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O.C.D. Speaker placement

How o.c.d. are you in speaker placement, and how important is it? I am o.c.d. in many aspects of my life including speaker placement. I've always enjoyed what is known as a formal balance (symmetrical design). So this is my dilemma: I have the distance of my speakers equal, within an 1/8", from the side and back walls, and they are also level side to side and front to back but the distance from the center of my listening position to the tweeters is different by somewhere between 1/2"-3/4". Does this even really matter?
I'm sure I'll get all kinds of jokes towards this question, but whatever. I figure there has to be some other o.c.d. people here considering all of the products aimed towards audiophiles, from footers to cable risers to c.d. and i.c. polishing kits.
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roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,977 posts
 
I can't imagine that it would make much difference, but I am wondering why your seating position cant be moved a bit to eliminate the problem.
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,686 posts
 
Why do people feel the need to inform the masses of their mental problems?
newbee
4,767 posts
 
Mismatched differences between your ears/speakers by an inch or less should make no significent difference. If it does your should pick it up in hearing a slight shift in the stereo imaging towards the speaker furthest way. But that is only with your head in a vise. Moving your head about, or shifting in your chair, will cause a greater shift than that.

Rather than concern yourself with such minor differences in distances, you might re-direct your energies in perfecting not only the direct sound, but the sound reflecting off the walls, ceiling, and floors. And fine tuning your toe in. Doing so will improve your sound much more and will certainly challenge your OCD problems. This can keep you busy fussing around for years.

FWIW, IMHO, Exact measurements in speaker/listening position set up can be useful in initial set up IF you just happen to know what measurements should be, but can also be detrimental. Exact measurements can cause a reinforcement of nulls and nodes which are potentially problematic.

Get OCD about your sound, not exact/balanced physical measurements.
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