Speaker shootout question -- do you position the same or differently, depending?

Put each where they sound best to fairly evaluate and remember that where they fall in your room will be one factor in deciding which to purchase.

FWIW, "roughly" optimal position is not an oxymoron. We can call it "nearly optimal" if you prefer. The point is that if one is using REW for SPL and Impulse, there are various levels of precision one can get -- within 8 db, at this or that frequency, or this level of smearing reflections above -20 db. If you have not used REW, you don’t know what I mean, but when one is trying to make sure "most of the notes" are there -- and not too "peaky" AND one is trying to avoid a level of reflection which would damage the accuracy of sound stage imaging, there are any number of compromises and different degrees of accuracy one could accept in order to go back to listening. It’s an iterative process - listen, measure, listen again.

So, you can see that I’m not in the "walking around the room, clapping" camp, nor am I in the "optimal is simply one thing" camp. This is a complicated, iterative, measuring-and-listening process -- even for one speaker -- so adding a second speaker in, of a different kind (tower not stand mount) makes it even more complicated.

And please don’t tell me I’m over-complicating it. You can say, "That’s too complicated for me" if you wish. But I hear the results of this process and they exceed by a large margin trial and error.

rbstenho -- I can position things in many places. My WAF is that she wants me do what I want. But I'm curious what others do when the are bound by a more constrictive arrangement, just in case I decide to move to a room that has more limitations.

((((I set my speakers equal distance from the rear and side wall )))

Maxboy,

 This advice is taboo in most well written speaker manuals

 never do equal front and side walls.

 The room nodes will ring like a tuning fork or a cow mooing.

 Best,

JohnnyR

"Optimally," one would position each speaker at its "optimal" location (quotation marks because optimality will always be a compromise of one sort or another), and have only that speaker in the room. Then live with that speaker for a week or more before switching. BUT: this precludes any rapid A/B or A/B/X testing.

What I've done (and I've done this a lot; it's fun!) is to position two sets speakers of similar type (and so, similar placement needs) next to one another, and switch back and forth by switching the cables; if I could do this with a remote from the sweet spot, I would. This gives me a sense of which speaker I prefer. THEN I set that speaker up "optimally" for a longer listen. If I'm still uncertain of my preference, I do the same with the competitor.

this is a really good thread to have alive and running on this board

should be one going all the time, as many if not most relative newbies come here focusing too much on the equipment, rather than how the equipment interacts with their room