Poll: How many feet away do you sit from your speakers?

The advice of Mapleshade records gave me the inspiration to post a poll here. They claim that sitting approx. five feet away from the speakers will yield excellent results "roughly like spending 100% more on speakers" I recently tried this, and have been pleased with the results. So how many feet do you sit from your speakers?

 

I am at 7', but my speakers are a couple of feet out and away from the front and side walls.

 

Nine feet from my bookshelf speakers at ear-level.

 

11.5' approx. My system just sounds better at this distance as opposed to closer.

 

16' for me. It was 18' until a few months ago.

 

10' for me. Mine is a surround system so I find 10-12' from all speakers works best.

 

My room isn't that big, so I have to sit about 7' away from the speakers, it always gives me that up close and personal sound I love, it only really bothers me if I have a bad pressing and the noise level is obvious, but it doesn't last long as I can always manage to replace a bad pressing.

I understand that the important thing is to sit that bit further away than the distance between your speakers, e.g. if your speakers are 6' apart sit about 7-9' away. Speaker toe-in is very important, have them angled so that the sound meets slightly in front of you. That's what they recommended for my speakers Acoustic Energy AE1s.
JG

 

I would guess I'm about 8ft from my speakers (Klipsch Forte) if sitting, with maybe 6ft between speakers.

Have to mention though.... A couple of months ago I was doing a massive 're-org' and place was a mess: speakers in middle of room, me sorting papers into files, kneeling on floor.
Late at night, with sound down very low, speakers next to my head (2-3 ft? effectively like largish headphones), Wow! I was really taken by the quality of the sound! One of those: keep putting on favorite tracks kind of nights....

Caveat:..... I assumed that was a result of speaker proximity.
On the other hand, I know tube amps put out 'cleaner' watts at lower levels--so another explanation could be that I was listening at super low vol. (well sub one watt) due to very late night--and headphone-like speaker placement. So, could have been 'signal'?--not speaker placement--?

Mark

 

I'm right at 10 feet, so I had to vote 10+

My speakers are HUGE so some distance is needed methinks.

I moved from an apartment to a house in Setember and my gear stayed the same but the sound changed a lot! I now have more room between the spks and the front wall, and my sofa is 2-3ft away from the back wall when I used to sit directly against it. The old set-up made for fantastic bass. My new room has better soundstaging and depth, but I lost some bass in the process. Sometimes I wonder if it was an acceptable trade-off, but there's not much to do about it now

 

Proper speaker placement is tricky, and, while I'm not saying that the various articles on the internet are totally correct, my own experience suggests that the primary listening position should approximate an equilateral triangle based on the rule of thirds.

But I questioned whether or not the poll question was basing the distance from listener to speaker, or to that imaginary point that would be a perpendicular line equidistant between the speakers.

 

I have relatively large speakers, so I'm about 12 feet from them.

AJH

 

7' for me.

 

I sit 13' away from my speakers with 7' between them. I would like to bring them approx. 2-3' closer to my listening position but I'm short on speaker cable. I guess it's time to pick up some new speaker cables from Grover.

 

My couch is 6 feet from the rear wall, and about 10 feet from the main right/left front speakers. Front speakers are about 2 feet from the rear wall and about 5 feet from the side walls and about 8 feet from each other. My SACD rear surrounds are about 2 feet from side walls, close to the rear wall and angeled 145 degrees in ward. My front speakers toe in is approximately 12.5 degrees off center, and the sub-woofer is located very near the front stage-left corner. It is all cozy and warm sounding, with music everywhere.

 

I have the same problem my room isn't big enough to sit back further. Thiel wants the listener to sit the same distance as the distance between the speakers. I like to toe them in just a tad.

 

About 11 feet. Speakers are 8 - 9 feet apart.

 

I don't know if you what you say about the Thiels being equidistant is purely instructions for their speakers..

Every single thing I have read about speaker setup, always advises that the distance between you and the speakers is greater than the distance between the speakers.
JG

 

I could be wrong, but to my recollection Thiel wants the listener at equidistant.

 

I just went to the Thiel site and this is what I read.

Because of their very wide, even dispersion of energy at all frequencies, THIEL speakers should usually be placed farther apart than most. The position of the speakers should form roughly an equilateral triangle with the listener although this will depend on the width of the room--a narrow room will require closer placement. If the room is wide enough, ideal spacing is usually about ten feet apart.

 

If I want really wonderful imaging, I'm about five feet away and dead between my speakers. This is how I do the most serious of my critical listening...

 

About 7 feet away and about 5 feet apart. There only a foot away from the wall and 2 feet from the sides.

The speakers (3-way Monitors) are wall mounted (adjustable mounts) and two feet above ear level, and after I paint (Spring Cleaning) I can only lower them a foot. But I still get a good sound stage.

 

about 12'

 

My speakers are about 7 feet apart, and my listening position is centered approximately 9 1/2 feet from the speakers.



Ed Hurdle
HeavyDistortion

 

It depends on the speakers. When I designed/sold speakers, I found that many folks were sitting too far away from their 6.5" or 8" 2-ways. But try sitting 5 feet from a pair of SC-VIs, Sovereigns, or Grand Slamms.

For the record, I usually sit between 1 and 2 times the distance separating the speakers away from them- but then I tend to favor a solid middle.