Speakers too wide apart?

. I was immediately floored by how much better my system sounded. There was a naturalness that I never heard before. Soundstage depth also increased dramatically (which may not be saying much since before I had zero depth).

I keep saying it over and over and over and over and over and over and over - get those speakers far away from the side walls - at least 3 feet if you can!

If your "throne view" photo is anything to go by as to speaker placement then it is not surprising you were completely totally floored when you moved the speakers closer together.

Well done for making such a huge improvement ....at no cost to boot!

While it may vary somewhat with speaker design (dispersion), I believe most speakers will benefit from placement at least 3' from the sidewalls, measured to the HF driver. From my reading, it is desirable to have direct sound arrive at least 10 ms ahead of reflected sound to reduce muddiness and smearing. Fortunately, sound travels at approximately one foot per ms so this makes for an easy calculation. Using a tape measure, the distance from the speaker baffle to the prime listening spot (PLS) should be at least 10' less than from the baffle to the first reflection point on the sidewall and then to the PLS. From this you will see that sidewall distances greater than 3' may be even better.

If you have not read Richard Hardesty's "The Audio Perfectionist" site, he believes most systems are set up with speakers too far apart and that some form of isosceles triangle set up is best, not an equilateral triangle as we once believed.

moving your speakers closer together just changes the first relection point it is still there

fihigh, thank you for the kind words. My speaker are about 5ft 9inches apart measured from the center line of each speaker.

tvad, I do know the mirror trick. My problem is that I cant do anything about the first reflection point anyway since my system resides in the living room. I am not allowed to put up room treatments. I hope to my system into a small den which may not be ideal for my large speakers but I figure I can throw a bunch of room treatments at it and have it sound better than my large living room with no treatments.

shadorne, what can I say, I am pretty dense. It takes a few hundred repititions but I eventually get it. :) I have been lazy in the past to move my speakers because they are so heavy.

After listening to my system all morning I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the differences I am hearing:

1. The bass seems to be deeper. I have always had tight, punchy bass, but now it is sounds like my speakers are going lower. It is as if I added a sub (almost).

2. I am hearing more low level detail, like the exhaling of the singer and the shimmer of cymbals. Notes are also lingering much longer. I have always been a bug believer that a system needs to retrieve all the available detail in order to accurately convey the ambiance of the music, thus making it sound as "live" as possible.

3. The music has more weight and solidity to it. There is a fleshiness and dimensionality that I never had before (dare I say warmth?). This creates a more intimate music setting. Since I listen to mostly small ensemble, acoustic vocalists the recreation of an intimate is exactly what I prefer.

All I can say is that I am very happy. I have been playing cds that I am familiar with all morning and enjoying how wonderful the music sounds. I did not realize how detrimental 1st reflection points are.