How far away from your speakers are you?

Okay so first you build the room....

There's no way I can measure the distance exactly, but my head is a couple inches past 7' from the speakers.  I did my share of experimenting/auditioning, too, before I settled on that distance.  And this five+ decade audiophile continues to be a happy guy on the hifi front.

850 miles. 

We could measure this. But why?

Every room has areas where frequencies reinforce and areas where they cancel. Every speaker has its own individual frequency response. What matters is where in the room the response of the speakers combines with the response of the room to result in a fairly smooth response where you sit when you listen.

That’s one thing that matters. But not the only one. For imaging the speakers must also be precisely equidistant to the listener. There is also the timing of first reflections to consider. There is also a balance of direct to reflected sound.
Even in a dedicated room there are reflections from the components themselves. It might seem like a dedicated room means no compromises. Let me assure you, there is no such thing as no compromises! Its all compromises!

How far am I from my speakers? Check this out. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 The last picture in the series is me measuring one corner of one speaker. Three corners of both speakers are done like this because once having spent days and days fine tuning with SPL meter and by ear the last thing I want is to ever have to go through all that again. So the tape is marked and they can be replaced precisely again and again. Because that’s how critically important precise speaker placement is to obtaining the kind of killer sound I crave.

How far am I from those speakers? I haven’t the foggiest. Look this system over. Read the comments. Think of it. This guy has no clue how far to the speakers. Don’t know how far away. Don’t know how far apart.

That right there should tell you everything you need to know about how important that one is.

@steve59 , bet they sound great.

funny how the chair never moves...

The Leica and or Bosch laser measures are simple, efficient

The A-26 is a lovely speaker, set a baseline w measurements and then experiment.

enjoy the music.

I started off with the rule of 1/3's and adjusted from there.

ozzy

About 9 feet dead center of speakers.Toed in a wee bit facing me on the couch.
microfibre couch absorbs any thing else getting past my ears.

 Sounds great to me.

4 and half feet from the back wall. My room is 10 feet wide and 16 feet long. More o less according with Mr. Cardas method. Works fine for me.

16 feet from your speakers and only 8 feet apart !

8 feet apart and 8 feet to my ears , an equilateral triangle ,
39" from front and 30.5 from the wall , not perfect but close to the
Cardas method .

short answer, about 35' and two walls.:-)

But my primary listening seat is about 12' from the speakers, which are about 10' apart, 4' from the built-ins, which total 2' from the back wall.  There's another 7-10 feet behind the listening chairs.  Phenomenal sound stage and bass extension (also: big speakers). When i say this i mean compared to the same speakers before i had a dedicated room, and to what i most often hear elsewhere.  Yes, its very dependent on being in the center sat for a true image.

Room is slightly irregular but overall think 18' x 25', less wall depths.  As i add more and more vinyl and brick-a-brack to the various cabinets the (relatively new) room is becoming deader and therefore better.

Slight toe-in, essentially each speaker aimed just outboard of the (wide) center chair's arms.

G

@steve59 Geez how powerful is your amplifier?!?

600 miles, I sold them to a guy in Michigan.

I use the standard of 1/3 the length of the room to place the speakers from the front wall. My dedicated room is 21x15 and my speakers are 7’ out from the front wall. Then I used Jim Smiths recommendation of sitting 120% (+ or -) of the width of the speakers to the listening position. I used these Dimensions to start and then moved the speakers/chair, speaker toe in, to fine tune. 

Jim Smith book is excellent BTW..used copies are available..

Based on my room constrictions I've places my Maggie's 44" from the wall, 96" apart and 144" from my listening position. They are slightly toed in. Ideally I would like a larger room, but all in all it sounds pretty darn good

Speakers (Maggies) 6' from Front Wall. 7' Center to Center. 10' to Chair. Chair 4' from Back Wall. Toe to about 2' outside of shoulders. Measured with Tape. Sub 10 O'clock 4' outside of Left Front & level, and the other Sub 3 O'Clock. On right wall. Have another 20x14 Open space that adjoins with half wall and allows bass to escape. Still enjoy cutting lights off and tripping on the image.

