfaces? Or does it just measure frequency response (not that that is a bad thing to do)?

Well width height and depth of image are a function of reflected energy which it does measure. So it can maximize the image your speaker system is capable of producing.

It will tell you how far your speakers are from the microphone, which can be very important, it will show a spectral decay plot and impulse response of your system and room which will help you find problematic reflections, vibrating objects etc.

It is extremely helpful for so little money.

It will rate your room acoustics versus RT standards and it does do frequency and phase.and many more things that you can read about on the website.

Click the link I provided in my 2nd post.

It will give you a visual tactile report your system's performance and "really" help you understand and solidify your system in a pretty short time.

Still use Cardas and Allison to get a starting point, but that's all they are is a good starting point.

Put them where they sound good.

Seriously.

Hi,

I used the Cardas style method as well, following Diagramm C. Mainly because my room is 10.5 x 17 ft, exactly in the golden ratio. It worked really well, although I thought the palcement looked ridiculaous at first.

Furthermore, here is a great free link to Ultimate AV website (Don't run away because of the V in the titel), which offers an Excel spreadsheat to calculate room modes. The sheat further calculates the frequency peaks and nulls at your listening position.

Excel calculation

All you need to do is enter your room dimensions and seating position and you get all the data you need. Nice way to play around with the seating position.

The programm also works for speaker placement since you want to avoid the speaker to sit a null point or maxima.

The interesting thing is: I took some measurements of my system/room a while ago using a corrected Radio Shack SPL meter, and I could see all the predicted "nulls" as little dips in the measured spectrum.

This is a really nice way of playing around and given my measurements it seems to work.

AND MOST IMPORTANT: Besides all this theory, don't forget to listen, your ears will tell you the best location. But the calculations might be a good starting point.

Enjoy!

Rene