This article originally appeared in StereoLife Magazine, a HiFi publication from Poland offering “A Daily Dose of Audiophilism.”

Read the first part here.
_{English version edited by Robert Schryer.}

How do we not arrange the speakers?

The web is full of pictures that could raise an audiophile’s blood pressure. Most of them depict incorrect or completely pathological loudspeaker placement. So what shouldn’t be done with speakers? We certainly shouldn’t push them against the walls. Regardless of the type of enclosure, no speaker will sound good when it’s squeezed into a tight space or placed in a corner. To achieve a proper soundstage, it is mandatory to maintain symmetry between the speakers and our listening position. Importantly, we are not talking about symmetry in relation to the room, but the distances between our head and the left and right channel. These should be identical. The loudspeakers must be placed at the same height. This should be self-evident with floorstanders, but with monitor speakers, some people assume that the left one could be placed on the table next to the TV and the right one on the dresser half a meter higher, which is obviously a mistake. It is also essential to ensure that nothing is blocking the drivers or standing in their direct surroundings. By the same token, if we want to place a coffee table in front of our sofa, it would be best to choose a small, simple, openwork construction rather than a big piece of solid wood.

What about the option of hanging speakers on the wall? With a bit of luck, this setup can work, but you should aim for a configuration that looks more like a standard stereo system than an attempt to hide equipment, which is how interior designers and people for whom music isn’t that important do it. In a bar, fine, in a dentist’s waiting room, no problem, but it’s not a good idea at home. There are wall-mounted speakers, which work well for home cinema systems, but for typical stereos, it’s better to stick to the classic setup and make the most of the available space.

Some believe that errors in loudspeaker positioning can be corrected with an equalizer or room correction system such as those found on some amplifiers or processors. However, it is essential to remember that this doesn’t eliminate the problem, only reduces its effects. When we shift the stereo balance, we adjust each channel’s volume, not the time shifts between them. However, the biggest sin committed by users is to treat speakers as if they were air fresheners. This cabinet has to stand somewhere, so let it stand here… Having such an approach to hi-fi equipment, it’s better to buy a small network speaker and place it wherever you like.

First try, the second try, the third try…

It’s good to give yourself time to experiment with speaker placement because, bottom line, you can never know for sure what will end up sounding best. Nobody can predict this from pictures, measurements, or plans. It’s a bit like taking a baby cat home. You can buy a lot of things at the pet shop—scratching furniture, toys, a soft bed, a kilo of catnip— to try to make the cat’s transition to your home as smooth as possible, but it may turn out that your cat prefers to play with a dangling coat belt in the hall closet and its preferred place to sleep is the cardboard box the microwave came in. Loudspeakers are not as unpredictable, but you have to be prepared for the fact that your first choice for where they should go will not suit them for some reason, and you will have to come up with something else. Unless you have a dedicated listening room, something in the room will be an obstacle you’ll have to deal with – a door, a window, a staircase, or a wall unit that can’t be moved. Assuming beforehand that the speakers will be positioned just so, in a precisely-defined and measured space, is asking for trouble. It can’t work. It’s almost always necessary to make smaller or larger adjustments with each speaker to compensate for room irregularities and whatever else has to cohabit inside the room with the stereo. This is perfectly normal, and we shouldn’t be afraid to go through this process because the joy and awe we’ll feel from the improvement to our system’s sound will have made it all worth it.

How do I place the speakers to get it right?

There is only one real answer – experiment. A tactic used in one room will not necessarily work in another. Still, it’s a good idea to start with some universal principles to avoid making obvious mistakes and establish a good starting point for further adjustments. The priority is to find the proper placement, and distance from the walls, for our speakers. Manufacturers usually offer set up guidelines or recommendations in their user manuals. It is certainly worth following these instructions to see the result. Most companies use as an example the pretty common setup of the speakers being placed in a rectangular room, along the shorter, front wall. Some manufacturers, however, suggest placing the speakers against a longer wall or even in a corner. The distances between the speakers and the room’s sidewalls may be identical, but no one said that an asymmetrical option is unacceptable. It might even be the best option. By placing speakers asymmetrically, we can “break up” resonances and standing waves. In irregularly shaped rooms, a corner variant can also be used, where each speaker stands against a different wall and faces roughly the center of the room where our listening seat is located.

