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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"?
128x128hifiman5
ejr1953
917 posts
 
I feel everyone's pain, been there, done that, have the t-shirt with speaker positioning.
In my case I struggled integrating a new pair of speakers into a 24 x 26' room with pretty awful acoustics.  I got the speakers sounding really "dialed in", then had to start all over, after adding a pair of sub woofers.
The room added a single bass tone (no matter what notes the bass players were playing) that was about as loud as the sub woofers.  As I got the bass under control, eventually placing 10 bass traps around the room (with the help of REW and a calibration mic), I had to re position the main speakers to once-again get that "performer in the room" sound stage.
I eventually "got it" and have left well alone since then.
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5 OP
1,832 posts
 
@tomcarr   Those of us with dedicated listening spaces have a distinct advantage over those who have to integrate their stereo gear into a family living space.  Great kudos to those dedicated 'philes who find that perfect spot with great positioning restrictions.

I would be willing to bet that you treated all of the corners of your listening room to keep sound from concentrating/distorting there.
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5 OP
1,832 posts
 
@ejr1953   That's a big listening space!  I can relate to the one note bass problem as I had such a situation in our first house.  You went to much more heroic steps (10 bass traps) to get it under control.  I just looked at your system.  Great gear!  Adding the subwoofers really does change the way everything sounds.  It's not just about the deep bass they produce, it's about the sound of everything.  Glad to hear you had success in dialing everything in.

One question...How much of your system is running of the P10 regenerated power?
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,344 posts
 
Once I realized that speaker placement was perhaps the most easily and affordably addressed key to good sound, and started to get the hang of how to best tackle the issue, everything else became much easier and cheaper especially when I realized getting placement right is the key to making even less expensive speakers sound pretty good.

I run speakers concurrently in 6 rooms of my house currently (off two good quality source systems). Two pair could be had for <$100 used these days. The biggest/best list for $6500 these days. They are all only enjoyable and sound very good (within limitations of each). The big bad boys pretty much do it all.
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
@geoffkait it sounds great so far. Plants and I get along. 😉
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