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 1 response by tgrisham

Every speaker and every room is different. I have yet to find a formula that puts the speakers in the proper place. I have followed them precisely, to the nearest 1/4 inch. Since I always ended up positioning them by ear anyway, I found that the "Master set" method cut through all the complicated formulas and followed my ears from the start. I recommend this method since the formulas cannot predict the placement of furniture, objects in the room, and variations in the walls. As mentioned above, the long wall is best. Anyway, my ears are happy, and that's all that counts.

http://www.hifi.ir/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/master-set.pdf