Hey guys, I never suggested leaving the speakers out from the wall, it's just an experiment. Just try it! Pretty please.

And see what happens... I know what happens. You wife enters the room and asks you to put them back.

This is why i wished i owned a house so i could dedicate a room to this sort of stuff.

“Pull it out from the wall and see what happens” he says. What could possibly go wrong he says... Distance from the wall is exponentially related to the direct sound we hear...from the wife.

I have 80's Klipsch kg 4 which has 12" rear passive woofer. Have always had them in a corner. Moved them out 14" from flat wall instead and put them straight instead of toed in. All I can say is WOW!!! Bass boominess is gone and they are more alive with of course better mids and highs. Biggest difference is the sound stage is much wider. Sounds like my old speakers can BREATHE!. Thank you!!! 😀

Thank you Steve. Something so simple, something I've known I should try but haven't really experimented with before; it works!! Absolutely awesome!

I moved my speakers from 2 to 3 feet away and all the sudden there was a three dimensional soundstage behind the speakers. Theyre in my tiny bedroom and it made all the difference

Thanks for this advice Steve! I moved my towers roughly 3ft from the wall and it has made a big improvement!

Hi Steve - The Harbeth room at the New York Audio show was setup with the 40.2s in the near field. Maybe it was the arrangement of the chairs, but I didn’t care for that setup. They had the volume so loud the few times I dropped into that room, I really didn’t get a chance to appreciate those speakers. Anyway, I have been experimenting with speaker placement away from the walls and I generally find the sound to be more balanced and smooth. Thanks for this challenge and for all you do for this great pursuit of sound.

You are a smart cookie! I learn so much for your videos man. Peace to you. 🎼🎵 Rod

It works! Thank you for the advice. Now VdGG sounds even better!!

I wholeheartedly agree, especially for panel speakers like magneplanars, moving them out into the room improves things greatly!.

Funny I was trying that last night with my Harbeths, I found the sound stage became more apparent. Love Audio!

great advice. i own totem forest speaker. There are 3 claws under the speaker's and inside resides some decoupling bearings that helps moving the speakers around. It's like playing with an equalizer...closer to the wall give more bass, less definition and shrinks the soundstage by removing depth and instrument placement and separation. Moving them a couple of inches make difference....It' s a never ending dance...moving them further from the back wall improves soundstage, tightens the dynamics, but in my loft, reduces bass...making me wish for a subwoofer. near field listening eliminates these issues, and gives me the best listening setup...All good.

Hello Steve, I love your KZfaq videos. Very info and entertaining. I had my speakers tucked into a corner. It was a weird listening experience. It was good, but far from “ideal.” I belong to several Facebook groups and a member pointed out that my speaker placement would result in “bad imagining.” I decided instead of having my system and speakers going the width of the room (which is about 12 feet wide), to instead go the length of the room. I’m still experimenting (speaker placement isn’t the easiest thing). My speakers are now halfway down the length of the room as far away from walls as I can get them. The soundstage is bigger and wider! The music has room to do it’s thing. The room may look a little funny, but from now on, I’m designing my living room around my gear and not my gear around the room. Speaker placement is crucial, and so is the gear since I’m trying to place my gear and turntable as far away from my speakers as possible, but so far, digging the sound.

Hi Steve, this is from another video you did. Just want to let you know that I'm really really happy with my purchase of the klipsch rp-160m speaker, thanks to your review of the klipsch. Everything that you said about it is spot on (I wouldn't say the bass is ballsy), especially about the fact that it brings music to live, and it is very easy to work with, I'm powering it with the Vista Spark and my secret sauce iFitube2. It is my best system and it is below US$1K. I have 5 systems at home in 3 different size rooms. And the Klipsch now ranks on top of much more expensive gears like Dynaudio, Buchardt, SVS, Elac uf5. Thank you Steve for your dedication to this field! And your description of the NAD C316BEE is also spot on.

Ok Steve, so I own Klipsch RF7's which are my favorite sprakers. They always sounded pretty good to me. I had them about 2ft away from the wall. However, I decided to take your suggestion and pull them further away until they were 3ft. Ialso angled them more toward my usual listening position. WOW!!!!!! The difference is immediately noticeable! Even my sons, 19 & 25 respectively..noticed the difference such a small tweek made in the sound. Thanks for the suggestion, keep on keeping on!

