The general consensus seems to be that the front two speakers should form an equalateral triangle with the primary viewing position. I have a ten foot wide room and with the speakers set one foot in from the wall, they are eight feet apart. I sit about 15 feet back so I am much more isosceles than equalateral.

With M22Ti's, what is the optimal distance they should be from one another assuming an enclosed room? By that I mean each speaker will basically be 1 foot from a wall on the back and a side as opposed to placed say twelve feet apart but in a room 50' x 50'.

I see many pics where speakers are spaced as close as mine but I can't help think the sound would be better if they were 12' apart as opposed to 8.

Greg

Hi Greg,

I don't think that an equilateral triangle is necessarily optimal. You might check out this thread from a while back that talks about the Golden Ratio and a bunch of other stuff I lack the will to implement in my real-life living room.

So much of the experience depends upon things you can't easily change (the room dimensions and openings, etc.), about the only thing you can/should do is experiment with different placements and find one that suits your fancy. I don't think there is an absolute answer to your question.

Especially if you have a couch blocking your mains....

Ok, inside joke.

Randy, now stop that!

Stop what? I don't get it. Randy made a very valid point in my opinion. Don't go and jinx him now

You guys lack the will to resist. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Here is a diagram I was thinking of earlier; I don't know if it is in that other thread or not, but I do remember Jack linking us to it at some point in the past. I don't really want to initiate another discussion about Cardas or cables or that genre, but I do think the calculator is handy. Personally, I can't imagine being able to give up that many square feet of living space BEHIND my speakers.

HTH.

Greg, the equilateral triangle idea is a good one and it's what I always use, with the speakers slightly toed-in to point at the ears. Since except in your hypothetical example you can't make your room wider, if possible sit a few feet closer. Another point is not to have the woofer cones an identical distance from the nearest three room surfaces(i.e. floor and two nearest walls); if they're about a foot from the side wall, make the floor and back wall distances different from that, to the extent it's practical. This helps with smoothness in the upper bass area.

In reply to:

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Personally, I can't imagine being able to give up that many square feet of living space BEHIND my speakers.

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I agree Tom, according to this calculator I would have to place my two fronts almost seven feet from the back wall and this only reassures the results from another speaker placement calculator I found a couple of weeks back on another site. I thought the thing was broke, 7 feet? No way I thought.

I don't know about your neck of the woods but giving up 98 sq. ft. of usable real estate in south Florida adds to $28,000 worth of unused space! I suppose I *could* go ahead and place the speakers that far forward and then brag and boast about my $29,240 front speakers.....hmmm.

Seven feet wasn't such a big deal in the days when TVs had picture tubes. A couple or few feet for the TV, a couple of feet behind the TV stand so you can play with the wires, and mains a foot or so in front of the TV to keep them the same distance from the listener as the center... you're pretty close to 6 feet already.

John that reminds me of a Sony 32" or 35" XBR tube TV my wife and I owned just long enough to decide that by the time the TV was placed in the room, about 4 or 5' of viewing distance just wasn't what we wanted. The TV took up an ungodly amount of space and weighed a ton, I remember the wife and I wrestling with that thing trying to get it in the room and then right back out of the room...what a chore.

The trend to ever-flatter TVs and ever-deeper speakers raises an interesting conundrum. I'm doodling up the layout for my brother-in-law's basement and it looks really weird having the speakers 3-4 feet in front of the screen. Almost tempted to build the screen out a few feet and build an equipment closet in the back

That's how Joe did it - and you can walk behind the equipment rack to fiddle with connections - a great idea in my opinion! He tests a lot of equipment and it is much easier to switch things out if you can see them!

Wow, that is a very good idea John. Whenever I first read your post earlier this morning I thought maybe you talking about putting the equipment rack in the back (opposite side) of the room but after reading Amie's post I see now where you're probably talking about having the equipment rack placed behind the screen? And would that screen be for a front projection player as opposed to a flat panel TV?

In our 14'x 25' room I have been trying to figure out placement for the equipment rack, maybe I'll give your idea a lot of thought...it sure would make use of the space and will be able to allow me to place the speakers in the proper position.
We're having a 73" rear projection TV that is 21" deep delivered whenever the room is finished. That would give us almost 5 ft of area for the equipment rack behind the TV and speakers. Thanks for the idea John, now it's back to the drawing board once again.

Matter of fact, the front wall from left to right would look something like this...

Left corner tight will be the equipment rack, left side M80 5-7' out from back wall, TV in the center and out from wall even with the front speakers, right side M80 5-7' out from back wall and right corner tight will be the EP600. I'm thinking as huge as the 600 is it will probably compliment the equipment rack in the opposite corner.

That may very well turn out better than having the equipment rack way in back of the (opposite wall) room like I've been contemplating. Thanks John!

Glad it helped. I don't actually HAVE ideas, you know, they just sort of stick to me and I carry them around like a bee carries pollen