O.C.D. Speaker placement

Another thing I've tried is extreme toe in angles, in and out.

Also, I've experimented with placing the speakers in the corners and also placing the speakers on the diagonal,in a corner so that the centre of the two speakers is the junction of the two walls.

Which is correct?

They all sound good,but different.

In fact speaker positions can almost fool you into thinking that you're listening to a diffrernt pair of speakers.

In the end, after all the experimentation,the way the system looks plays an important role and can trump the sound improvements(diferences)of radical toe in, etc.

I think most of us settle for how the speakers sound when set up in the more conventional ways which please our eyes.

Which as I've stated ,isn't always the best.

Then we resort to whatever devices we have to tune the speakers to our liking and to make up for whatever deficiencies we may feel they have, or to fill in the gaps that our ears feel we need.

If that's wires, or EQ's or room tuning devices,you have a lot of choices to experiment with.

On second thought, maybe an anechoic room may not be so bad afterall.

Have you listened for a good while in each position before finally settling? You need a good shock effect from one to the other for a good perspective imo.

I've found pros and cons in all of the placements.
That's the puzzle, they all sound a bit different in certain areas,not one position for me was the best, so I settled for the Cardas placement for planar speakers and moved my listening seat further away from the speakers so that the 3 angled panels lock in better,so the triangle is far from equal.The speakers fire straight no toe in.

They are 73" from centre of speaker to side walls,58.09" from centre of speaker to wall behind them,95" apart(side of speaker not centre)and 160" to the listening chair.

This also is the most pleasing from a visual perspective.

You haven't answered my question.

If the question is directed at me, then my answer is that I have a number of discs that I use to determine if any type of change in my system is better ,the same or no different.

In my estimation,this is all the time I need to make up my mind.It is usually a few hours of listening, but a day of settle in time for wires etc.

I tend to think that the more time spent the more one will eventually forget what the original sound was like.

What I have discovered is that there are no hard rules, and that you find things to like/hate about all changes in speaker placement.

I liked the pinpoint spot on image of the speakers toed in ,and crossing a few feet in front of me.

Until I tried the Cardas planar placement method,which changed the placement of the speakers in the room placing them further from the side walls, closer to the back wall and with no toe in.

I moved the seating position further away from the speakers, which made the focus more like toeing them in did.

I do have some modest room treatment,mostly DIY, but it's a step in the right direction, having none in such a large live room is not nice.

The old Acoustats can be very revealing,but they are also very easy to enjoy in just about any type of speaker set up.

The task is to think about the smallest adjustments,the fine tweaking,to get them to move to the next level of resolution.
Less than inch adjustments of toe in.