Speaker Placement - Frequent Placement Changes?

@knotscott 

My listening room doubles as the family living room, so per the chief decorator/love of my life, the speakers reside shoved too far into the corners...

I can also relate to this. For roughly two years my spouse was adamant that the speakers be against the wall. Over time I steadily moved them out - now roughly 3 feet from the front wall, which has had a dramatic impact on helping the speakers disappear. Compromises are just part of the game in both this hobby and marriage.

@tcutter  

I am amazed how a few degrees toe in or out or a few inches toward or away from the front and side walls can affect the sound, mostly in terms of imaging and spatial cues. 

This has been my experience as well. I’m always surprised how minor inches can impact the sound. I’ve begun to question whether certain placements are just "different" or "better" in relation to my preferences - maybe I need to come over to your residence to determine how good a system with proper placement can sound like. Comparisons and baselines can definitely help in this hobby. 

@1971gto455ho 

At over 1400 pounds I’ll find something else to fret over

I struggle with 50 pound speakers - 1400 lbs is next level. I could see how larger speakers would fall into the "set it and forget it" camp after finding ideal placement. 

@gdaddy1

Don’t overlook your seating position. 

Agree, which is how I found that bass null I was sitting in for roughly a year. Seating position is speaker placement, which seems like common sense - but wasn't common sense for me until a year or two back. As 1971gto mentioned, I’ve also found that height of the back of the chair makes a significant difference which I learned from this forum a few years back. 

Nonetheless, appreciate the comments. No shame over here expressing the many missteps I’ve taken while pursuing better SQ. Definitely still a learning process that makes things interesting. 

This setup closely follows the Golden Ratio rule. I have almost the same room dimensions as yours and have tried that configuration. You can certainly start with it and fine-tune from there.

However, I can tell you that the rule is not guaranteed to eliminate what it’s designed to address—namely, standing waves and room modes caused by reflections. It also doesn’t necessarily provide the optimal placement for soundstage and imaging. The results depend heavily on the speaker’s horizontal and vertical dispersion patterns.

In my case, I ended up positioning the speakers 28" from the side walls, 4’ from the front wall, 35" in height, and with approximately 10° of toe-in (all measured relative to the tweeter). Note that 28" is the minimum distance needed to prevent sidewall reflections from blending with the direct sound, which can otherwise blur imaging and reduce clarity.  I place the speakers that way to maximize the soundstage.  Note also that the 4’ distance from the front wall was set due to a practical constraint I had. If you don’t have such a limitation, try increasing that distance to achieve a deeper soundstage.

Yes, inch matters.

After you’ve settled on the main speaker placement, you can start fine-tuning the subwoofer position. I eventually placed mine next to the speakers on the inner side.

Whenever I’ve made significant changes to the system, I’ll readdress speaker placement. I was using the Cardas Golden Ratio for Rectangular Rooms but recently changed back to the Odd Order Placement, advocated by Vandersteen. Better tonal balance and focus.

My speakers are on wheels so I can move them as I like.

My extended experience with speaker placement taught me that finding the perfect speaker placement in any given room requires getting two things perfect: #1 seating position, #2 speaker placement relative to seating position (and this includes toe-in, etc.).  In any current oddly shaped room, I found myself constantly adjusting both my seating position and speaker positioning simultaneously.  In my oddly shaped room, it took quite some time, with me making constant adjustments before I was able to  finally sync my seating and speaker positions together to where I was receiving the desired results.  It simply takes trial an error, and more trial and error, and eventually you’ll achieve perfection.  Or, as close to perfection that can possibly be achieved in that particular room.  Happy listening.