I always pull my speakers out when I’m having a listen session, I’ve marked the best position on the floor with tape so when there not in use I move them back against the wall.

100% agree with your comments Steve... It's all good !!! ... In one listening room the Paradigm Studio 20's have mounting holes in the bottom so they directly mount/bolt to the Paradigm stands. (Awesome thinking to allow for easy moving). Changing the location of the the speakers and towing them in is simply magical. Close your eyes and the speakers simply disappear and sound stunning.

What's good Steve, I totally agree with you. I have my Martin Logan's Motion 15i bookshelf speakers pulled out 4 feet from the front wall and my Phantom Image is way Spooky, almost as if you can touch it, no kidding. By the way I permanently leave my setups in place out into the room cause I'm the type to get up at 2/3am just to listen to 8 bars of vocals for my system's transparency to put me back to sleep. A benefit of Audiophil-ing is when one experiences a emotional connection with the music at low volumes.

I recently purchased a pair of Dynaudio Special 40s---awesome speakers btw! At first, I thought I would need a sub since they are small 'bookshelf' speakers. I placed them about 20" from the wall on the Dynaudio stands and the bass is incredible!! Saved myself about $1500---no sub needed!

I had the blessing of moving to a 3600 sf house last year and finally had space! I moved my Martin Logan esl speakers 5 feet into the room. The transformation was dramatic. I finally got to hear a wide and deep soundstage. My wife hates the speaker cables and equipment rack but we agreed that I have one room just for my "audio stuff". I hope to compare a klipsch and a Focal later this year to see if I want to experiment with a different sound. I enjoy your daily videos very much.

Well then you have to deal with SBIR, low frequencies cancelling themselves out because of the speaker distance to the wall

Rule of 1/3's for speakers and listening position to produce the fewest standing waves and lowest distortion. Try it. Place speakers 1/3 the room length from the wall and each speaker should be placed at 1/3 the room width on the sides. The listening position should 1/3 the room length in.

I did it, and it made a huge difference! Thanks

Hi Steve. In my case my tower speakers are not placed near a wall, but at both sides of TV that is located in a kind of wood table over a small brick wall that splits the room into the living room and the dining room. I use to ear music seated on the couch, and I do not usually move the speakers in order of not changing the room decoration and harmony. Anyway I decided to do a serious listening moving the speakers towards the sweet spot in the couch. The results was very good in terms of stereo image, music dynamics and overall experience. Very enjoyable!! Thanks for your advices!

Preach it Steve. Preach it!

Thank you for your common sense tip about moving the speakers three feet from the wall...and then moving them back again if for whatever reason, you simply couldn’t leave them there. I did my level best to place the speakers so that I had the best sound stage possible at 18” from the wall because of existing furniture, room size etc. I must have been thinking that the speakers were like the pyramids of giza; once they’re positioned you don’t move them.....ever. It made a big difference in the imaging and overall sound stage. My mental block is gone. :)

Yes your absolutely right you can actually here each channel clearly especially when the music switches from channel to channel if you know what I mean

It seems that walls in general are the worst audiophile enemies.

Steve, it makes even more of a difference with omnidirectional speakers such as the Ohm Walsh 4. I had mine set up in a small room and could not get them to sound good, nor did I have the room to move the speakers farther out into the room,. A set of open wooden frames filled with rock wool insulation immediately behind the speakers made all the difference to absorb / disperse the immediate reflections, particularly at upper frequencies. These will have no impact on lower frequencies. A similar set up could be done by others if they do not have the room. Keeping the frames slightly off the wall (I made mine standing, like a Magnepan speaker) makes them more effective and easy to adjust. Cover the frame with fabric.

I had a Marantz System with Infinity speakers. Was disappointed with the sound. Moved speakers off shelves and on to floor. WOW. Big difference. Thanks Steve!

