Speaker placement

Newbee, the answer to your question is the XLO Test CD. The speaker placement track allows you to find the very best speaker locations in any room, independent of room dimensions, room acoustic treatments, if any, and type of speaker. Attempting to find the absolute best locations by ear is a pig in a poke because you can never really be sure you have actually found the best locations.

My speakers are like gypsies, they are never in the same place for very long.

Everytime I THINK I have found the sweet spot(Acoustat monitor X)I think I can do better and so I move them,a bit more forward, a bit further apart, a bit closer to the side walls, a bit more toe-in.

Then I move the chair back and forth,closer then further away from the speakers.

Nothing is really bad, and it's just one trade off for another.
You win in some areas and lose in others.

And did I say, it varies from recording to recording?

I do have some room tuning devices,which have helped,but when it comes to stats, the book is still out on a reflective or absortive wall behind the speakers.

So far spreading the room treatment out around the room seems to work,but that stuff is also in a gypsy state of mind.LEDE, been there done that, moved on.

Rules of thirds, Cardas measurements, tuning by ear, using test records,everything sounds decent, but still no definitive speaker placement.

My hat's off to anyone who feels that they have accomplished what I think is an almost impossible feat, at least with my speakers.

Boy does that ring a bell! I started with Acoustats then I moved on to Quad 63's (for better resolution) and did most every thing you mentioned including changing electronics, wires, etc. I spent over three years of my life(!) trying to tune them in. I'm a slow learner I think, but I finally gave up. I went back to boxes and the sun shone brightly again. A walk in the park in comparison! And I got to apply successfully all that I had learned. There is a Santa Claus. :-)

I guess I should clarify that I don't find the speaker placement issue a bad thing.

I've always appproached this hobby as a work in progress.
Here's one thing that I've done that's given me some help in arriving at where my speakers are now-more radically towed in.

I listen to headphones-AKG K702-Burson headphone amp-and then because they are almost like headphones, I place the Acoustats in my room to try and replicate that sound.

So far this has worked for me.

Interesting. I didn't try that with my Acoustats or Quads but I did angle them so that their backwave hit the sidewall behind the speaker as opposed to the backwall. Sort of diffused the backwave as it lengthened the on axis signal path. This created substantial toe in but the axis would have crossed behind my head. Now with boxes, I toe them in so that the axis crosses in front of me so I avoid a lot of sidewall issues which were not so much a problem with the Stats or Quads. So much to consider....:-)