Bookshelf and Floor Speaker Placement

The Golden Triangle

Think of each speaker, and your listening chair, as separate points of an equilateral triangle. If your chair is eight feet from the speakers, you want the speakers to be eight feet apart. You also want to point the speakers to just outside the center point of the triangle. About six inches off the center of listening position should just about do it for most rooms. If you want to get fancy, get a laser pointer and stick it on top the speaker cabinet, right in the middle. You can use it to aim the speaker six inches to the side of the listener's head. If you don't want to worry about a laser pointer, just "eyeball" it.

The Wall

Walls are interesting. You need them, but you need to be careful of them. Walls are great in that they reflect sound to other areas of the room, but that pesky front wall (the one you're putting your main speakers and your TV next to) can also interfere with the speakers. Make sure that your speakers are set about a foot from the back wall, if possible. That's generally plenty of room to account for most problems. Couple that with the fact that your speakers aren't going to be aligned exactly with the wall (because of the angle to the listening chair), and you should be okay.

 What if I Have a Center Speaker?

In order to get the best response between your center speaker and your mains, place the mains so that the front panels are even with the front panels of the center speaker, or with the center channel slightly back, if possible. If your speakers form an arc facing the listening chair, you'll get a significant improvement in the sound.

Do I Need a Speaker Stand?

Good question. Optimally, you want to aim the speaker tweeters at ear level in the listening chair. If you've got a really good speaker, you can be a bit more reasonable and just make sure that the tweeter is within a reasonable visual line with your head or ears. The listening window of a really good tweeter should have an off-axis frequency response, that equals the central response, up to about 15-degrees from center. Reflections from the room will widen the listening area anyway, so you don't need to absolutely align the tweeter with your ears. Just try and get it as close as you can. In a "normal room," with a really good pair of speakers, you're not going to audibly hear a change until you get beyond a 30-degree angle from the front of a good pair of speakers. If you're listening at a reasonable distance of 8 feet or more, you should be able to get away with a 16-inch to 24-inch tall stand. In a home theater situation, you also want the speakers to be consistent with the visuals, so keep the relative height of your TV screen in mind as well.

What About My Pets and Kids Knocking It Over?

 If you've got toddlers and/or large dogs, and you worry that they might knock over a stand-mounted speaker, get better stands. Some commercial stands have a locking mechanism that keeps the speaker in place, but doesn't mar the cabinet finish. If that's not an option, use some Blu-tak, or other non-marring adhesive putty on the bottom of the speakers to help keep them in place. Some purists will tell you not to do this, as vibrations through the stand need to be kept to a minimum. They're right, but most of them don't have kids.

But My Room is Weird

Most of us don't have the luxury of designing rooms around our stereo and home theater system. I wish we could, but it's just not practical for most people. Once you've got your speakers set up, get some music playing and sit down in the listening chair. If you're not thinking, "Wow, what great sound!" get up and wander around a bit. Listen to how it sounds in different parts of the room, and at different angles. Experiment a bit. Start over if you have to. The point is to get the best sound you can.

Continue on to place the surround (satellite) speakers.