As mentioned in the video, purchase Jim's book here: www.getbettersound.com/store

Jim Smith is one of Kickstarter's great 'disappearing acts'- a decade ago many of us audiophiles contributed to his "Through the Sound Barrier" campaign ($118 in my case). Since then we've had a few dozen updates, but nothing has ever been delivered to us (our contributions having disappeared into his ether), just endless promises from him of being nearly done, excuses re. health issues, etc. He appears much better at setting up promises to be broken than he is with speakers.

A pleasure to watch and listen. Thank you so much

Pretty incredible! I just re-adjusted my setup and wow, there is a noticeable difference! I was close to begin with but without wanting to move my seat distance I moved the speakers about 6" closer together and major improvement in soundstage, Imaging and clarity/focus. THANKS!

Great advice. I was previously too far back but always noticed better, impactful sound when leaning forward. Moved couch up to that same lean-forward spot and it measured 82.5%!

I have this book from years ago. It has helped me with many speakers in my often difficult rooms. Most of us are in a situation where our listening rooms double as living space. This nook had helped me IMMENSELY in dealing with that. Between this book and my belief that the physics of sound reproduction don't lie I continue to love the way my system sounds and those of friends I have (or tried!) to help. Thanks, Jim

Great to see this interview I have Jim’s book and have read it several times, it’s like magic for your sound system This is definitely a book you should have to set up your system Thanks JIM Take Care

After years of inching the speakers and furniture around, i adjusted the x and y to hit 84% and everything has snapped into focus. Outstanding.

Really worked well and made an improvement . I had my speaker too far apart doing this “by ear” on previous attempts. His comments about integrating the bass better really played out with a better .83 set up

Used to be a time when TAS was filled with articles on room placement, getting the best sound from our systems and the like. Haven't seen the like since the mid '90s (not on a steady basis). Used to be once every 6 issues, along with reviewer showing diagrams of their listening rooms and what was important to them in music reproduction. First 20 years or so: mucho articles with focus helping readership acquire top sound quality. Last 20, hardly at all.

Fantastic!!

OMG!!!!! I just try this out od curiosity and my jaws dropped! Wow wow wow!

I recently arrived at a similar arrangement just by trial and error. I’ve never had an enjoyable experience with the equilateral triangle and I really don’t like my speakers toed in because you lose some of the scale of the soundstage. Also, I just don’t like tweeters aimed right at my ears. I much prefer the off-axis sound. I just measured my current arrangement and found it to be 88%. My only choice is to sit closer to the back wall or move my speakers closer to the front wall (neither is optimal). I have a credenza between my speakers so I can’t move them closer together. But this has got me thinking about something I’ve considered for awhile which is to move the credenza to a sidewall which would allow me to move the speakers closer together and would also have the sonic benefit of removing a point of diffraction from between the speakers. Definitely buying the book!!

I used this method combined with the master speaker placement. I used a couple of long cables taped to the floor from the listening position out to the speakers in the 83% ratio. I then used the master placement technique pulling one speaker away from the wall but instead of coming parallel down the room i followed the cable line towards the listening position so i was always in a 83% ratio. This worked absolutely amazing, i have a clean frequency response (to my ear) and a soundstage where it feels like im sat inside the recording. Give it a bash, hardest bit it calculating the rake of the 83% line.

Great interview! Confirms what I already believed. You're basically creating an upside down Isosceles triangle tweaked / adjusted to maximum benefit. I completely agree that setting up to an equilateral triangle is not optimum and ultimately sounds thin. Please keep these expert interviews coming! Thanks!

I was lucky enough to see Jim lecture at Axpona in Atlanta (the one year they held it here) back about 15 years ago. I wish every review or at least every speaker review was required by law (lol) to start with the all of the room dimensions and a description of contents (and treatments whether they be actual or just room furnishings) as well as speaker placement. Then list all of the equipment (which does happen a good portion of the time). Then the review may be of help. I'd say more about the lecture but buy the book 😉😉🙂 Back about 20 years ago I took my almost new BMW R1100GS "off-road" on the Blue Ridge Parkway on a long sweeping turn at 65 mph, through a ditch and halfway up the hillside before it fell over. The guy I was riding with had the same bike and he was in front of me and it took him awhile too figure out I wasn't behind him. We were headed to the BMW National Rally that was in NC that year. I was laughing by the time he got there. Several people stopped to help get the bike back down to the road and get the weeds and dirt off. The handlebars looked a little crooked but I turned the key and it started and off we went. A little sore for the next couple days for sure. Any other bike I might have been dead (which is why I was laughing). I did have full Aerostich (correct spelling) suit on with shoulder and knee pads.

WOW I just measured my home reference setup done previously by happenstance around furniture, and this IS nearly spot on....the 'Y' measure is not straight back from the centerline between the tweeter width ( I found that dialog confusing) but from each tweeter angled to my centered seat - thus at an angle on each side to my seat - hope that was what was meant.....lucky me anyway

Thank you Jim.

Major-Breakthrough for Speakers ! 😃 New JERN 35 Monitors made out of High-Graphite CAST IRON ! 🙂 Real Game-Changer...😉

Best advice. It’s better than the equilateral triangle others are recommending. I just tried it out, def much better results. Thank you so much.

Right on the nose! I moved my listening spot recently because it sounded better, then I found your video and had too measure and sure enough roughly 83%.