About 10 feet. Speakers wall mounted just above head hight

I put them were they sound the best. With my Vandersteen’s, Richard supplies a chart and guidelines with various locations per your room and set-up. For the most part, I’m close to those recommendations. I have roughly a 12’-4” x 17’-6” room, the speakers on the short wall on either side of the fireplace, (I have diffusion panels over the fireplace opening when not in use), 3’ into the room (front face), about 3’-8” (inside face) from the side walls. About 9’ from my listening position.
I tweak them occasionally (can’t stop myself sometimes, but then usually get put back on the prior marks), but they remain in that general position. 

But really, it’s where they sound best to me (and goodness knows I’ve tried many locations) provide the best soundstage width and depth (very important to me) and imaging between and beyond. But of course, we can’t fix poorly recorded albums. 

I’m single, it’s my living room, so can and will do what I want, within reason. As an architectural designer, of course I think of aesthetics as well, but the sound over-rides what may offend others.

I listen to my neighbor's corner horns. He lives two houses away.

I put them where they would not be in the way, about 20-30cm from the wall and maybe 2 m between their tweeters. If I ever sat down to listen to them, it would be at about 2 m from each speaker. However, I virtually never do it. I do not think I turned them on in weeks.

The speaker I really listen to is a Bluetooth speaker. Wherever it fits at that moment.

I have been positioning my speakers using this CD. It is available on Spotify.  https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/5456/Chesky_Records-Gold_Stereo__Surround_Sound_Set-Up_Disks-CD

My room is 16' x 22' feet with roof on shorter side 8' high and taller side 12' high. Then the kitchen also opens up to the listening area adding an additional 20' in length. It was a challenge setting up my Thiel 3.6 speakers with Mark Levinson 23.5 amp.

Speakers are 3' from the front wall firing straight into the listening area (no toe-in). Right speaker is 3' from the wall on shorter side of the roof and left speaker is 5' from the wall on taller side of the roof. Speakers are 8' apart. My listening chair is 10' from the midway point between the speakers.

Thiel speakers use first-order cross over networks and drivers are vertically aligned so that direct sound waves from the three drivers arrive at listening position at the same time. Thiel 3.6 user manual says chair should be at least 8' from the speakers for this to happen.

This arrangement can work perfectly for only one listening position. However, because the drivers are positioned in a vertical line the error introduced by a listener to the side of the speaker is very small. Also, because the driver spacing is small compared to the wavelength at the crossover frequency, the error introduced by changes in listener height are small within the range of normal seated listening heights provided the listener is 8 feet or more from the speakers."

When I am seated comfortably, my ears are approximately 36" from the floor, same as the height to a point between the mid-range driver and the tweeter. Both the distance and height are critically important when you have time and phase coherent speakers.

Some listeners find Thiel speakers to be harsh and bright. Several factors contribute to this perception/experience. First, you need a muscle amp to drive these babies. Your amp must have enough current to bring life to Thiel speakers. Second, the distance to the listening position. If you have toed-in these speakers and seated less that 8' away, you are basically hurting your ear drums. Whether you toed-in or not, your listening chair must be at least 8' away. You need to play with this.


Third, listening height. If your ears are above the level of the tweeter axis, then these speakers will sound bright. You may have some flexibility with listening height with Thiel speakers using coaxial drivers (ex: Theil 3.7).


We all spend money on audio gear and there is the bug that keep pushing you for upgrades. Bit you can get lot more from your system by playing with speaker placement and folks that cost you nothing.

I sit 8 feet away. Speakers are 7 1/2 feet apart, 2 1/2 feet from sidewalls, 3 feet from front wall. I sit 3 1/2 feet from the back wall. Speakers slightly toed-in.  
I should add that I level my speakers and they are almost identically placed with regards to distance to the side and front walls.  Makes my ocd happy!

Very close.
First name basis.

You can sit in one space for years.  And then get the idea
of moving just an inch or two closer to the speakers.
And everything changes, magically.

My speakers are 16’ apart and I sit on the couch between them or stand about 10’ in front of them. This is condo/wife/practicality. It soundstages flat as a pancake but images are well defined, recording dependent. Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s a master at grabbing hold of music and making me dance. Counterintuitively the quality of the gear is super critical because of the distancing. My previous Vandersteen 3A Sigs with Ayre amp and ARC Ref 3 pre could not even create a well defined center image and showed just how mid-fi that combo was.

My speakers and I form an equilateral triangle. They are 9.5’ apart, center to center with toe-in directly at me. I sit 9.5’ from them.
The front baffles are 4’ from the front wall.
Check out my system pics to see.

