A Very Narrow Listening Room

The Cardas formula is worth a shot.
SEE BELOW:

Speaker placement, simply stated

The distance from the center of the woofer face to the side walls is:

Room Width times .276 (RW x .276)
The distance from the center of the woofer face to the wall behind the speaker is:

Room Width times .447 (RW x .447)
This is all you need to know to place speakers in a symmetrical, rectangular room!

WEBSITE HERE:
http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=Room+Setup

Just a thought... I wonder if electrostatics might work well (e.g. Quads) as they have nearly no side wall issues and you could put them close to the walls. Since you have plenty of length, you could move them well out into the room. If modes are an issue, is one of the end walls blank? The idea of building a closet, or even built-in storage cabinets on one end of the room is not bad. With my Quads, I've built diffusors on the front wall, to tame the back wave from the quads without losing its energy. What are other's thoughts on this idea?

Place each spkr ~2,4 from its adjacent side wall (that's woofer centre to side wall). This is a starting for narrow, long rooms with spkrs firing down the long side.

Best, however, is to FIRST determine the distance fm the back wall. Move one spkr into the room & check the midbass energy -- I expect this to be b/ween 5-7' into the room. WHen that's OK, fine tune to achieve clarity in the upper bass/bass region. Then place the spkrs relative to side walls.

The trick for knowing when you have good placement is when you feel energy in the music. Then minor adjustments make a major sonic difference.

REMEMBER, being so close to side wall will require toe-in to avoid 1st reflections as much as possible.

Brilliant. Thanks to everyone for your help.

I've actually plotted my speaker placement with help from the Cardis site. It's looking like 2.5 ft. from the side walls and 4.25 from the back (approx.). My listening chair for critical listening will be around 5 feet from the speakers. The back wall (behind the speakers) is scheduled to be empty, with the exception of a large 1 inch thick canvas drawing of Beethoven in the middle, and two equipment racks on the floor. There is shelving planned along the left and right walls, beginning about 1 foot away from the speakers. The other end of the room will be used for a work area for cleaning and cataloging vinyl and maybe a loveseat in case anyone visits. I'm planning to allow for room treatment (traps, corner busters, etc.) in my overall budget.

Also in the budget will be money for new equipment. At the moment I'm using a Creek 5350 SE / Totem Model 1 combination. I was thinking of a Unison 140-watt intergrated with Von Schweikert VR4-jr's as a possible combination, if I can tame the low end. Am I way off "bass" here ?

I haven't thought of Quads or electrostats. I used to have a pair of Acoustat Model 1s that I loved! Can I get them far enough apart in my narrow room? For that matter, can I get ANY pair of speakers far enough apart?. I love the Totems but occasionally I listen to music where I feel I'm really missing the bass. I using a Hsu Reserch sub with the Totems, but they never seem to fully intergrate with the Model 1s.

The Excaliber / mono is a thought. Could they sell me just one? Can't quite swing the 325K for the pair, unless someone here could buy the one I'll have left over (kidding of course).