Nothing better than listening to a fine system when baked on edibles. They are the ultimate tweak. Loving the channel guys. Sorry but true 👆

How to find the listening position?

I'm a dummy. So the distance between the speakers (X) is 82% of Y?

Finally, Jim Smith on YT! Great book. Every audiophile should read it. Lots of useful info. This boiled down advice is essential . 🎵🎶😊🎶🎵 PS. Just checked: 8.5ft to (vertical) LRS tweeters. 7ft apart= 83% Not a "rule" but...thanks Jim!

I've had the pleasure of watching Jim bring about the music magic. AMAZING! Great interview thanks. I see a pair of Magico M3s in his future

How many audiophiles immediately get out their measuring tapes after this video was finished?

What about Dirac?

I can’t get the expected results in my room with the Kef LS50... the sound is more forward with less meat on the bones and the soundstage got less defined... I will try again with other speakers.

Very interesting. I will go home and measure, but I am surprised no distance to the back wall was mentioned.

it's a little confusing, are the speakers closer together than the listening distance? I am gathering you should be sitting further away then the speaker than they are closer together so the narrow part of the triangle is the distance the speakers are apart.

Some speakers are meant to be setup close(r) to the wall, and many are not. So - playing it by ear - literally?

Mixing engineers have always maintained an equilateral triangle configuration, which would be 1.00.

What is that in ft or inches??

This was very confusing , 83 what? What does it mean and what to do with that number ?!

Jim started a kickstarter campaign for a new book 10 years ago and has not delivered the new book. Trust this guy at your own risk.

First nine minutes is all resume. Relevant information is from 9-12 minute marks.

I do get out my tape measure as l have Magnepan speakers When the wife is not looking l put painters tape on the carpet : ) I like to put my Maggie's back againt the wall when I'm not doing critical listening Most probably know, but if you measure from outside to inside of the speakers it the same as trying to measure from center to center I have found if l set my Maggie's 4' from the wall, 9' apart and 11' from my listening position and slight toe in gives me best music presentation to my ears Trust me l have experimented many different locations! My only issue is my listening position is againt the back wall

Meh. Sadly, it didn’t work for my system, actually closed in the soundstage of my system when I tried it. I went back to my equilateral triangle setup for my GoldenEar Triton Ones.

Jim has stolen from people with repeated excuses. I even requested a refund a few months ago. No response. This person does not deserve to be featured on you show. He has stolen money from thousands of people and has lied to us for years. I will not watch your videos anymore, it shows a lack of judgement on your part.

Wow...am blown away...gonna build my next house with triangular rooms, thanks Dr.Jim!

Subs take forever

Over 2000 people sit in a concert hall and every one of them hears something better than you'd hear from the best hi fi system. I don't believe in sweet spots. If you have to adjust your speakers and seat with a micrometer it's not good design. If people have very expensive equipment that sounds terrible and they don't know it sounds terrible and haven't tried to do something about it then they have spent far too much money on equipment.

I measured mine after watching the video and it was 83.7.

Hey Jim, where is my Kickstarter music that you promised us that you would get to us 10 years ago to help us tune our audiophile systems. 10 years of excuses, and nothing except you taken our money.

Hard to believe, but I just measured mine and it turned out to be 84.12%! Pretty darn close.

So that I'm not missing something.... Whatever the distance is BETWEEN your speakers, your seating position should be about 83% of that amount, correct?

If you're not setting up in a dedicated listening room, you're still missing the boat by miles and miles. In the video, the host states that they are in his listing room. For one thing, YOUR room should NEVER have an untreated window in it, much less a wall of records, cd's, and other unnecessary shit in the room. Before one thinks about setup, you have to TREAT the room! This means setting it up for sound and not looks! While music/sound is a subjective art, the physics of a sound wave is quite objective, measurable, and controllable. A room can, and usually does create far more distortion than the gear. In most cases, the listener is hearing 30% of their gear and 70% of the room.

Hears a tip before spending money on any audio systems go get a hearing check if your hearing is great then spend time and money on this hobby if you desire .

Perhaps this works for rich people with large rooms with wide space between speakers resulting in more distance, but in my normal middle/working class home with a normal size room this results in being too close and the soundstage collapsing to inside the speakers and the speakers becoming "visible." Everything just feels and sounds wrong. This just does not work.

Jim works large rooms in the far field. 60 degree equaliteral triangle placement in that large a room would be absurd so he prefers 83.5 ratios that work out to a tighter angular degree in width, that is, TIGHTER than a 60 degree spread. When Jim uses his test records on setups he places the instruments the same place every time. And that means it measures close to the same every time. What is the mystery here? And what makes you guys at the Absolute Sound think this is a revelation and somehow more important than the other 99 things you need to do to get the room right? This is interesting stuff but pretty much out of context in the scheme of setup priorities... I do this for a living too and have built over a thousand rooms so I also know what I am talking about. I am pretty disgusted that after pretty much ignoring the subject at the magazine and at Stereophile too---all of a sudden you experts start focusing on one tiny little aspect. As usual one tiny aspect is important in the "high End" rather than the "big picture stuff" is---which is also ridiculous on its face IMO. And pretty much how you guys roll. Buy the guy's book and do the other 99 things and you tell ME what is important then---OK?

High end audio is a dying hobby in America. So many audiophiles are ready to kick the bucket.

The sound is bad, it does not do justice to the name of the channel, they will also have to learn how to locate a video camera for an interview. Thumbs down.

Where to buy that book?