michaeljbrown,
My 3.7's are:
7.10 inches apart. Face mostly straight ahead.
6 1/2 feet from speakers to my head.
And they sound even better if I lean in a bit more. I keep wanting to go more nearfield :-)
BTW, as to setting up: With the Thiels, as with just about every other speaker I've owned, I prefer not to have them toed in toward me.
Of course the more toed in they are, the more focused the image and the more brilliant the high frequencies become. But what I perceive is a brightening sort of across the whole sound - sort of like there is a whitening applied to everything. It's exciting to the ear, but to me individual timbral qualities start to actually homogenize somewhat with this bright scrim sprayed over everything. As I toe out that "whiteness" starts to dissolve, the deeper tones of, say, an acoustic guitar, come more into view, the sound gets a bit fuller, the imaging more rich and spacious.
But I don't like a "dark" rolled off sound - I like a believably extended airy top end.
So I play with toe in and my distance from the speaker to maintain a believable sparkle (e.g. acoustic guitar, drum cymbals etc) but also get that richness of higher midrange info. This is also where moving closer to the speakers comes in to play. From a greater distance, you get more "detail" by toing the speaker in, getting that high frequency energy. But, again, to me it sounds more "hi-fi." As I move closer to nearfield, yet toeing the speakers outward, I'm not getting "hyped" type of detail of bright frequencies, but rather I'm reducing room induced influence and hash, getting closer to the recording, and therefore hearing that super low level detail in the recording. So for instance, a recording of acoustic guitar will be more relaxed, fuller, with a more natural sense of detail where I just hear the sound of fleshy fingers plucking strings as I would real life, not "hi-fi."
But, it's not for everyone. I think you get the greatest dynamics, "punch" and bass depth when further away from the speakers. Fortunately the Thiels are by nature pretty dynamic, and keep a lot of that character even when moved close.
