My system has the speakers sixteen feet apart up against a wall with the gear and a couch between. Imaging is only fair and soundstage flat. It sounds incredible otherwise. Much better than a well set up system that images and soundstages like a champ but isn’t balanced top to bottom or shouts, booms bass, pace is off, has a mediocre noise floor. Chasing soundstage and imaging without trading off the things that make music involving and fun isn’t possible in my multi use room.
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 ...