How precisely have you set up your speakers in your main system?

In one of Stephen Mejias' <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/030906location/">blog posts</A>, he notes the precise alignment of his speakers. How precisely have you set up your speakers in your main system?

How precisely have you set up your speakers in your main system?
Nano-tad accuracy!
18% (53 votes)
Fairly precisely
43% (124 votes)
Aligned by eye
23% (67 votes)
Sort of in the right place
12% (36 votes)
Didn't pay too much attention
0% (1 vote)
They're way out of whack
3% (8 votes)
Total votes: 289

COMMENTS
Jim Tavegia's picture

Once my wife had me put the furniture where she wanted it, I staked out my speaker territory and it is in a reasonably good position. Running a sample of white noise and recording with a flat measurement omni mic into my laptop and looking at it in a frequency plot, it was surprisingly better than I had hoped for.

Dave Bennett's picture

Speakers are symmetrical as measured with a tape measure but I haven't moved them in inch increments to determine the absolute perfect position. Life is just too short for that and there are far bigger compromises made in my (and every) setup.

Israel's picture

Use of the RPG Room Optimizer software to set up speakers within a quarter inch made a real difference in my small room.

Paul Tobin's picture

Maybe not "Nano-tad," but within 5mm.

Vade Forrester's picture

I used a tape measure to set up the speakers.

HH's picture

Ah, to live in a perfect world. My listening room is far too small. My wife has her own ideas as to how a room should look. Need I say more?

Andre L.  Acedera's picture

I have a small listening space and near-field listening works best for me at the moment. Using Spendor S20s, I set them up in such a way that they are 6' apart, 1.5' from the rear wall, 3' from the side walls, and I am listening 8' from them. I situate the S20s to face me directly such that I cannot see the enclosures' sides. At such configuration, I am able to obtain the most decent sound from my system.

Rob Gold's picture

And a 10kHz wavelength is ... how long?

viviana de la orden's picture

it is very difficult to obtain a proper alignment because the room itself is the most important thing to arrange and this is impossible!

Al Earz's picture

I have to fight with my "symmetric" side so I have them set as well as possible but maintaining the symmetrics. Thankfully, they image so well that I really don't think it is an issue.

tonyE's picture

You gotta be kidding. I sort of set them up, and sometimes I may play around so I can just see the inside of the cabinet. But seriously, one darn bourbon and I'm happy. Besides, when I go to the show we drink bubbly before the first half and during the intermission so this way I have my own "absolute sound." Really, some people are too neurotic.

James's picture

Laser-aligned. It seems that imaging is extremely dependpent on speaker alignment.

Ned's picture

Speaker alignment is everything. Without it, you can throw your equipment away.

Teresa's picture

Two-channel stereo can project a soundstage larger, deeper, and taller than any surround sound system, but only if precisely aligned. Move one speaker even 1/16 of an inch and the whole image collapses. I always have tape measure ready at hand if this happens.

Monty's picture

They are perfectly aligned with where my wife will allow me to put them.

Brad Granger's picture

Alon IV with alnico magnet upgrade in mid/hi.

Dan Wilson's picture

After much trial and error, I have speakers and seating arranged for the best that can be hoped for for a given listening environment.

Chris S.'s picture

There was no choice here for

Joe Hartmann's picture

Furniture and TV location have prvented me from locating them in my "family room." My wife is unhappy with the location and when I move them too close to my CRT Loewe TV the picture is effected.

Tom Warren's picture

I spent a lot of time working on aligning my demo ProAc 3.5s. I have to admit I was at a bit of a loss until my then salesman; John Devore paid me a house call to upgrade my turntable. John immediately analyzed my speaker set up and advised moving the speakers out from the back wall and tipped inward. I ended up pulling the 3.5s 4' out from behind and 16" in from the sidewall shelving, leaving 5' in-between the pair. Then after a lot of listening, I ended up pointing the left speaker at my right ear and the right speaker at my left ear. Voila, finally a seamless sound stage and pin point imaging. My sweet spot is 6.6' from the centerline between the front of the speakers.

alessandro mol luce's picture

Triangle sweet spot.

Gerald Neily's picture

My speakers are way out of whack, but in a fairly precise way. The problem I have with "nano-tad accuracy" is that my room dimensions and acoustical properties have no such precison. My room acoustics are very asymmetrical, so my speakers must be as well. One speaker is toed-in quite a bit more than the other. It looks very weird but it's the best solution I've been able to find for tailoring my speakers to my room.

Joe Evans's picture

I have them positioned down to 1/16". I use ESLs and positioning is extremely important. After getting the positioning correct I move my chair forward and backwards in 1" increments as a tone control.

Louis P.'s picture

My B&W 804Ns are spiked to the floor thru the carpeting, so I made sure they were placed correctly. But my chair probably gets nudged aroud a bit, since it isn't spiked.

Nodaker's picture

Move them around till they sound the best and then make sure they are equa-distant from the listener and the listener is centered. No rocket science here.

DaveH's picture

Actually got out a tape measure.

Dan Forzano's picture

I'm a prisoner of the room dimensions and layout! We're shopping for a house now, so my speaker placement practices may bump up a notch or too once I have more control.

Bob Lewis's picture

When I pull my Snell XA75s out into the room to try for better speaker/room interface, I will use a tape to make sure the speakers are the same distance from the wall and to the chair. I use to have a great listening room in that it was 1.6 x the height x 1.6 x the width x 1.6 the length. I loved that room. I had a pair of Polk SDA speakers that I had placed a sticker on the back of each with where in the room to place them, it was magic. Now my ex-wife calls my great listening room her "living room." So goes life.

Rikard Persson's picture

Almost more important than which speaker you place.

Digital Dougy's picture

I find that the closer you place speakers to room boundaries, the more difference even a few inches makes, so I genereally will move speakers three inches at a time, then measure and move, measure and move and so on, until I find the position that gives the most flat and extended response, combined with good imaging precision and three-dimensionality.

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