How to make your speakers sound better for free

It's well worth the effort to experiment moving your speakers -- closer together, further apart, closer or further from the rear wall, toe-in, etc. Try different walls in your room, or if you can, different rooms.

[DavidKowalski]

Absolutely agree. The distance between speakers and the distance from a wall can make startling differences. Also, some speakers sound better toed in and some sound worse when this is done. Determining these things is free and they generally make bigger differences than those obtained from changing cables.

[m.]

The room interaction with speakers cannot be overstated!

I have tried my speakers in different rooms in my home and the sound is noticeably different.
In the main living room where the main setup resides, if I cover with a blanket the large (55") TV screen on the wall, the sound also changes.
Every bit counts!
I've even tried setting it up 'east - west' instead of 'north - south' (width of the room v length of it) with dramatic changes in what I hear.

I have finally come to appreciate 'near field' listening, which gives me a very wide and deep soundstage.
The two Thiels face my listening chair directly, i.e. I cannot see the sides of the speakers.
I've come to this after many months of experimentation. I often get tempted to alter their location but I don't fall for it as I know, _this is the optimal spot_
Thanks for all the thought provoking videos Steve!

[radiojet]

Thanks, Steve, It all sounds so obvious on the surface, but I really appreciate you offering this excellent information. Very useful stuff.

[jfro]

Great vlog. This works. Tried it yesterday and toe'd mine in a bit. Does sound better. It's probably easier for us that have little opportunity to move the speakers much (because of room layout, fixed furniture, happy wife happy life stuff) than folks with massive opportunity to change everything in a room because it might seem overwhelming? Maybe. When I did Chemistry in school a long time ago you always had a 'control' and did one thing at a time to see what changed, if anything. If you move more than one thing at once with no control you lose track of what's doing what, and get nowhere quickly.

[trentsteel]

As always Sir, very useful and I am very grateful for your advice and musings. 👍🎶🎷

[Brunodc]

You're the best. Thank you so much for sharing all your knoledge. I appreciate you.

[michael]

Very informative video. Thank you. I'm limited on space. But after just about 20 minutes of moving the speakers. I can hear a world of difference. And I no longer have to adjust the balance control to make the sound equal from both channels.

[tremot]

Speaker placement and the listening position (speakers away from the walls, on stands and decoupled, placed in an equilateral triangle, normally with toe-in that points just directly behind the listeners head) are vital to optimizing listening experience. Room symmetry and dimensions are also important, followed by room dampening. Reflections can be a problem depending on the room size/surfaces, so having a thick carpet and/or dampening panels and bass traps could help if you like to play music at considerably loud levels.

[timbathras]

Great info and good timing. I’m starting to build a listening room, so I’m doing lots of research to learn how to best set things up. Zu also mentions the one speaker at a time, and also comparing the two one at a time to make sure there aren’t anything glaring differences between them.

[leoham]

Some ninety years ago the spool loudspeaker AND the windshield wiper were invented and basically have not changed in shape.
The wiper comes from an everyday but genious housewife, the speaker from some lab. It is about time that some revolutionary
switch has to be made. No matter what car the sight is disturbed by some stupid sort of windmill, speakers have the be adjusted in ideal position. I challenge the world to come up with a total new concept for both. Good luck!

[Stevo]

The one speaker thing is also a great way to compare different speakers to each other, floyd toole recommends this and it’s also the the method used in the JBL blind test lab.

I spent a few days moving the speakers around the room and measuring them with REW in various listening positions. I ended up with asymmetrical speaker placement to get the flattest bass response.
Only down side is that the stereo imaging isn't as good as it could be, even though I have tried to fiddle with some reflectors, diffusers and dampers.

[Mark-lqsb]

Great advise Steve.
No toe-in for me, horn compression drivers used in my JBLs.

[sometimesreviewsandthinkin]

Good advice i have placed mine with precision its fun. Its more work but more rewarding when Done and they sound better!

If you use headphones you are already set.

[mydogskips]

Free advice is not worth nothing if it's good advice, and this is most definitely good advice. The only thing is that I would guess most people don't have all that much range of freedom in placing speakers, maybe a few feet at most. But then again, even a few feet can make a significant difference in sound, at least in my experience. But the key is to experiment and hear the differences for yourself, you might be surprised how moving speakers just a few inches or adjusting certain things can change the sound dramatically.

[grob]

An older house I lived in some years ago had the walls curve up to the ceiling about 4-6" in a quarter arc. Other rooms were normal 90 degree corners and when you clapped your hands there would be a sound delay (echo). In the curved to ceiling room this slap-back was eliminated. Something to consider although difficult to achieve. During a jam session the other musicians commented on the good acoustics.

[normanbott]

Thanks, Steve - I've never heard of the one-speaker-at-a-time approach . Presumably running a mono signal though each i.e. parallel the stereo output ?

[ChristianGoergen]

In short: mediocre speakers good placed can sound better than speakers twice as expensive positioned badly.
I used the sumiko master protocol.

[michaelangeloh.]

If you can't move them (like me, usually) tweak the EQ-levels, which can make a significant difference as well.

[Farpun]

Really enjoying it when you get straight to the point and don't say "Hey it's Steve Guttenberg and I am...the audiophiliac"