Strange that we call them Bookshelf Speakers and yet most just do not work well on a bookshelf lol

Strangely I dont have a huge room in my studio flat here in London -UK but it's a decent size and I did just that with my Missions SX2 that I purchased last year and literary moved them around 6inch or 7inch away from the wall and wow did it make a difference. The Missions SX2 are a large standmount and need room to realy work at their best and just by moving them 6-7 inches away from the room realy opened up the image. I have them facing straight farawrd with a very slight towing to get that perfect or near perfect centre image. I can't move them any more farward as it would be to close to me and in my room they sound better being more or less straight facing rather than completely towed in. Unfortunately my left speaker the Wall is a right angle and not great for bass notes at louder levels not alot I can do about that unless I move the wall... Lol. Left speaker is fine. These SX2 are Missions flagship range and are very easily driven and definitely don't need them on top of the wall the cabinet quality is made from a high quality of wood so they naturally produce loads of bass it's self does not need hardly any help from the walls.

I designed my homemade speakers to sound best all the way in the corner of the room, similar in size and concept to the old Tannoy York but with a 60x90 degree HF constant directivity horn to reduce room reflections. It involves the whole room in the sound but not in a delayed, reflective, or node canceling way, more like a live point source.

Against a wall is called 1/2 space loading. It reinforces the low portion of the frequency spectrum as if it was in a room 1/2 size. If it is in a corner, it is 1/4 space loading., same effect. It's physics really. Next, that sidewall reflection is most dominant where the sound reflecting from a sidewall will reach you first. Imagine looking in a mirror on the sidewall, and if you can see the speaker in it, dampen that part of the wall to kill that reflection. Curtains, sound absorbent panels, whatever. You want to eliminate bass reinforcement, and first wave reflection. You'll be amazed... ...

So I am glad you brought up speaker placement. I am having a dilemma because my two channel and my theater is in the same room. And was wondering about your thoughts on placing some "stand mount" speakers on top of my ZU Audio's? I would be using the ZU's as speaker stands. Do you think that will interfere with the sound of the ZU's when playing 2 channel music?

Great advice, but it also depends on room shape. In the living room the difference is not so much, but in a proper dedicated audio room the difference is significant.

I tried to follow the general guidelines of having the speakers a third of the way from the front wall (based on room dimensions) and the listening spot equidistant to the width between the speakers (equilateral triangle). You can further experiment to see if it sounds even better but I noticed moving the chair even a foot back totally degrades the sound. Using tower speakers angled a little offset. Bass is also definitely better doing it this way!

Steve, if can spare the time please come over and help me move my speakers. I am too damn old to lift them by myself anymore.

I have found they do sound best aprox 3' to 4' from the wall and also 3' in from the corners. Speakers are spaced 7 to 8' and depth of room is about 17' in length. With this setup I eliminate most of the dead spots in the room witch is ideal but of course it's not without the inconvenience of constantly having to move them back in their original up against the wall location. Benefits out weigh the hassle of moving my 86lbs towers but once you are seated it all makes it worth while.

Yes, you may be getting reflections from the back wall but, that happens anyway. If they are far enough away then the timing lag becomes so great that the brain may interpret it as reverb, a positive. Also, you increase direct SPL over reflected SPL simply because of the distance difference between them. as the speakers are moved toward the wall, the phase timing lag becomes less and can be interpreted as, well a bit mushy. If the speakers are very close to the wall, then the angles work to disperse the reflected sound more, so the mush begins to get attenuated. If the speakers are inserted into the wall so the face is flush with the wall. Guess what, the sound waves travel along the wall and create no reflections off it. True in this situation, the wall moderates dispersion loss at the boundary which is a phenomenon exploited by boundary mics, but that's another story. Also, you may get some nasty corner effects but you can attenuate that acoustically. The thing is, there are always adverse situation in rooms and different positions can attenuate some problems at the expense of reinforcing others. It just depends on balancing pros and cons for the particular room and your lifestyle. Try to attenuate the biggest issues though. So, how far from the wall do you need then to be? Well, in my PA research I came across an article that stated timing greater than 50 miliseconds was reverb. Sounds travels at 344 m/s so, 1 millisecond in, 0.3 m and 50 milliseconds over 15 m. On that basis, you have to have a the speakers at least 7.5 m from any surfaces. Hmm, that would be a large room indeed. I suspect that the 50 miliseconds may well be incorrect, that's my memory of the article though. Back when I was doing PA I had a very difficult room, practically impossible to get clarity. In the end I setup the 2 mains stacked vertically in the centre and right up against a brick wall. This gave by far the best clarity I of any other position and also noticeable minimized SPL loss over distance, due to the the stack being inverted (tweeter together, bass drivers far apart). Well, it worked very well for the audience, no great for the performers though. Sorry performers, the audience is the customer, both yours and mine. People said things like the best PA sound we have heard anywhere, or WOW someone doing true sound reinforcement. Well I really did try my best to get as close as possible to the stated aims anyway. You also have to listen for off axis effects. Generally, a speaker driver disperses low frequencies over a wider arc than high frequencies. This is partially a reason for multiply way speakers. as they tend to reset this off axis frequency dispersion for their frequency range. However, in the case of horns, the off axis sound drops off very quickly indeed. This means that moving a speaker close to a surface tends to reinforce bass and if horn tweeters are paired with bass rivers, this can be much more severe. This is why bookshelf and stand speakers can sound boomy on the floor. Stage foldbacks with horns are a disaster because the performers have the tweeter horn aimed at their faces but the bass bounce off the floor just reflects out of the stage area and destroys the audience tone and clarity, depending upon acoustic treatment of course. Guess how I know this... bane of my PA life.

