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Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

So many audiophiles have commented that when your room treatment is completed, your electronics set up and tweaked and most importantly, your speakers are set up in your listening space correctly that you'll know it because everything just sounds so "right" and natural.  I just accomplished that feat in the last two weeks.  I say two weeks because I needed to play a wide variety of recordings to be sure that I'm there.  It is so great to have finally hit just the right set up.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it has taken me well over a year of experimentation to get to this point.  It's not that other placements yielded poor quality sound its just that now everything sounds like a live event (as much as any of our systems can).

I would really appreciate hearing about your journey to the promised land of audiophile/music lover bliss.  How long did it take, what were the most difficult aspects of the journey?  And if you have yet to get there, what do  you think is the "brick in your wall"?
128x128hifiman5
soma70
153 posts
 
My system really only came together after I had dealt with first and second reflection points  and then positioned the speakers straight ahead with no toe in.
A nice way to test speaker placement is to use Roger Waters album Amused to Death and the track Too Much Rope. Its recorded in QSound so that some of the voices and sound effects can come from far left and right through a full 180 degrees. Spooky!  Also Vogue by Madonna has the same QSound effects but you might need a few beers for that one first! 
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5 OP
1,832 posts
 
@soma70 That’s a great idea! I use an SACD of Clark Terry’s "Portraits" album. The trumpet images outside the right speaker with good setup and the piano images outside the left speaker. If I’m not hearing that I know I’m not there yet.
wester17
70 posts
 
I spent months trying to find the sweet spot for placement of my speakers. During that time, the floor was covered with numbered pieces of masking tape. What a sight! Not exactly what my wife had in mind for her décor. In the end, it was an effort well rewarded. The masking tape is now gone, and I’m enjoying audiophonic and marital bliss!

hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5 OP
1,832 posts
 
@wester17   Great job doing the work needed to find that ideal speaker location!  I kept measurements on notecards, you marked the physical location with tape.  Same idea, different implementation.

IMHO that is the key.  In whatever way appeals to you, keep track of where the speakers have been in your quest for the best.  It keeps you from trying failed locations tried in the search and hone in on that ideal spot.  For me the final trick was toe-in.  No kidding... I was adjusting it at 4mm. at a time until instruments locked into their positions within the soundspace with a smoothness of timbre and natural dynamics as heard at the listening seat.

The destination is worth the trip.
fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds
277 posts
 
 it's taken me a long time and a lot of listening and trying different ideas. But tonight I got a little closer, I used a tape measure. I realized I was 3/8 off on the toe in and I moved a bookcase back so as to adjust the angle of an absorption panel measured from the wall that extended it out an inch Furthur than the side that had better bloom.  Center image had been listing left lately. I guess I screwed it up when I tilted speakers back awhile ago. So much better. Lyrics are a lot easier to pick out and of course soundstage is equal. I had right side with nice bloom but vocals favoring left. Dual volume controls kept me  from getting on it, ie laziness. Sometimes you just want to listen to music but shite that wasn't hard at all in practical terms. 5 minutes. 

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