The most common method of positioning speakers is to form an equilateral triangle with the listening position. While this configuration may not work for some people, it’s a good starting point for further testing. It may turn out that we’ll obtain much better results with a wider setting, but in many cases, the distance between the listener and each speaker is greater than the distance between the speakers. The key to determining the correct distance between the speakers and the back wall is to get the best possible compromise between deep bass and a realistic, three-dimensional soundstage. In other words, the sound should spread freely from side to side. At some point, we will face the limitations of our room. If we want to place the speakers on a shorter wall, it may be a good idea to widen the distance between the speakers and install large diffusers or absorbers on the side walls. In the opposite situation – where we have a lot of space at the sides but cannot afford to move the speakers closer to us – we should focus our attention on adding acoustic treatment to the rear wall. Covering it with damping material should make the wall “disappear” and allow the speakers to create a more convincing soundstage.

Most audiophiles follow these guidelines, but – as in every community – people have different opinions. For example, Audio Physic was once known for its rather radical views on speaker placement. The German manufacturer suggested placing speakers on the longer wall of the room, spread out almost at either end. Cable manufacturer Cardas’s recommendations are also fascinating. The method developed by its founder, George Cardas, is based on the well-known principle of the golden ratio. The primary measurement here is the length of the rear wall (behind the speakers). The distance between the speakers and the side walls should be exactly 0.276 times the total length of the rear wall, while the distance between the speakers and the rear wall should be 0.447 times the total length of the rear wall. Interestingly, the length of the side walls is almost irrelevant with this method. The positioning of the speakers always depends on the length of the rear wall. So let’s go back to the “optimum” proportions quoted in one of the former paragraphs and assume we have a room measuring 4.55 x 5.72 m. Following the Cardas method, our speakers would be placed at a distance of 2.03 m from the rear wall (measured from the drivers) and 1.26 m from the side walls. It’s not difficult to see that few people outside those with a dedicated listening room will be able to afford such extravagance in space. Still, many audiophiles have achieved excellent results using George Cardas’s method.

Twisting and turning

After determining the position of the loudspeakers in relation to the walls and the listening position, we should deal with setting the speaker angle (toe-in). There are several starting points here. Some say to begin by directing the speakers straight at our head. Others believe it’s best to place them initially parallel to the walls. The third school of thought says the speakers should be almost but not completely facing us, so that their axes cross about a meter behind our heads, which would allow us, from our listening seat, to see the inner panels of the cabinets at a slight angle. In most cases, such a configuration works well, as it both extends the soundstage to the sides and offers a sufficiently dense presentation between the speakers, with good in-room extension and a good sense of depth. Depending on our electronics and the room’s acoustics, other variants may work well. Some speakers benefit from less toe-in, wherein their axes cross a few meters behind the listening position, while others respond better to being toed-in to the point their axes intersect in front of the listener. You may also find that radically changing the angle requires moving the speakers closer together, spacing them more apart, or changing the distance between them and the rear wall. This is why finding the perfect setup often requires time and patience.

Can a speaker manufacturer make our life easier?

Sure! At this point, it’s worth mentioning three aspects of loudspeaker design that can give us a hand with positioning. The first is the ability to tilt the enclosures, usually with adjustable spikes. An inclined baffle is a clever way of achieving time alignment between the drivers. With loudspeakers whose designers have decided on this solution, this inclination is usually between 5 and 7 degrees. It certainly doesn’t hurt to try as long as you’re not worried about the speakers tipping backward. The second design aspect that can help is asymmetrically-mounted drivers. This usually concerns the tweeter unit, placed next to the other drivers. This gives the user two options to test: placing the speakers with the tweeters placed on the inside or outside. Most companies recommend the first option, but it will only take a moment to swap channels, and you may find that the reverse setting produces a sound that better suits your preferences. A third good option is the possibility of making appropriate adjustments to the speakers themselves. Unfortunately, this is still not a popular solution. Still, some manufacturers install various switches or provide jumpers with their speakers, to allow the user, for example, to adjust the lower or higher frequencies (Graham Audio LS5/9, Opera Grand Callas, Sonus Faber Aida, Focal Grande Utopia EM). In such cases, it’s worth checking whether the sound will change after connecting the cables differently or swapping the factory jumpers for something better (in the case of models with double or triple sockets). You should also remember that some speakers (JBL L100 Classic, Wharfedale Linton Heritage) are designed to work with grilles. Removing them can change the sound significantly, so experimenting is, as always, strongly encouraged.