I will definitely do this, although the hassle level of readjusting 8 spikes so the speakers don't wobble will definitely make it a one-time thing (unless it's so good I have to leave them there and screw having a living room with usable space in it)!

Thanks for the tip.

I have the tekton double impacts and can only pull them out about a foot from the back wall and 18inches from the side wall. This puts me 7feet from the speakers. I have 2inch thick 6ft by 4ft sound treatment behind and ext to each speaker. Also 4foot high "super chunk" bass traps. The sound treatments helped a good bit. Would more room treatment help make up for the limited speaker placement? Or would I be better off getting a smaller book shelf speaker sub combo ?(would give maybe another foot from back wall)

I learned to love high end speakers where I first encountered them... in recording studio control rooms in the late 70s-early 80s so when I built my listening room in 1985 my speakers got mounted in an enclosed soffit under the ceiling 7 feet above the floor, toed in about 10 degrees and angled down about 20 degrees and I've been blissfully happy ever since. For some strange reason I NEED speakers mounted high above me with no consideration for any distance from the wall. I'm of the opinion that if this style of positioning is good enough for The Record Plant and Electric Lady Studios, it's good enough for me.

You couldn't look more like a music/audio technical expert guy if you tried. It's perfect.

It really depends on the speakers. Some are designed with that in mind and therefore sound better when nearer the wall.

Any space saving suggestions? Or any great value speaker stand suggestions?

So I moved my modest audio system from my living room a 600sq ft into my band room a 1500 sq ft rectangular room with a sloped ceiling. I have set up my audio system facing the longer length of the room 49 ft. The speakers are placed at about 15ft from the front wall and 15 ft apart and 8ft away from the side walls. My listening position is at a 1/3 distance from rear wall, making about an equilateral triangle from listening position to speakers. WOW! I have never heard my Klipsch RF3 in this environment. I found the original floor spikes and the speaker post jumpers. I eliminated the bi-wiring and I am listening to some beautiful mids and lows like never before. I have had these speakers for about 16 years. Total cost a few sweat drops and elbow grease. Thanks.

Hey Steve I have two 6' X 3' window behind my speakers they have a 31" wall separating the two. Do you think I should use acoustic panels at the 31" wall or diffuser panels ?

I tried it out with both my technics sb-m300m2 and Mission MX2 speakers. The technics has an internal driver/woofer pointed to the back. I placed the speakers about a meter from the wall, two meters apart, and over a meter high on two small closets which I had shifted forward. I normally had the speakers placed against the wall on two large closets, very close to the ceiling. To my surprise the sound is not that much different. The stereo image or soundstage is a little better though. I can hear sounds in the middle as if they come from in between the speakers. I also could recreate that effect with the speakers on the high closets, but then the sound in the middle comes from up high, as if Carlos is standing on a pedestal. Extra information, my room dimension are approximately 3.20m width 4.30m length 2.45m high

Ladies and Gentlemen, what you've just watched is consolidated wisdom. Succinct. Valuable. No fluff. No 30-second intro. Just meat and potatoes. Yum.

Interesting, I own just budget gear, just a pair of tannoy v4i's connected to a Sony STR DN1040 AV receiver and I played UB40 lonely girl via my old and lovely Marantz cd6000se and upon moving my speakers forward around 18" from the corners I noticed quite an improvement in clarity and definition, I will work on this further over weekend plus order up the capacitors for my NAD3030 I've been meaning to finish up. Thank you Steve for rekindling my interest in my setup with something so simple 👍

Hey Steve, what are your thoughts on "spiking" speakers to reduce unwanted distortion, my speakers(30 yr. old Linear Dynamics) have no ports, produce massive bass that shakes the room.

