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Speaker positioning: why do audiophiles neglect this so much?

Went to a recent seminar featuring Jim Smith, well known author of the book  "Get Better Sound"  and hi fi set up guru.

The basic gist of the discussion was that the most important elements of a high end stereo installation are listening position and speaker positioning, in that order.  The actual hardware (speakers, amplifiers, source, cables etc) are of less importance relatively speaking.

Yet it is clear from this web site and it's contents, that set up is discussed much less than the actual hardware.

When I look at the Virtual Systems page on site, I'm estimating that, maybe, 10% of the systems posted are close to well set up.  Thus, hardly any of the featured hardware is performing close to it's maximum potential.

Shame, and why is it so?  Not sexy enough to talk about system set up in depth?  Lack of knowledge?  Or is it simply too hard to do and too complex a subject?

Just my 2 cents ...

bobbydd
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jji666
534 posts
 

Do the best you can and then enjoy the gear and the music. How do audiophiles sleep at night suspecting that their system is only 97% of what it could be? How can you stand it?

I guess that is Darwinism at play. The happy, satisfied tribe got wiped out by the angry tribe that took their nice river view. So the angry tribe propagated.

To answer the OP directly, it’s because room treatments is more like terraforming wherever you are stuck, and the angry tribe doesn’t want to terraform, they want what’s over the hill where the happy people live. And when they conquer that, there’s another hill with a happier tribe beyond. We could all use to be reprogrammed to be a little more satisfied and a little less "grass is greener."

Now I'm going to go back to swapping cables and installing my new gear...

secretguy
1,695 posts
 

Zzzzzzzzzz

bigbrox
26 posts
 

A sub-optimal system sounds better than a nagging wife.

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,179 posts
 

Positions matter for audiophiles too? Whoda thunk it.

holmz's avatar
holmz
2,328 posts
 

A lot of setups are in dual purpose rooms.

Systems in living spaces just aren’t going to have speakers pushed into the room as they should be to breathe.

Every time I set them up the Haus-boss will say that the sound is coming from behind the wall, or the sound is too spread out.
And secondly that the speakers are too far out into the room.

This is the curse of the domesticated male, in a domestic cave managed by the females of the species.

A compromise is… some marks on the floor and they come out occasionally,.. but stay they back most of the time.

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