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
Rich Seyfarth's picture

Pretty precisely. I used common sense in a badly proportioned room. I used the Room Optimizer computer program. And then tweaked the placement for best sound. Actually, speaker location is way important for best sound.

David L.  Wyatt jr.'s picture

I don't have a dedicated listening room, I have a living room. The location of the system comes first, but it cannot be the sole consideration.

Dimitris Gogas's picture

There is a little trick I learned with a laser pointer that proved useful in setting up the speakers. But still, my ears are my best instruments.

Mike Healey's picture

I use a laser alignment tool and spirit levels when setting the rake angle and proper amount of toe-in. Anything more than that is just overkill.

macksman's picture

Fairly well. Four-spike adjustments on the W-B Act Ones are harder than 3-spike units, but stable. I've used tape measure to equalize distances from rear wall & seat and machinist's level for speaker verticality. The room is big and the side and rear walls are sonically irrelevant at the listening position. Those measurement "instruments" are only fairly precise even when carefully used. My ear tells me the balance through the range of extension is good.

Al Marcy's picture

Only space open on the floor. Lots of amps in progress everywhere else ...

James Kousbaugh's picture

My room and furniture does not allow a great deal of tweaking.

Clay White's picture

Having arrived at the "optimum" position, allignment, and tilt some time ago, I nonetheless mess with them a bit from time to time to confirm that I got it right. Nuts, eh?

Laura's picture

I hired Rives Audio to accoustically engineer my listening room. They calculated the distance from the back wall for both my main speakers and subwoofer, and I adjusted the side wall distance and angle by listening and adjusting an inch or two at a time. Imaging and soundstage improved and my system has never sounded better.

Glenn Bennett's picture

I have KEF floorstanders and played around for quite some time until I got the soundstage I expected. Close to wall, away from wall, toe-in, etc. It really makes a difference and is worth the time spent.

Chris Barbieri's picture

I used a ruler and they are correctly placed to with 1/4" or so.

Brankin's picture

I'm certain I wouldn't be living in my house if I even tried to properly place them. I save that when "somebody" is gone for a few hours or a weekend!

jaypp's picture

Out of whack and I have no choice. I have a long narrow bedroom converted into a home office. Not much I can do about it except hope I move to another house in 3 to 5 years.

Anonymous's picture

The sweet spot has been set with a tape measure with a multi-channel system in mind. However, 2 channel playback has been great ever since the speakers were set equi-distant from my sweet spot!

Stefano Lindiri's picture

I live in my parents' house, so I'm not so free to place speakers, but I've paid all the attention possible!

James's picture

No rocket science here. Slightly toed-in and ear level.

Tim Bailey's picture

I don't know if I could do better. Most laser tools for speaker set-up assume a rectangular box. I own spheres.

Dave W.'s picture

Just purchased new speakers and was surprised to learn they would not "sing" positioned like my old speakers.

KenS's picture

Room was built for optimum acoustics, therefore speakers have a bigger window of placement for optimum sound stage.

Mike Agee's picture

Floorboards provide parallel lines along one axis, why ignore them? I marked the other axis 1/5th of the way into the room with tape that disintegrated long ago. The speakers stand roughly where the tape once did. My speakers have woofers fore and aft so using math to arrive at placement has only limited applicability. That used to be a little frustrating until I realized the designer did that on purpose, to mix up the standing waves.

Travis Klersy's picture

My Dynaudio Audience 52SEs aren't overly picky, but I did spend a fair amount of time with the tape measure and listening when I bought them. It paid off, but they never sounded bad or out of whack even with casual placement.

Fed's picture

Align by eye and then sit in listening position and listen/adjust.

vinyl1's picture

I had an expert come by with pink-noise CD, microphone, and laptop with analysis program. We moved speakers around for flattest response in room. We managed to get rid of a big mid-bass hump, which was the major problem.

Anonymous's picture

They're WATT/PUPPY 7s so my dealer used Wilson's voweling method.

Mark C.'s picture

Within 0.5 inches

Gerald Clifton's picture

Fairly precisely. For a number of years, I used to put speakers fairly close to the rear walls, out of the way. When I bought the Mirage M1-SIs a dozen years ago, I immediately discovered the so-called "rule of thirds," which put the speakers 8' out into the room and about 3' from the side walls. Their bipolar design and heavy bass neccessited this. Inconvenient, but who does convenience in this wacked out pursuit? Since then, I have put all speakers at least 6' out into the room, and that is where they all have sounded the best, with the most realistic portrayal of the depth of a symphony orchestra. Also, by being placed out into the room, all speakers I have tried sound smoother and tend to disappear, leaving only the music. All rooms are different, of course, but, unless the manufacturer has designed the speakers to be close to rear and/or side walls (ie, corner horns, Allisons, etc), I have found the best starting point to be well out into the room. Then, you just have to listen and fiddle around a bit to find the best exact placement. Predetermined ratios (ie, Cardas' "golden ratios," based on the Fibonacci series, and the "rule of thirds") can be good starting points, but you always have to fuss around a bit to find the best exact location. Every speaker/room combination is unique, and trial-and-error seems necessary, unless you get lucky on the first try.

michele surdi's picture

yorkminsters are heavy!

Greg Ganoff gganoff@earthlink.'s picture

In a 10x13 dedicated listening room have 1.6 QR Maggies set to a near field listening position of 7' apart on-center and 4' on-center from the front wall, toed-in. Wow...they totally disappear, clean bass without bloat, creates a sound stage that is huge in width, depth and height with sound that goes way beyond the room boundaries. My room becomes the recorded venue.

Kelly's picture

As close to where they should be under present conditions.

B Noel's picture

I built a dedicated listening room and used Cardas method. Even a few inches made a huge difference

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