Mine are about 5 feet from side walls, 3 feet from back of speaker to wall, speakers are angled in so I can just see the inner sides of speakers, It's been awhile since I measured how far they are apart but my sitting position is roughly the same distance as the speakers are apart. It is so system dependent if I'm using my Quads they sound best with just a slight bit of toe in, pretty much all my other speakers I use the current toe in where I can barley see the inner side of the speaker. 

There are formulas for speaker placement.  I thing audience or audio physics has this information on their website.

Happy Listening.

83 inch equilateral triangle .
Believe  or not, just got new speakers , set them up for 83 by eye , got my tape out to get exact , I had hit 83 exact by eye .
Must be my 50 years of doing it !

A Dead Head wife with her own substantial LP collection who understood and enjoyed audio prior to our marriage and an invaluable partner in setting up and furnishing. 

Very close to Golden Ratio for speaker placement with very slight toe in as per manufacturer suggestions. 
Used the mobility of an office chair to fine tune seating position.
Crawl Test method to locate two subwoofers. 

Home theater in a separate room using perfect circle and uniform tweeter hight for 7.1 to locate six of the seven identical speakers.
Crawl tested the subwoofer location in the mode nearest the listening position. 

At the moment following CDC directive-- 6 ft away. 

My listening room is the garage simply because I spend a lot time outside. I have a nice private space here for me, my system and my CBR 600 which is parked between (nice visual) the speakers The first pair of speakers are 7' apart second pair are next to them and 11' from the futon I relax on.I greatly enjoy the sound and the solitude .....and some of the neighbor's must enjoy it as I have on many occasion been asked to "turn it up I like that song!".

How are you guys measuring?

From ear to front baffle of speaker?

From general seating distance to front baffle of speaker?

From either of those to the plane of the speakers?

7-8 ft. from your ear to the drivers is VERY close. Not many speakers are coherent enough to pull that off. I think most of you are farther away than you think.

Oz

I measure from my ear to the front of the speaker using a laser measure (actually my bass driver, probably, as my laser goes through the Vandy 'sock').

I thought at 8’-9’ was close as well, but am surprised how many others listen from that distance, or closer.

I don’t have much flexibility, and attempt to sit as far away as possible, while also pulling them out to achieve the best sound.

I’ve always wanted to explore Maggies, but just don’t think I have the room unfortunatley.

I would Google master setting speakers.  Not sure where you live, but find a dealer who specializes in this.  Soundings here in Denver is one of the best in the country.

I have copied and pasted an article to help you.  Soundings demonstrated this in their listening room and it is amazing.  After the master set you can sit in any part of your room and not detect left and right front speaker.  

This is a very tedious process and it can take hours.  Little movements 1/8" movements takes a long time. 

I literally took a tape measure and measure the distances to my ears and then set that distance in my ARCAM AVR 550 receiver.  I then calibrated my pair REL S2 SHO subwoofers until they were seemless.  You will be amazed by the difference in sound staging.  This helps to balance the bass so it is not boomy. 

The Needed Tools:
The only items needed to perform Master Set are your ears, a setup recording, a tape .measure, and a small level. Master Set can be performed by one or two persons.

The Set Up Recording:
Ballad of a Runaway Horse by Jennifer Warnes:
You can find this song on Jennifer Warnes – Famous Blue Raincoat, 20th Anniversary Edition, or Rob Wasserman – Duets, or Trios
This song works because of its simplicity and the steadiness of the voice line and the bass line, especially the bass line.
Other recordings could be used provided that they have a simple steady bass line that is easy to hear. I’ve found the above song to work best.

Initial Set Up
Remove any bass traps and other room treatments that you may have in the room and turn off the subwoofer, if you have one.
Set the speakers against the rear wall, and perpendicular to it. Speakers should be as far apart as reasonable. Important considerations are to keep speakers 2 to 3 feet away from side walls, and for the listener to be at the point of an equilateral triangle with the speakers. You can measure the dimensions with a tape measure or just make them approximate.
NOTE: Master Set works best if done along the long wall of the listening room, as that best mitigates room reflections, however it can be done along the short wall if necessary. For the first DIY attempt, try and use the long wall.
Because the speakers will be physically moved, it is best to remove any speaker spikes at this time so as to facilitate moving the speaker or stand.
I have found it helpful to use a tape measure laid out perpendicular from the wall when making the speaker movements. The movements need to be kept small and the best way to do this is with the tape measure as a reference otherwise the movements tend to be too large.

