How important is Speaker Placement?

Ther is a lot more than just volume and timing that is affected when you place speakers. Where they are in relation to side walls, and the rear wall will change where the notch frequency is, how early the bad early reflections are, how much of an image you can get, etc. It will also somewhat affect where you should optimally xover your sub to get smoother frequency response and blend with the sub.

This is absolutely right. The adjustments via your system take in to consideration relative volume and arrival time. Proper speaker placement will effect the overall sound quality and staging providing a more accurate reproduction of the sound.

So basically 2 feet from side walls and 3 feet from the front wall for L,C,R?


If I have the Left speaker 1 foot behind the Centre & Right Speaker can I make up for that using receivers calibration distance & db without losing any reproduction or do the front 3 speakers have to be exactly the same distance from the listening position?

It could be that due to your 'weird' room that you are having difficulty developing a good stereo image.


Just saying any distance from any wall as a golden rule won't work. Keeping some distance from walls is generally a good thing for LCR - maybe not always for the sub. Also spacing between L and R depends on how far away you sit, what is between them, etc. General rule of thumb for a STARTING position is the distance between L and R is the same as the STRAIGHT LINE distance from the speaker face to your head. Again, this is just a ballpark starting point and then you toe-in, adjust, tweak, etc. from there to see what works best in your situation.


Move that left speaker up even with the others for sure. While electrically, you can compensate for the timing of the MAIN signal, there is nothing you can do to correct for differences in reflection times from side and back wall due to the difference.

I would only worry about symmetrical placement. Most decent speakers today put out a nice detailed sound stage and you don't need to worry about facing towards, being 6' apart, etc. I can't place my L-R speakers more then 4' apart. Most receivers have the spacing setup menu, measuring the distance of each speaker. I'm not positive, but I think that's mainly for audio syncing and not volume control. You could possibly place your speaker where ever you want and then calibrate them with a sound meter and that should do a decent job assuming the speakers are of a good imaging quality.

What you describe only deals with timing. There is a lot more to it than that. I'll agree that symmetry does help.

Yes, I mentioned that it was about syncing which is semantics with timing. I was commenting about his receiver/distance statement and said it was mostly for syncing audio to video.


As for symmetry, it always kills me when I see (not as much today) a tower speaker next tot he tv on the left, but then a AV rack on the right side of the TV then then right tower. So the right speaker is like two more feet away from the TV. Or those who would put a sub in place of the AV rack still placing the right speaker further away from the TV then the left.

Yes, I mentioned that it was about syncing which is semantics with timing. I was commenting about his receiver/distance statement and said it was mostly for syncing audio to video.


As for symmetry, it always kills me when I see (not as much today) a tower speaker next tot he tv on the left, but then a AV rack on the right side of the TV then then right tower. So the right speaker is like two more feet away from the TV. Or those who would put a sub in place of the AV rack still placing the right speaker further away from the TV then the left.

KidRed: I know what you mean. It's really none of our business but good money is spent, so why not make'em sound better? Placement is free! Worse yet, I saw a picture on Audiogon placed by somebody selling a fancy B&W center (HTM1 I think). Poor center was mounted recessed in the wall, at least 10ft high. Then to drive the nail in the coffin, the guy had some nice 803 or 802 Nautilus schmucked against the front wall of a rather posh living room. Most of us would die to be able to own speakers like that. Seeing great gear put in "cages" like that is sad.