Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

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.

 I agree that a wide variety of placements need to be tried in a specific listening environment.  I have done that!  Perhaps that's why it took me so long to find that exact correct placement in my space.  I followed the speaker manual's suggestions for placement, tried the "rule of thirds", tried locating speakers in the room's "power zone" etc.  

What helped me get to where I am now was keeping an ongoing record of all the locations I had tried.  I recorded exact measurements each time I moved the speakers and as things got worse, I would go back to a previous location and tweak from there.

Like I mentioned in the original post, I only know that I'm where I want to be because of the consistency of sound from an eclectic selection of music.  Each song from each source is just there in the room with all the various instruments sounding real or at least as real as any of us are capable of hearing through any form of electronic reproduction.  There is a dynamic ebb and flow to the music and truth of timbre that inform me that it is time now to just sit back and enjoy the music.  Hallelujah!

@jayctoy and @tomcarr   Congratulations!  It can be a long and very winding road, but when you find that pot of gold at the end, it is blissful.

Enjoy the music!

Thanks hifiman5! 
And congratulations to you too!
So true. That's what it's all about.

Tom