Ideal distance between two speakers

What do you mean by that? We don't understand. More description, please. Or paste a diagram, or a picture of the room.

Speakers should be symmetric on each side of the listening position. And, you should not have one channel close to a wall and the other far from the nearest wall. Really the speakers should not be close to any side walls at all, though close to the back wall is not automatically a problem.

 

Mine are about 11' apart in basically a 16' x 30' room, though half of the back wall is open to 40', and the back half of the right side wall is open. I don't have big problems with standing wave reflections or bass build up as the room is long and essentially vented.

The speakers are about 3' in from the front of the room and toed in at around 30 degrees. My prime listening position is about 7' in front of the speaker line and ear level is about 5' above floor level.

My sweet spot is very tight both side to side and front to back. Yes I can still hear well if I wander off center a bit, but that totally locked in 3D soundstage loses a lot of it's detail and captivity.

On occasion I do like to move my heard in 6" or more to get a different perspective. The closer in I get the more the center channel information appears to come from the center of my head, almost as if I'm wearing headphones. Of course I can vary that effect by how far in I move, but generally I only do that on occasion to shake things up.

 

Jeez

 

That's pretty much the way I listen also. Once you "get it right" as far as positioning, listening to music can be very compelling.

 

Don't relax too much. You don't want to lose that sweet spot.

 

30 degree angle toed in, yep - same here for best 3 D centre effect.

Room is 5,30 meters & 4,80 meters - speakers are on the long wall side

2,40 meters in between - 2 meters distance to easy chair position - most of the time -another position is the sofa , which is another 1 meter something behind the chair- crossover point is right between sofa and comfy chair - ....
speakers are 85 cm from the wall.
About perfect according to audiophysics and it sounds like that ...

 

The width of my head. ;-)

 

So according to the first article you should aim for the signals to meet just a bit BEHIND the listening position...first i ever heard that advice, usually I am aiming AT the listening position (inasmuch as is possible in any given room).

Is that a better way to go? Aim behind the chair, open the sound up a tad more?

 

If your drivers have good polar response that may have a positive effect.

 

i have found from personal experience that an isosceles triangle is the best way to hear stereo sound...where youre sitting slightly further back than you would be if in an equilateral formation.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "stand at the same side for the right stereo effect"

 

yep, makes sense - try it out !

 

or just leave it out of phase for max listening pleasure! ha...

like the others, speakers out from walls, isosceles triangle, perhaps a little toe in, etc.

 

my room is dedicated for listening, so that helps.

if your room is used for other things, I think it's nice to have it as clutter free (furniture and stuff) as possible.

It seems the ideal distance depends on room size, listening position, etc.

 

You're getting lots of opinions. Just don't forget that they ARE opinions. There are nearly as many philosophies on speaker placement as there are listeners (okay, that's an exaggeration). Try Googling for things like "stereo speaker placement," and I'm sure you will be amazed at the number of different theories. But there is one ground rule that nearly everyone agrees on: Experimentation is essential. That's the one principle I unfailingly take to heart, and I think you should, too. Best of luck.
-Bob

 

Question: ideally wouldn't you have to adjust the position of speakers as you listen to different recordings? I know that this isn't feasible in real life, hence the bolding of the first word of my question.

 

Live solitary.

 

Or better yet, find someone who doesn't put petty restrictions on the things that excite you, so the ridiculous WAF and SWMBO acronyms never have to be uttered. There are so many immeasurably more important aspects to a relationship and running a household than where you put your speakers in the room. I'm so thankful my SO trusts me to put them where they will sound the best, and that's that -- she would never insist otherwise, and I don't tell her where to plant the blackeyed susans or where she can park her sewing machine or stained glass worktable.

 

Back on topic, anyone have any thoughts about this?

 

It makes no sense to me. I can't see any way that this could be true. IMO, speaker positioning is totally independent of source material.

 

8 foot spread, sitting a little over 9 feet away...for my system. ymmv

 

I'd add that speaker placement is also relative to the design, and more important, dispersion characteristics of the particular speaker.

There is no right and wrong answer, so use (and trust) your own ears.

 

this is exactly how mine is setup too. it's perfect

 

Best answer.

 

Another consideration is the acoustics of the room. Is there carpet on the floor or is it hardwood? etc.

When I was a teen I had a pair of Advent speakers on the floor (hardwood) in my bedroom. I was able to hear high frequency separation from the intro to Chicago's "Fancy Colors" reflected off the floor to the ceiling out into the living room. This was not planned and it only happened one time, but a cool experience none the less!