stereo reproduction-in home and in production

leftwinger57

I've heard a lot of the sweet spot when it comes to placing speakers in ones home for optimal performance.Many
for logistical reasons can't always get it symmetrical. In my case my Bose 601s are 12' apart on diagonal and towed
in to face me.My Infinitys are front facing and about 7' apart. I've listened to some great songs that either have
exceptional stereo separation or phasing back and forth.The songs just for 3 minor examples would Angie ,Wild Hoses.
and Axis Bold as Love by Hendrix.So the ? is what is optimal or is it just subjective like music itself and then on the
production side how does the producer/engineer decide that acoustic guitars should be on the left, vocals on
the right and so forth.

erniejade

Arent 601 direct reflecting? Like the stereo everywhere kind of thing?

cnh

Lots of variation there. And some specifics like SDAs. Then there are the Golden Ratio guys. lol The magic triangle set up ratios (you can search google--some fanatics swear by it but most of us realize the "room" is a confounding variable that has to be considered at every point). Best thing is to consider room treatments and a "lot" of experimentation.

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring

I have an old set o JBL L80ts (towers) that defy every room they're in, take many many weeks if not months to figure out their "optimal" placement. Maybe I'm just "slow". lol

cnh

zingo

Since all speakers are designed differently, read the manual or ask the manufacturer when it comes to placement; they will have a recommendation. I like the magic triangle with most speakers as I like my speakers wider than some, but that's usually just what I start with, and then tweak from there to see where the speakers actually sound good. Could be the speakers, could be the room, but all are a little different and sound better in one position or another. Don't forget that bi-polar speakers even different requirements than directional; and direct radiating, horn, and planar from there...

newrival

What Zingo said. Speakers all have their own design characteristics. The manuals will tell you the manufacturers recomendation for how they were designed. That would be the first place to start, and then tweak from there, if you feel so inclined. You can try varying degrees of toe-in or even toe-out to achieve different effects, baced on reflections, directivity, etc. But head to the manufacturer's recommendation first.

zingo

Decent drawing

leftwinger57

They can be depending on the switch setting in back.Mine are on the symetrical setting which does not need a wall to do the
reflecting.