In my 28m^2 (300ft^2) normal damped living room, my listening posistion is approximately 3.5 meters. The speakers (Dynaudio Contour S3.4) are placed with a distance of 76cm (2.5ft) measured from the diaphragms to the rear wall. To my taste I have blocked the rear port with the supplied foam plugs to transform the speakers from bass reflex to closed box. The bass respose is quite uniform with a good transient performance. Listening to the speakers "unplugged", the bass is boomy and nuances are somewhat drowned. Moving the speakers further away from the back wall is absolutely needed if I should listen in bass reflex mode. But then I will have to move my listening posistion further back and have to deal with a much more pronounced standing wave - sigh. That only goes to tell that every room and speakers must be setup individually to suit your taste. Happy listening. Peter

hi i was wondering about that i found 3 method for speaker placement -the rule of 3 from dynaudio along with decoupling no point - the cardas method which is a ratio width and length of the room - and jm lab ( focal nowadays ) which is also a ratio taking into account the height of the woofer they all have one thing in common which is never the same distance between rear and sidewall which one is in your experience the best way to go ?

Steve, what do you suggest for 5.1 systems?

Aren't bookshelf speakers like the Polk Audio RTi A1, which come with wall mounts, not designed to be close to the wall?

I'm so lucky that my wife totally gets me. When we went house shopping she said it had to have a nice kitchen for her, and a nice big room for me. My stuff is setup how I want it. WAF sucks.

Yes sir...!!! Im gonna add wheels to my large cabinets which is holding philips 1255/M7's. You're absolutely right it makes a massive difference.

I liked your comment in that you can move the speakers for listening sessions... what that Staples button "THAT WAS EASY!"

👍.. I'm a constant mover of my speakers.. I will play with them for different genres of music..

Steve, I keep my FORTE ONES on a couple $6 HARBOR FREIGHT 4 wheeled furniture movers. A. Pull them out, move them around to the SWEET SPOT where the soundstage, stereo separation and instrument placement is GREAT! B. When the wife gets home, roll them back into "POSITION", turn stereo off. C. Immediately warm up tube amp, plug in STRATOCASTER & DO YOUR BEST TO SOUND LIKE SRV, 60 watts is ideal! D. Wife enters your MAN CAVE and BEGS you to put in a SRV DVD, LIVE AT THE EL MOCAMBO is your obvious first choice. Ask can the KLIPSCH FORTES be moved slightly? E. YES! WHATEVER IT TAKES!!! F. PROBLEM SOLVED. PERMANENTLY. ;)

Do the old folks like me remember the EPI 50 model? This small enclosure was designed to be put in a corner for best bass!!! I think they also had a model or two that were designed for the corner but not at the ceiling. So for the 50s it was top corner R and L but for the 80 or 100 model (I forget which) it was mid-way between the floor and ceiling in the corner. I'm presently planing a redo.of the crossovers in my brother's 50s - currently they have no high end. I should try to report back after the repair. Thanks to Steve for starting this conversation!

Hi Steve... I agree, get theme out from the Wall. I’ve never thought about it but mine speakers was placed 2 feed from the Wall and always be’en told i’ve got “my sound”. Cause all my stuff is placed off the Wall i’ve just never see why my stereo always sounded Best...but that’s why!

The vocals sounds clearer as if the speaker became invisible… oh btw, that vocal were my wife’s yelling at me

I had a pair of old Klipsch KSB 3.1 Bookshelves speakers which were about a foot away from the wall and forward facing into the room. When I moved them about 3 foot away and toed them towards the sweet spot the performance of the speakers was far better sounding. However this isn't applicable for aesthetics of the room being a great room. I ended up replacing them with Ohm Acoustics Walsh 3000 omni directional's which the wall really works well with them. I can keep them about a foot from the wall and front facing and they sound great.

Perhaps Steve will discuss the pro's and con's of the next step in speaker placement, which is near-field listening to speakers placed 1/5 to 1/3 of the way out into the room.