Be Patient. Master Set will likely take you from 1 to 3 hours. The movements are small, and at first go it may be a bit hard to hear the differences that I have described. But just keep at it. You can email me if you have questions or difficulty in the procedures.

Step 1: Setting the “anchor” speaker
This step sets one of the speakers as an “anchor” in the room. Either speaker will do. This step also has the goal of finding the smoothest bass response in the room.
First, just listen to the song, and notice the strong steady bass line in the first 2 verses. There are 19 notes in each verse, though the 2nd verse does have some extra 8th notes added. Listen carefully and notice that some of the bass notes have a “plonky” and/or exaggerated sound character. In this step you will be searching for the spot that will smooth out this “plonky” character of the note as it resonates in the room.

With both speakers playing, move the speaker out from wall about 6 inches and toe in the speaker directly to the listening position. Notice as the sound moves from being centered to this side. Continue to move the speaker out in small increments, ½” or so, until the sound is totally from this one speaker. Mark, or make note, of this spot.

Now, continue to move this speaker out from the wall in very small increments, 1/8th” or 2-3mm., and listen to the first 2 verses of the song. You are listening for any difference in the bass response of the 19 notes. Continue these small movements until you find a slight lessening in the bass resonance character. There may be more than one spot where this can occur. However, for keeping this simple, just find the first spot that smoothes out the bass. You may wish to make another very very small movement or two from this spot to find the very best spot.

Note: if you are having trouble discerning any difference in the bass with both speakers playing, you may wish to disconnect the speaker set against the wall temporarily, in order to better hear any bass differences. However it’s best to keep both speakers playing.
If you move the one speaker out too far into the room the sound will reconnect with the speaker against the wall, and move back to the center. You do not want this to occur.
It is important to find the best bass in the zone where all sound comes from just the one speaker. That will keep this setting independent from the other speaker when you move the other speaker out into the matching position!

Once the smoothest bass response has been found you can set this speaker into a “final” position and level it. This speaker is now “anchored”, and will not be moved again during the procedure.

Step 2: Setting the other speaker.
This step will move the other speaker into place and be adjusted to match the sound pressure of the “anchor” speaker. Move the speaker out from the wall about 6 inches, toeing the speaker directly in to the listening position. Now begin moving the speaker out at very small increments, no more than 1/8th in. or 2-3 mm. at a time, and only listen to the bass line. Continue to move the speaker out at these small increments until you hear a lessening of the bass resonances. Once you find a lessening in the bass make a small movement or two of 1/16th in, or 1-2 mm. and listen for the best response. You will also tend to notice that all of the music tends to smooth out and become much more clean and clear sounding as the two speakers equalize.
NOTE: You may be able to feel the bass resonance in your feet. This makes finding the best bass spot quite easy as the resonance will disappear in your feet.

You have now found the placement spot where the speakers are equally pressurizing the room. This is what you are looking for, and essentially you are done with Master Set.

Step 3: You can tweak the midrange setting at this point by varying the toe in of the speaker by toeing out in 1/16th increments. My own experience is that I have never found any real difference in midrange sound from this procedure.
Also, you can raise the front of the speaker a couple of degrees. This is known as adjusting the rake angle, and I have found this to be a good effect. Set the speaker permanently and level it.

Finalizing:
Now, move to several positions in the room and listen. Notice if the sound stays the same in any location. If there is some movement of the sound as you move around the room, you will have to reposition the second speaker slightly.
If you’ve done Master Set correctly, the sound will be the same from any listening position in the room as long as you are out a couple feet from a wall. The music will only change in perspective, such as if you move around in a concert venue.
In my current listening room my favored seat is on a perpendicular axis with the right speaker, yet the music is perfectly centered between the two speakers.

Final Comments
The sound you obtain with Master Set should have a perfect left-right stereo image with very clean clear instrumental and vocal sounds.
Listen first to your most favorite songs and recordings and notice how they now sound.
If you have any room treatments or bass traps, you may return them to the room at this time, and note any if there is any change.
Turn the subwoofer back on. You may have to turn it down slightly or reposition it as you will likely hear some bass resonance from the sub. I just turned mine down a bit.

