Dave,
VERY detailed drawing! I would say that your original position for the rears was too far back. If you can place them about where the fridge is located, and angle them down, you will get a nice rear effect. Your wife will not be blasted at this location, and it's closer to the perfect oval setup.
BTW. To make it better, try to bringing the fronts a bit more forward. 1 ft or so. Think of trying to make an oval from the primary listening position, elongated top to bottom.
Steve,
Are you thinking that the long, wider ends of the oval would be the front speakers at one end and backs at the other, with the sides being the 'compressed' smaller dimension of the oval? Or the opposite.
I guess I need to change more on that drawing than I recall. :o) Dean had suggested as you say, moving the fronts forward and centering the left between the shelf and the TV. Moving the RF to a symmetrical position leaves both about 20" from TV. Depending on the WAF, if a little wider does not incur a negative affect from the LF being nearer the nick knack shelf, I can experiment with that. Room/sound stage center[SSC] (just left of primary list. pos.) is pretty close to 12' from both (1' forward) fronts as well as the SL & SR. So the forward part of the sound field is close to a semi circle.
Position A: If I placed the backs
7'straight back from the (front) room/SSC point this would put the QS8's in line with the right 1/3 of the fridge. This diagonal measurement to the SSC would be ≈ 9'. Back of room sound for the BWF (blasting wife factor), would be over part of the dining room table (not so good). Tilting it down would further point he sound towards that unfavorable BWF area.
Position B: If I placed the backs
6'straight back from the (front) room/SSC point this would put the QS8's in line with just behind the end of the counter. This location would be visually closer to an imaginary point between kitch./d. room ant he living room portion of the room, which I think would 'look' better. But would this placement be 'less good' enough to move back to a 'maybe less nice looking place'? The diagonal measurement to the SSC would be ≈ 8'(assuming 12' apart. less if moved closer to center). Back of room sound for the BWF (blasting wife factor), would be less intrusive. Tilting QS8's down would still negatively impact the BWF area. Also, pointing QS8's down would complicate my plan to be able to reach up and swivel the 8's toward the back of the room for 7.1 music listening for parties, when most hang out in the kitchen and dining room. Or for me when working at my desk, for that matter (DAF, Dave approval factor... I want an acronym too! ;o)
I cannot quote any data to support this, but I thought the quad polars, did not matter much if any for pointing down vs. straight forward. Am I mistaken?
As you can tell, I always er on the side of TMI (to much information.
Basically, I'm wondering if (B) would be much of a SQ compromise? Also, with backs 12' apart, they would be more than the fronts ≈ 9'-10' apart. I'd guess with QS8's that would not matter much.
If you made it through this far, thanks for stickin' in there!
PS. Sorry to poach here and distract from the joy of Micah and Girlfriend's Excellent Adventure at Steve's iMax Theater/Bar and Grill/Poker Room. But I was too tempted to tap a pro for HT advice. (Micah, how'd Steve ever get you guys to leave! ;o)
