RT-16 positioning advice sought

dromunds

I'm trying to help out a buddy who's building a new house set up a 5.1 HT. He got a nice pair of RT-16's for the fronts. His room is 12 feet wide but they made a sort of recessed cove for the TV on the front wall. The photo isn't good but it shows the recessed cove on the left. I think there's maybe around some nine feet width inside the cove and his TV will be mounted in the center of the wall with his stand just below the TV. Any suggestions re: placement of the RT-16's would be appreciated.

dromunds

Any current or former owners of RT-16's have any general advice on positioning these?

mantis

Here are some guide lines to live by when setting up any front channel speaker.

You want to first measure the seating distance from the TV. So from the screen to your nose measurement will do. So lets say thats 10 feet.
Take that 10 feet measurement and equal distance the front speakers about 3/4 that distance apart so lets call it 7.5 feet.
From there you want to aim the speakers past your seating area to about 1 to 2 feet behind your head. So the Tweeters should be aimed like a laser to call it 2 feet behind you.
This will be a perfect setup for both Home Theater and Music listening. The RT16's are a fantastic old school speaker from polk. I'd like to get my hands on a pair myself just because I always wanted a pair and never got them. They sold out when I was shopping back in the day when they where new and had to settle on a really nice pair of RT1000p's which replaced the RT16 model the very next year.
another consideration is the width of the room. At 12 feet if you devide the front wall in 1/3's, the left and right speakers can be placed just outside that measurement with both speakers being off the side walls about 1/3 away.
The Back wall you absolutely want at least 6 inches to 3 feet out if possible. Not always the case in living spaces buy it makes a huge difference in overall smoothness of the lower end. Even crossed over at 80hz in small which is how the 16's should be setup with a external sub handling the bottom octaves.

Let me know how you make out.

dromunds

Thanks. I have no experience with the power port. I've been listening to the RT-16's at my place for now and even with poor placement they sound real good.