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Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

So many audiophiles have commented that when your room treatment is completed, your electronics set up and tweaked and most importantly, your speakers are set up in your listening space correctly that you'll know it because everything just sounds so "right" and natural.  I just accomplished that feat in the last two weeks.  I say two weeks because I needed to play a wide variety of recordings to be sure that I'm there.  It is so great to have finally hit just the right set up.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it has taken me well over a year of experimentation to get to this point.  It's not that other placements yielded poor quality sound its just that now everything sounds like a live event (as much as any of our systems can).

I would really appreciate hearing about your journey to the promised land of audiophile/music lover bliss.  How long did it take, what were the most difficult aspects of the journey?  And if you have yet to get there, what do  you think is the "brick in your wall"?
128x128hifiman5
turnbowm
353 posts
 
Dialing everything in right is time-consuming but worth the effort.  Worked the better part of one year with speaker placement and room treatment.  The final phase was fine-tuning with speaker cable and interconnect combos.  When I started listening to the music instead of the equipment I knew that I was done.  
turnbowm
353 posts
 
Over the years, I've found that the Odd Dimensions rule (1/3, 1/5, etc.) for speaker placement seems to work well in most situations. For my listening room, the speakers were placed 1/3 of the room width from the side walls.  The front of the speakers were then placed 1/5 of the room length away from the front wall as a starting point. After a few listening sessions, moved the speakers a few inches closer to the front wall for some added bass reinforcement.    
pmiller115's avatar
pmiller115
95 posts
 
If you have completed the journey to perfection in a year you have certainly done so much faster that I was able to so do. I complete that same journey two +/- time a year until I play a recording or two that sound terrible and I then renew my interest in improving. For me at least this has been a hobby that continually inspires me to try something new for a greater return. I think half of the fun of this or any other hobby is continuing to try to improve what we have. I shudder when I think about how much money I have spent seeking perfection and the best I have done is I may have gotten a little closer to perfection. The manufacturers also try and in some cases do convince us that the finish line has again been moved.
gryphongryph
352 posts
 
https://youtu.be/gXohzklfwPs
soma70
153 posts
 
My system really only came together after I had dealt with first and second reflection points  and then positioned the speakers straight ahead with no toe in.
A nice way to test speaker placement is to use Roger Waters album Amused to Death and the track Too Much Rope. Its recorded in QSound so that some of the voices and sound effects can come from far left and right through a full 180 degrees. Spooky!  Also Vogue by Madonna has the same QSound effects but you might need a few beers for that one first! 
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