How about the distance between the speakers and a side wall. Does that also create a problem and if so what is the preferred distance between the speaker and side wall?

Speakers nearly always sound better away from the wall, with very few exceptions. 3' from center of the cabinet to the wall is usually the minimum for the best imaging and avoiding midbass nulls. If you can't move them away from the wall, put up absorption panels - many of them!

I will give it a try when I get some more speaker cable :)))))). But as a rule the further away from the wall they are will present you with less bass from the speakers. My Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 bookshelf speakers are only a few inches away from the wall, and the bass ports are on the front of the speakers and not the back. So this means you can place them closer to the wall. But as a rule I am fine with reflections in relation to having a more direct sound coming straight at you. For example I have a 7.1 set up and I had no real way of putting the extra 2 speakers where they was intended to go, in the room. So I brought a couple of ceiling speakers for those and put them in the ceiling. Most source material is 5.1 anyway so having the extra 2 speakers was not really that important for me to place them where they should be. So I placed them in the ceiling above my head in my seating position. But whenever I just play stereo through my front 2 speakers it can even sound like I have surround sound and I am well impressed with how it all projects at your ears. For example I can hear music coming from everywhere. From the front, behind me, in the air towards the ceiling and when I first heard it I even had to put my ears by all my other speakers that was not turned on just to see if they was. I even had to fetch a chair from the kitchen to stand on to make sure there was no sound coming from my ceiling speakers. I am not saying all genres of music will produce this effect but most of the music I listen to does and I think it's bloody amazing :))))). I have always seen stereo as a field where instruments can be placed by increments from within that field in a mix, so it can project the sound from anywhere within that field from left to right. By having certain reflections you can project that sound even further. Now I do not know if this a good thing or not. But I sure as hell like it, and it pretty much works for me.

What I am interested in knowing is when they are sound treatment applied in the the front wall, how much the treatment will help and how much the wall treatment can shorten the front wall distance. I know that 5 ms thing but in all practicality if there are relatively reasonable sound treatment there, how much will those treatment be good for reclaiming the space?

the room with my speakers, they have to be pretty close to the wall. How do I reduce reflections?

I see you have Klipsch Fortes behind you, as they have a passive radiator at the back - do you think this advice applies to them too?

Hey Steve, Thanks for your effort, i am checking in daily :) When talking about reflection and direct radiating speakers. What is your take on the orto-acoustic constructions of Stig Carlsson and John Larsen? I had the pleasure of owning the Sonab OA2212, the flagship of Stig Carlssons Sonab era. Amazing speakers! These speakers MUST be placed up against the wall to reveal the sonic abilities, they truly are amazing. Just passed them on and are now awaiting the arrival of the Larsen 8.2. For now i have a pair of directional speakers in my living room, and man, i really miss the omni directional approach. Can't wait for the Larsens to arrive.... It is a totally different approach to listening, as the speakers use the walls to reflect and project the sound in a manner that eliminates the narrow sweet spot or traditional direct radiating speaker design. Keep it up! Jan

Excellent advice. Though some speaker systems are designed to be placed against a wall such as the Allison systems from the 1970's/80's. Can't argue with good results so put speakers where they sound best, if you're able.

Yup, when listening, I pull my Delcoid satellites about 4 ft from the wall. It makes a huge difference in sound stage and imaging.

Thanks. I reposition my speakers at least twice a day,every day searching for that ultimate sweet spot. Trying to squeeze every last drop of sonic bliss out of my cheap speakers.

I have my vintage Sansui speakers 🔊🔊3 feet away from the back wall and they sound excellent!

Hi. I v enjoyed your videos as a complete novice. I ve only got a Denon M41 with the Denon SC 41 bookshelf speakers. I vet put them on speaker stands about 2 ft away from the wall and it’s made a huge difference. Have you ever done a video starting from scratch to build up a hi fit system without breaking the bank. Am very tempted to start collecting some vintage separates. This would possibly be a long term project. Advice would be great. Thanks again for your helpful videos

Regarding ported bookshelf speakers, I wonder if Andrew Jones didn't help us a lot with the dot 2 versions of the Elac Debut series. He put the port on the FRONT. Did it help? Even a little bit?

