How far away from your speakers are you?


I thought it would be interesting to know how people position their speakers... do you have the freedom to put them where you want or do practicalities dictate?.. How far away are they from the listening position?.. How big's the room and how far away are they from boundary walls? My main speakers (Seas A26) are 1' from back wall, 3' from sides in a 14' by 20' room and my listening position is  about 16' from the speakers. Just wondering how much floor space we're willing to give up to get the optimum placement.
pragmasi

Showing 2 responses by millercarbon

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.