If you are pleased with the sound, then you have found something new.
If not, you can always return to your previous setup, having only spent some time and nothing else.

Room and WAF dominant factors.  Cat plays a roll too.  Room 17x12x9.  Speakers ~ 14.5 ft from ears, 2 ft from side walls, 1.5 ft from front wall, 7 ft apart.  Room is  partially open on side walls, eliminating much of 1st reflection point to the side.  Nothing I can do about ceiling and floor reflections, as the cat pisses on any rug placed in the room.  Shockingly, it sounds pretty good.  Voices dead solid in the center, stage width wider than speakers.

When the shock of last few purchases stops reverberating on the WAF, and I can again spend to influence the sound, some white GIK panels will go on ceiling at FRP.  And some GIK art - Euro vacation pic - will go behind me on back wall, so I don't always have to use the couch to limit those reflections.  That will get my ears back up toward tweeter level, which is unfortunately immobile.

Not that I dislike lounging on the couch with a sound-enhancing bit of Kentucky's finest.  Also, don't mind bending to the WAF - she's more stunning than any stereo image could ever be, and brings my refreshments to the couch.  For a few years I used Bose cubes to make her happy - man hath no greater love, almost!

Perks of being single:

Speakers are 4 feet from front wall.
Never ask to listen to music.
Play whatever I want at whatever volume I want.
Never ask to buy any equipment.
Never have to lie or schedule deliveries of new equipment.
No one ever nagging me about audio or anything else for that matter.
Never worry about someone taking my system or needing to sell my system for extra cash when the divorce happens.

Devilboy, good for you, and happy listening.  I will add, without hesitation, never get a $%^ing cat!

@wormtosser , LMFAO!

Devilboy,
I have been married 14 years and all that applies to me too.

Except for that last one, and I hope I never have to test that one........

Oz

@ozzy62 , for your sake, I hope so too.

This lady’s work might inspire the WAF.

http://www.stereounlimited.com

To say my listening room is less than ideal, is an understatement.

However, we do the best we can!

Speakers are set up in a 11X18 room using the Fibonacci Progression method, as outlined on Cardas site.

I'm sitting approx 6' from my Cornwalls.

They are elevated by 2" (On street hockey balls)

Toed in and tilted back by 1 degree.

Might as well be wearing headphones I know, but it does sound fantastic :)

Cornwall's were never meant to be used as near field listening I suspect...

They have had extensive internal bracing done, some added poly and bass port mods and some damping of the horns which have been coated with spray foam insulation.

Far enough away from all of y'all that I can play whatever whenever as soft or as loud as I may care to at this time of night. *S*

Since I'm diy'ing speakers, I occasionally on purpose see if I can break them.

Large enough space that things may clip and go into thermal shutdown....
I'm usually wearing hearing protection when doing this because I'm not stupid....

(...and I heard that, too.....back atcha'...)

I don’t sit down to listen to music because I feel couch potatoes take more ambulance rides then anybody in the long run I place my speakers high enough to have the correct sonic level of the speakers
My speakers have horns and drivers in them to find the correct location I close my eyes listen carefully and position my body slowly where I am hearing the most out of the music Then I take a soundbath
That is my way of doing it and I know there’s many different ways to achieve this
Everyone  has their own idea
Whatever works for you after sifting through all of this is probably best for you Thank you for reading my posts and considering a new way

It's a good question, but it begs for another question.
Do you have near, mid or farfield speakers?
How large is your room.
I have nearfield speakers in a small room.
(Barfoot sound MM27)
What annoys me inspite of room tuning (acoustic material) is that i still would like to move my rear wall 2 meters further.
A close position would be a benefit talking side reflexions (floor, roof and side walls).
You want direct sound and not reflextions.
Anyway, this is all a can of worms....

Focal aria 936’s:   room: 19x42    2 10” diy subs. Set just high enough to add support without obvious bass boost/boom
speakers are 5’ from curtained front wall 7’ 7” apart and 9’ 5” from listening pos.
Which leaves just over 5’ from side walls.   Very slight toe inImaging is outstanding. With maybe just a touch too little center fill. 
Toe in more?  936’s by most recc’s  do best firing straight forward, but I’m not finding that in my room.   Time to play a bit with position but I’ll have to mark current carefully. Hate to loose what I’ve got and not get it back.