hifi-advice.com - speaker placement

Apart from the obvious moving around of the speakers, there are some other variables to hooking up and installation of loudspeakers.

Spikes, no feet or soft rubber feet

For starters, never underestimate how much spikes can do for the sound. Most people think of them as a nice cosmetic touch. But they're more than that. There are many oft-heard reasons behind this, but I don't always agree on how the effect is explained. "Decoupling" for example really isn't possible, you're always coupling your speakers to the floor, be it via elastic bands, rubber feet or hard metal spikes. The thing is, all methods do sound different.

In fact, with spikes, you're hard-coupling your speakers more firmly to the floor. This has the tendency to tighten up the bass, make it faster and give more speed to the overall sound. Compared to no spikes, or rubber feet, spikes also make the sound more controlled and possibly more dry, so you're probably best off not using spikes if your sound is already very controlled. But most situations do call for spikes.

Soft materials like rubber or elastomers are really twofold in the effect they bring to the sound. When used under speakers their effect is arguably most clearly heard, better that is than under components. The plus side is that the high frequencies and the midband get more natural, more fluid and rounded. Sadly the downside is that the same goes for the bass: it gets wooly and rounded and loses some of its pace and attack. Unless your system is too clinical, most of the time this is not disirable.

Toe-in

This is also an oft-underestimated aspect of speaker placement. The more accurate the speakers are, the more important this issue becomes. Whether you like them straight at your ears or more parallel is a matter of taste, but at all times, be sure to experiment and make sure that the speakers are aligned in an exact mirror-like fashion. So make sure that the left speaker has the same toe in and distance as the right speaker. Paying attention to this reall pays in the areas of focus, coherence and soundstage size.

Distance from listening position

What happens if one speaker is further away from the listening position than the other, even if it's only a centimeter, is that the bass becomes less controlled, less tight and more woolly than when the speaker are totally aligned. 100% accurate alignment gives the tightest, most dynamic bass and attack. Do note: This does not neccesarily give "most" bass, as inaccurate placement can make bass seem bigger and fuller when in fact it is slightly out of phase and therefore woolier. Sometimes a slight misplacement will actually give a more rewarding bass experience because it can be less dry than when the speakers are fully aligned. In that case, don't worry and just enjoy the sound. Remember, separate from everything I speak of in these pages, it's still a very personal experience!

Relative speaker position

Relative placement of one speaker to the other also matters quite a lot. That this is true for panel-speakers such as electrostatics or line sources such as long ribbon tweeters is probably known, but that it also matters for regular dynamic speakers is less well known. But it can be very worthwile for the focus and stability of the soundstage, to carefully align the speakers such that the tweeters are at the same hight and vertically at the same angle.

Tilting

Tilt is the angle at which the speaker is relative to the floor. Some speakers are more sensitive to this than others. For example, electrostatic and magnetostatic "panel" speakers' sound can be easily customised to taste by adjusting the tilting. There are no definite rules on this, and the result can differ per listening room. In my listening room, with Magnepan MG3.6R magnetostatic speakers, the sound becomes more forward, more agressive and subjectively more detailed when the speakers are tilted backward, ie leaning backwards. When tilted forward, they sound more relaxed, get less agressive and forward in the midrange and become more airy in the treble. The same was true for my previous Martin Logan SL3 electrostatics, in a different room. But your results may vary. Just know that even small differences in tilt can make for large audible differences.

Fastening speaker units

This is something I first experienced with the B&W Nautilus 804's. I bought them new but over the coarse of a few months, the sound became too relaxed, and the bass a little slow. When I tightened the screws that fasten the units to the cabinets, the bass greatly benefited! It became tighter, faster and subjectively more dynamic. I've had N804's eversince and it turns out that their bass units need some re-tightening every now and then. Depending on how your units are attached, it can be important to be careful not to use too much force as this can damage the threading and actually cause a permanent looseness.

Swap left and right speaker

This might be surprising but just swapping the left and right speaker can make a difference. This is so because speakers are always slightly different from one another. It's very difficult to make them exactly the same since you're dealing with mechanical devices. Therefore, because rooms are moste of the time also irregular, sometimes one speaker's positive sides can work together with the room's downsides and vice versa. That's why you should experiment with this.

Biwire

Never mind at this stage whether biwiring is better or not because opinions differ greatly on this subject. But it does really matter and there is a difference. If you have a biwire connection but are using single wire cable, just try a biwire cable. You'll find that biwiring makes the soundstage larger, and gives more air to instruments within the stage. Some people find this unnatural and therefore vote for single wire but again, if you have the connections on your speakers, just try them and see for yourself!

Please note: it's very important for the high-low coherence that you use the same cable on the low and on the high connections. Otherwise you might get disjointed, out of time bass and/or forward highs.