A quick word on monitor speakers

With standmount loudspeakers, the most important thing to consider will be where to place them, which, in the real world, might be on a shelf under the TV, a desk or a bookcase, or perhaps on special stands that allow us to control the position of the drivers like with floorstanding speakers. The latter option is the best, not only because you can freely set the distance from the walls and the toe-in angle, but also to give the monitors solid support, which translates into a more transparent, more focused sound with stronger and better-controlled bass. Monitors placed on an unstable surface will (marginally, of course) vibrate, so some of the signal delivered to them will be wasted, and we won’t get what we need to hear. For this reason, high-quality stands are usually made of relatively heavy materials – steel, cast iron, wood, or stone. Many of them can be weighed down by filling them with sand or gravel. If buying special stands is not an option, we should ensure that the monitors are positioned as best as they can be – at the same height, with free space around them, pointed symmetrically at the listening spot, etc. When squeezing monitors into a bookcase or other tight space, the first thing we should consider is whether their bass-reflex ports will be able to pump air freely. Still, this method will likely be a compromise compared to using proper stands.

Is that all?

Of course not. There are several details that experienced audiophiles pay attention to. One such detail is the contact between the speakers and the ground. In the case of floorstanding loudspeakers, this is a less complicated matter, since we usually choose the type of feet that go with the floor. on hard floors, it’s safer to use flat feet covered with soft material or something like rubber balls. On carpets, it’s indispensable to use sharp spikes, which will give our speakers proper support. The basic rule is that the speakers should not wobble or tilt to the sides. The ability to screw feet or spikes under the cabinets and adjust their height is therefore invaluable.

Now, suppose we think that our speakers could use additional stabilization. In that case, we can put, for example, granite or marble slabs under them, which will provide excellent support and at the same time allow us to experiment with spikes or anti-vibration platforms without the risk of scratching the parquet floor or ruining the carpet. In the case of monitor speakers, we will have more work to do, because apart from the area where the stand touches the floor, we need to think about how to couple our speakers to their stands. One solution would be to buy factory stands that allow us to screw the speaker and stand together. In this case, we will see tapped screw holes underneath the monitors and in the top of the stands. However, nothing beats isolating the speakers from the stands by using special pads or spikes. If we don’t have the possibility of screwing feet into the speakers, we can use a soft adhesive material, such as Blu Tack.

Many audiophiles have struggled with how to isolate and stabilize their speakers. Eventually, however, most achieve an optimal configuration – maybe a granite slab on spikes and pads, metal stands filled with ballast up to 2/3 of their height, rubber anti-vibration discs, and then, standing on top of all this like a prize – their beloved monitor speakers. Some people add various accessories that are placed on top of the speakers, such as leather bags filled with vibration-absorbing materials, metal beaks, metal bowls, magic bricks, etc. To some, this seems ridiculous, but when we hear positive effects, it’s easy to get caught up in it.

Epilogue

Placing loudspeakers in a listening room is not as easy as one might think. It cannot be done in five minutes based on a few simple calculations. There is also no one-size-fits-all recipe that works with every speaker and in every room. If, when reading this guide, you felt it contained a lot of ambiguous advice along the lines of “you have to check it yourself”, “it is worth experimenting”, and “you can do it this way, but you can also do it quite differently”, that is precisely what speaker setup looks like. As much as we would like the world around us to be a little simpler, trying to outrun the laws of physics will not get us anywhere. It’s always worth experimenting with speaker setup because getting our speakers to sound their best is an invaluable learning process and a source of pleasure we can get for free. Whether the improvement in sound quality is minor or truly immense, the basic rule is always the same – if it sounds better, you’ve achieved your goal.

Article created in cooperation with Pylon Audio.

For more, visit StereoLife Magazine, a HiFi publication that offers “A Daily Dose of Audiophilism“.