Listening distance

6 foot triangle. I use a single driver with a tweeter. The imaging is very good.
There Are many factors that dictate the distance of listening. The room is the biggest factor to consider.
Speaker hight and how many drivers is another.

I move my listening position back and forth depending on many things. I believe that fixed position is always a more or less acceptable compromise; it doesn't appear to be the best approach.

Inna, I don't understand what you mean by a fixed position is an exceptable compromise.
But moving around is not a compromise ?
Once you get your speakers positioned in the best possible place in the room, then get your seating in the best possible position in the room, how can that be a compromise ?
We all know that everything in this hobby has some form of compromise. But floating around your listening position is not going to give you stability.
Just my opinion of course.

Since stereo reproduction is a psychoacoustical phenomenon, I tend to move forward and back by around a foot while listening depending on the recording. My thought is that the perceived soundstage for any given recording is dictated by the person who was originally twiddling the knobs, and that individual's setup (distance from monitors, toe-in angle, nature of control room acoustic, their hearing and personal taste) all have an effect as to how and where the soundstage unfolds upon reproduction.

For a point of reference however, I tend to use a mono recording to 'set' where the listening distance ought to be for my room and system, other times I'll use pink noise.

Either way, a good system (and room) should be able to present a satisfying presentation without necessitating the proverbial "head in a vice". Just a thought.

I chimed in with the 83% formula on the last thread not as a rule but as something that has worked for me in several past set ups and is providing good results in my current listening room and system. Interestingly, I was at a friends yesterday and we installed some outriggers on his PSB Synchrony One's. I brought along Jim Smith's "Get Better Sound" and explained to him how the 83% formula was designed to work and that he may want to consider moving his listening position accordingly. We put the outriggers on the speakers and did some listening in the usual location--with the speakers 86" apart and a ear to speaker distance of approximately 14 feet. We had already calculated the "correct" listening distance using the 83% formula (I believe it was around 103") and had made a mark on the carpet at this spot. We listened to several tracks in the original position and then moved the chair forward to the 103" mark. The effect was quite pronouced. The sound became much more present, evenly balanced and coherent when listening from the closer position. We both moved back and forth a few times to experiment and confirmed that the sound was noticably better using the 83% formula. The funny thing about all this was that my friends 22 year old son has always moved the furniture around to sit in the exact spot (103") where the system sounded the best. Dad kept telling him he was sitting too close and needed to move back but the kid insisted on sitting front and center. Sometimes we can learn things from people who are not audiophiles and therefore bring few preconceptions to listening to music via a stereo system. The kid figured out where to sit by trusting his ears!