How far from your speakers do you sit and how far apart are your speakers (measured center to center of the front baffle) looking for the distance to the actual speaker not the line between them.
Just curious asked this on another forum and it appears my triangle is much bigger then the average.
Yes, your triangle is much longer than most I have seen, in most systems anyway. (Of course it also appears that you have a bigger room than most people, in order to have a 17 foot dimension to each speaker.) Care to give your room dimensions and how the speakers fit within them?
My speakers are about 9 feet apart, and I sit about 11 feet from each speaker, (or about 10 feet to the plane produced by the face of each speaker). My speakers are about 4.5 feet into the room, and centered on the long wall of my 24' x 16' room.
My room measures 13' wide by 23' long with a Staircase in the left corner and an alcove under the stairs in the right. The spaces behind allow my speakers to be 30" + from the back wall.
Because of traffic patterns my speakers are as far into each corner as possible. A much less then ideal situation.
I am also saddled with a huge ET cabinet between them. Our son made it for his mom and it appears that I am stuck with it forever!
When I was in a larger room , I had the speakers 11ft. apart and sat 11ft. from their face . An equal lateral triangle that gave me unbelievable soundstaging . The speakers were 3ft. from the side walls and about 6ft. from the wall behind them .
Now I am in a small 10ft. X 10ft. room with the speakers in a 6ft. equal lateral triangle set up on the diagonal . I don't have anywhere near the same soundstage . Square rooms are tough !
FWIW - I listen ~84" from the front speaker plane in an irregularly shaped alcove that is 12' wide by 13' long. The Totem Forests are 70" apart (center to center) and 32" from the wall behind them (measured to the front of the speaker cabinet). The speakers are positioned along the 13' wall.
I like the near field monitor arrangement. In all of my rooms I have suppressed the primary reflections by sitting close. I am 10.5 feet from the speakers and the speakers 9 feet apart, which is a ratio of .86 This has worked well for me in all the setups. I am in a large room so I don't have to worry about reflections off the back wall, the front wall is dampened and the speakers are 3 feet from the side wall with diffraction there. It is very speaker dependent. The wider the angle of dispersion of the tweeters and midranges, the wider you can move your speakers. I also toe in my speakers a bit. This is after several years of moving a little this way and that, and eventually ending up here. part of the fun, I guess.
Awahlster, I dont't mean to sound rude but why would you ask this without identifying your speakers or room condition? How far away that I sit has absolutely nothing to do with your listening situation.
Monitor speakers, FRD or two and 2.5 way speakers can be listened to at close distance. Multi-driver models usually require some distance to allow for convergence at the listening seat. Many dipoles require more than average distance out from the front wall and at least that distance again from the speakers. Dispersion is another consideration affecting separation between speakers, being different between wide dispersion and narrow dispersion models.
Other major considerations are your room dimensions and your placement options within the room. Most dynamic speakers perform best with more distance from side walls to eliminate or minimize early reflections. Dipoles can be placed closer to sidewalls. So, depending on your room width and speaker design, separation will be affected.
There are several speaker placement guides available on the internet but I would suggest you begin with your owner manual or direct discussion with your speaker manufacturer.
Pryso because I was simply curious about the various geometry people would be using. I have no physical way to change the geometry of my setup so I'm not looking for suggestions. Only curious what others have in their setup.
As to my speakers/system etc. I use Pioneer HPM-100 speakers, so there is no owners manual or manufacturer to discuss anything with. As they were last sold in about 1980.
My system is based on a 1973 Pioneer SA-9100 amp
I have the whole system EQed to the room with a Pioneer Spectrum Analyzer to deliver as flat of response as it can produce from 32Hz to 16kHz.
I am extremely happy with the system and the sound I get. So I am not looking to make any changes.
I'm sitting on the sofa in the picture of my system, that is on my system setup.
My Maggies are set up almost exactly like Elizabeth's (my youngest middle name, and she's so freakin cute!!) and I set a bit closer 10'. The Maggies throw out such a huge sound stage that they sound wonderful everywhere in this huge room, but they do have a sweet spot where I sit.
As always, Elizabeth, you made me laugh! "I am the "W"! And, a great detailed description. Any pictures of the room?
The angles seem narrow with 100" to the speakers and 59" between the speakers. Is that characteristic of the 3.6? Is 42" closer than average from the back wall? I am asking because I am curious about getting into Maggies and this seems different than the typical box speaker.
FWIW I just finished reading Jim Smith's "Get Better Sound" and he recommends a slightly elongated triangle where the distance between the speakers (measured tweet to tweet) is 83% of the distance from your ear to either tweeter. Of course there are many variables here (speaker type, irregular shaped rooms, ETC) but I have found over the years that my setup typically fell pretty close to this arrangement without knowing about Jim's ratio. Based on my experience and what I've recently read, if your "traffic pattern" allows I would suggest you use all that length to move the speakers well out into the room and then sit closer to them and see what happens. This would also ameliorate the problem of having the entertainment center between the speakers.
My speakers are 6.5 ft from tweeter to tweeter. My ears are 8 ft from tweeters. This has worked well for me and I'm not sure I'd move the listening seat back even if the room allowed. When my system was in the living room I found myself moving in closer for critical listening.
The OHMs are mostly omnidirectional so I can sit pretty much wherever I want and everything holds together quite well.
In my big room with the OHM F-5s, the range is typically from 2 feet in front of the left speaker and a tad to the outside to a good 10-12 feet back in a 25' or so deep room.
In my small room (12X12) with the "Super Walsh 2s"/100s3s, I am generally about 4-5 feet in front of the left speaker which is about 3-4 feet out from the wall. The right speaker is a foot or two out from teh right side wall and about 5-6 feet into the room which makes for a asymetrical placement that works extremely well with a deep and wide soundstage, kind of like sitting in the front 10 rows somewhere at the symphony.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
