vair68robert...
I sit approximately 12 feet away when listening in a very tough room acoustically - the left speaker is about 5 feet from a sidewall, the right about 13 feet from a sidewall. At its apex from left to right the ceiling is 17 feet high. Hard floor, hard walls, very little furniture - quite a bright space, which is fine with me. I like "bright" over bass any day of the week. I " forgive" a great deal from my setup because having tried other configurations over the years, where it's placed now is both aesthetically and sonically acceptable.
I've tried going along the longest wall but found I didn't like sitting to so close to the speakers which was about 6-8 feet doing that. That also had my setup directly in front of the baseboard heater, a large window, where the Christmas tree goes every year...the Thiels are just too damn heavy to monkey around even once or twice a year. The 3.5's were 70 pounds apiece,
the 3.6's are 108 pounds apiece. It's a pain in the ass to swap out cables on them as the connects are on the bottom. My sixty year old bones are becoming less tolerant of the labor involved.
I hold an altogether unscientific and unwarranted theory that music needs "air" to sound right, or good, or whatever. I was never a headphone guy. Within my limited scope of speakers that make the "air" concept right, it's been Thiel and Magnepan that impress me or, at the very least, meet my unscientific/unwarranted theory's parameters. I don't know a mosfet from a misfit, but I know what sounds good to me. And what looks good in my living space. In a different house, with a dedicated room, things might be different. For now and the foreseeable future, nuh uh.
Besides, with the 17 foot high ceiling and the pretty open space I have, the "other room" theory has been proven true. (Walk into another room and see how things sound) I cook a lot on weekends so I'm off in the kitchen listening for hours on end. Things sound so good from there that I often walk back into the living room to better appreciate a tune or two. Only Thiel and Magnepan have managed to do that well for me. So well in fact that I've burned a few recipes over the years returning to the living room.
I also subscribe to the theory that short cable runs are better. I currently use 8 foot Transparent cables on the 3.6's which have a lot of slack. I previously had MF monoblocks with very short runs and I liked that. Just makes sense, methinks. I'm so bored today that I'm going to measure what I need and get a custom pair of cables made to eradicate the spaghetti strands behind my rack. Drives me batsh*t.
PS: The REL T7 sub I bought a while back is getting less and less use now that the BAT integrated is shaking hands with the 3.6's. At very low volume I continue to employ it just to "round" things out.
Works for me.
