I guess there are folks who are audiophiles and have the luxury of having a great space for their systems and a wife or significant other or maybe they are solo so there is no "wife factor" involved. They are the lucky ones concerning setting the listening and speaker positions up well along with all the sound treatments their rooms need. I believe this is a small group of people. Then I believe the majority of the rest fall into the category of trying to scratch out a space for their systems, too many duel purpose spaces or given a tiny space off in a corner or repurposing a bedroom but the furniture must stay, going into an attic space with all sorts of weird ceiling configurations or a basement with great dimensions for width and length but that column sure is in the wrong spot and a 6’-8" ceiling is kinda low isn’t it? The bottom line, I believe most audiophiles realize how important the room is and the acoustics of the room along with the positioning and only wish they could hit all the tics correctly but have to be satisfied with the areas they have control over, which might not be many. They do have nice speakers and great equipment that they spent way too much on with lots of tweaks and expensive cables and conditioners but just can’t get it to sound great. No where near what they heard in that fancy showroom. Oh well, we live with what we have.
Speaker positioning: why do audiophiles neglect this so much?
Went to a recent seminar featuring Jim Smith, well known author of the book "Get Better Sound" and hi fi set up guru.
The basic gist of the discussion was that the most important elements of a high end stereo installation are listening position and speaker positioning, in that order. The actual hardware (speakers, amplifiers, source, cables etc) are of less importance relatively speaking.
Yet it is clear from this web site and it's contents, that set up is discussed much less than the actual hardware.
When I look at the Virtual Systems page on site, I'm estimating that, maybe, 10% of the systems posted are close to well set up. Thus, hardly any of the featured hardware is performing close to it's maximum potential.
Shame, and why is it so? Not sexy enough to talk about system set up in depth? Lack of knowledge? Or is it simply too hard to do and too complex a subject?
Just my 2 cents ...