Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

@dentdog Those fractions of an inch that you moved your speakers...I can relate to that. Actually that’s when I knew I was close. It was remarkable how much of a difference a fraction of an inch made especially as regards toe-in.

@kosst_amojan I bought those Walmart mattress pads too early on in my quest. An inexpensive way to experiment with room treatment!

@agriculturist I never used the Cardas info. from your link but I’m going to take a look at the different layouts to see if any fits my situation. (But I am NOT moving my speakers!)

@tomic601 Since your are not in a dedicated listening room, I imagine the EQ abilities and "Q" adjustments really helped you out.

Understand where you're coming from hifiman5. Eerily similar journey, just reached my Nirvana point a few months ago. Dedicated room, dedicated outlets, room treatments, microscopic movements of the speakers and the listening seat. Amazing. Sonic bliss. Can listen for hours without fatigue. Good recordings yield goosebumps. Very, very happy. So happy I can focus on music purchases instead of gear purchases. Feels incredible to get off the "upgrade train".
Thanks for sharing the post, and thanks for your honesty.

Tom

One thing I notice when I got my Andras correct placement , it’s like the speakers interact with each other, the way band are or orchestra, I feel the music the way  it intended for the listener...I neglected speakers placement, too busy finding the right cabling and tweaking...yes moving inches by inches did work for this kind of speakers... 

PS-

You asked how long did it take. Since I got into this hobby in 1975 and have never gotten results like I have now, I guess you could say it's taken me...42 YEARS. Obviously, a bit of exaggeration there, lots of systems, rooms, homes, wives, dogs and cats, kids.
Current system took about two years. I can only now say it's worth it.

Tom

Locating perfect speaker locations by ear is a fool’s errand since you can never know when you have actually found the perfect locations. You keep looking and looking and finally give up. First of all almost all speakers are too far apart. Not to mention why it takes two years to find the "perfect locations." 😛 And audiophiles wonder why they have a big old hole in the middle of their soundstage. Why do audiophiles think speakers have to be 9 feet apart and toed in to get a good soundstage?

Start with speakers fairly close together, let’s say 4 feet, and work out from there. Avoid toe in except as last resort. Oh, and instead of trial & error use the speaker placement track on the XLO Test CD. Trial and error is like trying to solve X simultaneous equations in X+n unknowns - you can only find local maximums. And the XLO track is much easier. That particular track is also invaluable for placing room acoustics thingamabobs. You should find that Tube Traps, for example, should sometimes be placed away from the room corner, sometimes maybe a foot or two away, it all depends. But it’s a game of inches. The standing wave isn’t always where you think it is.