Thiel speaker placement - am I crazy?


So, long story short, I am relatively new in my pursuit of higher quality audio playback. My first purchase was a set of thiel cs2.4s. Thanks to audiogon, I then acquired Ayre 5 series preamplifier and amp. My room is not a good room, but it's all I've got. Now that I've been listening for a couple years, I sense my ears are really opening up. I am able to discern details and appreciate subtleties that were previously imperceptible to me. Yet I have found myself trolling for something that is missing. Playback lacked a bit of low end authority and I felt an overall lack of soul when listening. Sorry for the long wind up, two days ago, I moved my speakers closer together, from 7.5 feet apart to 6 feet apart. They are about 3 feet from the back wall. And I sit about 8.5 feet from the speakers Ever since, something wonderful has happened to my system. The low end balances the high end, imaging is more precise and stable, the soundstage is taller than it has ever been, and I feel like a child on Christmas morning. My wife, like my cats, yawn and say "that's nice honey" but I feel like I've discovered something amazing. Now this is closer together than Thiel recommends, but I am sticking with it for now.
miles_trane

Showing 2 responses by stanwal

I am reporting you to the placement police, they will be there any moment. Seriously, put them where you like them. Some like to sit at the back of the concert hall, some up front, the music sounds quite different by moving just a few seats; a recent Stereophile drew attention to this. As they use to say back in my younger days" If it feels good, do it".
And the individual speakers differ greatly as to toe in etc. My Spendors sound best [to me] with the axis of the tweeters crossed in front of the listener. In fact that is what Spendor recommends. My friends Wilson's have much less toe in; of course they are in a much wider and taller room then my 13x35x7 one. The short wall placement is the only one practical in my room; I tried several different locations but settled on the one from the Cardas web site, close to 6' out from the back wall and over 3' out from side walls. Looks wrong but sounds good. I am not sure that it is the ultimate placement but I haven't found a better one and dead lifting my 80lb speakers gets tiring after a while.