Help with speaker placement in my real life room

Mark, I dont have a home theater set up either, just plan ol 2-channel with a sub. All you need are some test tones (I bought a test tones cd from Rives audio ages ago) and an SPL meter. I dont know how good the iphone is but I used a Radio Shack one. Another relatively cheap method is to use free room analysis software Room EQ Wizard (REW) and get a usb mic from minidsp for $75.

http://www.roomeqwizard.com/
https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1

Everybody has different preferences but I normally start with the bass and midbass region. I try to get the region from 20-1000hz as flat as possible in my room. This is important to me because I listen mainly to acoustic music and I really tend to focus on the vocals more than anything else.  In my room, the freq response from 20-1000hz is +- 2db except for a -4db dip at 200hz and +4dp hump at 40hz. Still not perfect but this is the best I could do in my little room.  Once I got this region dialed in I messed around with toe-in. The end result was much different than how I previously had my speakers positioned.  Remember to move in small the speakers in small increments. I wouldnt try to do speaker setup all in one session. It takes a lot of patience and creativity. I am still amazed at how good my system sounds now.

Let me know if I can help in any way.

Thanks tboooe, if you can, send a photo or two of your speaker setup, I'm curious about the unexpected placement.  thanks!

Mark, I will send some pics shortly.  In a nutshell, my speakers are very close to the sidewalls (> 1') with zero toe in.  I sit in an equilateral triangle.  In fact, toe in created dips at 630 and 315hz.  

It should be noted that I have bass traps in the corners and panels at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling.  I am sure those helped a bit too.

Tboooe,  very interesting.  I was debating the theory of the perfect equilateral triangle as a starting point, versus the potential advantages of being far further from the side walls, as in the Cardas method.  I can go full equilateral, but my speakers will be darned close to the right wall.  Perhaps I'll give that a shot tonight.  As they are, the speaker to speaker distance is 100" measured at the tweeter, and the tweeter to my ear is more like 135".  They sound good where they are, and I have taped the floor so I can easily get back to this point.  I'll keep you posted.  thanks!

Yeah I am beginning to think side wall reflections are not that big of a deal.  I think getting the mid bass and bass right is the most important thing to do.  Also, addressing the ceiling reflections had a bigger impact.  For me, the equilateral triangle setup was required to 1. get the distance between the speakers wide enough so integration could occur and 2. to move my speakers far enough away from the front wall to lower the freq at which I was getting a room mode.  

Definitely keep me posted.