Positioning speakers - what method do you use?
Hi all
Well as the title says what method do you use to set up the position of your speakers?
I have an almost square room at 12 x 11' and have them firing down the 12', the room also doubles up as a sitting / dining room. I tried one of the formulas once on the internet, the Cardas method but when I positioned the speakers from the back wall they were quite a way out into the room, making it in practical, see attached link
Anyway would love to hear what people have done on here
Very best
Lee
Comments
I had a brief look at the link. I'll compare the suggested measurement ratios with what I've got later...
Personally, I'd be surprised if there was a one size fits all formula
(even one to less than 3 decimal places...) for speaker positioning that
would work for every system, from every listening position, in every
room.
With regard to my own positioning, I should point out that I use NVA Cube 1s (30cm cube acrylic boxes with vertically firing mid/bass drivers), which appear to be very placement, or at least room, fussy. That said, they now sound lovely in my listening room. My room is a largeish (at least longish) rectangular knock through lounge about 9m x 4m. Room height is an average 225cm.
For my system the distance from the side walls has been determined by the need to avoid them being too far out from side walls where they begin to visually obscure my home cinema screen ("Heresy" I hear the call). This hasn't been terrible constricting though - providing at least 46cm from the side walls to the cabinets outside edges. May be I should play around with (ie reduce) this a bit.
Distance from the rear wall I have set purely by ear, and I have spent quite a while fiddling with this. Measuring the distance now it turns out to be 26cm from the rear of the cabinets to the rear wall. Less than this and the sound starts to become congested, more than this and it starts to become thin.
I've found that I prefer them when they fire directly down the room, no toeing in at all. I find that toeing them in appears to have quite a dramatic effect, seeming to reduce the dynamic impact of the music. But previous speakers I have found to be more spatially focussed when toed in.
Given that the mid/bass drivers fire vertically up I suppose the height of the cabinet matters, but given that I have only 1 pair of stands, I can't really see a way of easily altering their vertical position betweem floor and ceiling without piles of bricks...
...No. The wife doesn't like that proposal.