Speaker Placement CD

@reubent "Lastly, what happens if you are unable to place you speakers in the optimal position due to extenuating circumstances such as WAF (not an issue for me in my man-cave) or finding that the optimal position is right in the middle of your foot traffic pattern?"

As I believe the loudspeaker-room interface represents the most important link in the audio chain, not siting the loudspeakers optimally negates so much of the money / components folks spend on their system. It’s much like focusing a lens. A less good lens focused properly presents a much better view than a much better lens out of focus

@trelja - Trust me, I understand that if I do not use the optimal position, I will get sub-optimal results. Unfortunately, I am somewhat limited in speaker placement in the room I'm using. I am limited to one particular wall on which to place the speakers and system due to physical limitations of this room in my basement.

That said, I don't really have any restrictions where the speakers go along that wall. I've got nearly was much width, depth and height as I need, along that particular wall.

I guess my questions regarding the speaker placement CDs, like XLO, are:

1). "Does the placement CD tell you exactly in the room the speakers should be placed"
2). "Does it start from scratch and tell you where to place the first speaker"
3). "Does the speaker placement CD tell you where to place the second speaker, relative to the first speaker"?

If I can place one speaker in approximately the position where I want it to reside, will the CD help me place the second speaker to best compliment the first speaker? I would think this is how it works because my understanding is, that when using the CD, everything falls into phase (sounds correct) when the second speaker is moved into the correct position, relative to the first speaker.

Thanks for your comments and any additional insights........

reubent
That said, I don’t really have any restrictions where the speakers go along that wall. I’ve got nearly was much width, depth and height as I need, along that particular wall.

I guess my questions regarding the speaker placement CDs, like XLO, are:

1). "Does the placement CD tell you exactly in the room the speakers should be placed"

>>>>>The CD explains how to move the speakers a little at a time starting from the initial locations about 4 feet apart. You have to start somewhere. The XLO CD does not tell you which wall or how far from the wall to start. The better the room is treated, the better you will hear the best locations where the sound is the most diffuse on the out of phase track - which occurs when the speaker locations are the absolute best. You want the voice on the XLO track to sound like it’s coming at you from all around your room with no particular direction.

2). "Does it start from scratch and tell you where to place the first speaker"

>>>>>No, it only tells you to start with the speakers closer than you might think. Then move them outward slowly, a little at a time. You should also experiment with speaker distance from the wall. No one said it was easy. 😬

3). "Does the speaker placement CD tell you where to place the second speaker, relative to the first speaker"?

>>>>>>Yes. The second speaker should be placed 4 feet from the first speaker initially. As I recall it doesn’t tell you the initial distance from the wall or which wall.

@geoffkait - Thank you for taking the time to respond. You explained exactly what I wanted to know about the XLO CD speaker placement process. Most appreciated.........

If you are unsure where to start at all, besides the 4ft apart recommendation, maybe start with some cardas or other ratio math placement based on your room dimensions. Then implement the CD.