My speakers weigh 175 pounds each on carpet. I would need some wheels on tracks to move them. I did try them further out and I lost some bass. Now I listen at 7.5 feet away and the tweeters are 80 inches apart toed in. I'm loving the way they sound now. And speaker placement has made an amazing difference. The distance from the back wall to the front of the tweeter is 32 inches. I do have pretty good dampening in the room it that makes much difference.

I pull my Magnepans out when I listen, I don't care if they're right up the wall or cabinet if I'm not using them. My Maggies are fairly light and compact (MG10). Good point Steve!

Steve what if your speakers a designed to be closer to the rear wall like some UK speakers? Isn't it really impacted by the speakers design parameters and the room itself. My experience is that often speakers moved far out in a room may gain in imaging and high end detail but lose in overall balance

Check out the Mapleshade Audio web site. They have an interesting section on "free upgrades" which includes instructions on speaker placement. They say people usually sit too far from their speakers and put them too close to the wall.

Well, I tried my speakers (Harbeth Super HL5) anywhere between 40 cm and 1 m from the back wall (1-3ft) and it does make a big difference. Further away, not so much, but 1m, absolutely! I used some invisible ink from a marker (security type thing) and a black light to move them back and forth, and still keep track where they seem to sound really good... Bass response is a bit less further away from the wall, but I'm using a 30 wpc valve (tube) amp (45 wpc on 6 ohms, which is what the Harbeths do). Bass response does go very low though. I can still hear 40- Hz...

i have a very tiny room. and I can pull my speakers, at most, 4 inches away from the wall. I am getting bookshelf speakers that reportedly lack bass. Does the lack of bass make it better for me since I can't move it away from the walls? ps. i have a dedicated subwoofer for bass. in a corner that can't be moved either

Three feet from all the walls clarifies the stereo effect in my listening spot, including the virtual position of bass images.

My speakers are in a smallish bedroom so there’s literally no room to move them away from the wall. I have them up close to the front wall but im cutting 4 or 5db of bass (shelf eq) at the amplifier to compensate and it sounds pretty balanced and good to my ears. So yeah if you just can’t move the speakers out I would recommend trying a bass cut on your amp if you have those controls available.

Always have my speakers away from the wall, minimum 24 inches most of the time 36 inches plus.Had my Magneplaner,s 4 feet from the wall which is a must with planers or electrostatic speakers.My current ob speakers 36 inches, had a pair of totem model 1's years ago about 8 inches from the wall improved bass response worked well.

Steve, about 15yrs ago I had Cerwin Vegas with 15" woofer dual 5" mids a polycell tweeter an I think a 6" rear faceing Bass Port. They were the speakers of my dreams since being a teenager in the mid 80s, ones you had to move around with a hand truck.... Was it wrong of my theory to tryn "Bass Load" the corners of the room for my Rock&Roll/Metal listening by having them only 18" out from the corners of the wall??

Depends on what speakers you use. Rear port, front port, sealed, infinamate baff, etc

My Vandies are about 3’ from the wall. I do not have the og stands, which I’m on the hunt for, so they are on milk Krates. Great suggestion Steve. Thanks Adam, Record Krate, Raleigh North Carolina

Ok Steve, I moved the A7's out four feet. I now have a new pair of speakers, they did sound good, now they sound great.

Due to my living room layout, my wife would kill me if I moved my speakers away from the wall

AudiophilePolice hahah good one

It's possible to place the speakers right on the wall and mitigate reflections, but then the wall becomes a baffle, so unless the speakers are voiced properly, the wall-baffle will cause bloated sound, even without delayed reflections. Controlled dispersion speakers, ie horns or line arrays, can be placed directly into the corners of a room, where the speaker's 90-degree horizontal dispersion and the room's 90-degree angle coincide to virtually eliminate boundary reflections.

Speakers against a wall will have up to a 6 dB low end boost. Speakers away from the wall will lose low end at the frequency which is 1/4 of its wavelength. It’s all about finding the best comprise, try it and do what sounds best!

Pulling the speakers out actually didnt change the reflections at all. Im using the presonus eris e66 (front left & front right), presonus r65 pair (rear left & rear right), svs prime center speakers (center), and the krk s10 subwoofer for drivers, mackie big knob studio 4x3 for controller, and the focusrite scarlett 18i20 audio interface. The room size is 7x12' with a slanted ceiling. No audio change even with no audio dampening equiptment. However this technique did make a difference in my very large living room where all you could hear is reflections. Thanks! -Jake