Speaker shootout question -- do you position the same or differently, depending?


If you're comparing two speakers at home, do you position each the same or do you position each as (roughly) optimal for that speaker in your room?

I'm comparing a tower and a bookshelf now, and their design is different. It would seem that the best way to compare would be to figure out what is optimal for each and then compare them in (likely) different positions. 

What kind of process do you use for comparing two differently designed speakers?

hilde45

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

Ask yourself who you are evaluating the speakers for.  Are you evaluating them for a lab report or are you making compromises in your living space and need to see what speaker works out better for you?

You can’t really reuse the same location in most cases except for bookshelves, and even that has perils.

I remember Stereophile refusing to take Crystal Cable’s recommendations for speaker placement into account and ending up with exactly what you’d expect for a review.

Another thing is toe-in. Beaming the tweeter to your ear is almost not the best place, and you may even like sitting below the tweeter axis. Focal’s inverted dome tweets to my ears tend to do better with little to no toe-in.