Speaker positioning advice

To some extent, there's an analogy with lighting a room. Put lights too low and there'll be shadows all over the place. Put them directly in front of a coloured surface and that colour will tint the entire room. But because of the wide range of frequencies involved in sound, from the bass to the treble, things are a little more complicated. What's more, loudspeakers are not all designed the same and while some work best near a wall, others definitely benefit from having lots of space all around.

If you're buying new loudspeakers from a good Hi-Fi dealer, he or she should be able to give you at least some outline advice on positioning. Failing that, all is not by any means lost, but you'll have to do a little detective work. Do take the trouble - it's worth it!

Alphason 50s speaker stands

Let's assume that you aren't putting the speakers on a bookshelf. (If you are doing that please ask yourself if it's really the only way - sonically it's about the worst place in the world!) If they aren't tall 'floorstanding' models they'll benefit from being on some sort of stand, and as a rough guide the ideal height is so that the top of the speakers is about level with the top of your head as you sit in your favourite armchair.

A vast range of stands is available to fit almost any speaker, with prices from the eminently affordable to the jaw-dropping - see for instance the (admittedly rather impressive) Townshend supports reviewed here.

Next, let's look at spacing from the back wall. Trial and error is the order of the day here. Start with the speakers practically touching the wall, and listen to some familiar music and if possible some speech too, which is very revealing. If there's a problem, speech will sound very 'chesty' and bass-heavy - to find out exactly what the difference is just get a friend to stand very close to a wall and speak to you! In that case, move the speakers away from the back wall a few inches at a time and see what sounds best.

Obviously there's generally a compromise between intrusion into your living space and sound, but even a spacing of six inches can make a significant difference.

Opera Quinta speakers - angled positioning

At the same time, you might wish to try moving speakers away from side walls. Ideally, the triangle between you and the two speakers (we're assuming stereo here, for the moment) should be roughly equilateral but sometimes narrowing the speaker spacing is a worthwhile compromise, slightly losing image width but gaining in general tonal precision.

That's covered positioning in three dimensions, but there's still more one can do. Most importantly, the angle at which the speakers point along or across the room can have a noticeable effect on the sound. Some listeners prefer to have them pointing straight ahead, while others like them to point directly at the listener. It can even be worth angling them so much that an imaginary 'firing line' drawn from each one crosses in front of the listening position. It all depends on the speaker model and the room characteristics. The main differences you'll hear are in the precision with which stereo images are produced, plus a small change in the brightness of the treble.

Finally, if you're feeling really fussy you might want to try angling the speakers forward or backward slightly (don't tip them over!) on ther floor or stand. This can give a worthwhile improvement in tonal accuracy and stereo imaging. Surround systems?

Most of the above assumes you're listening in stereo. What of surround systems? Obviously, with five or more speakers plus perhaps a subwoofer or two the possibilities are near endless. However, the centre speaker position will usually be fixed by your choice of position for the TV and after that by far the most important thing to get right is the positioning of the front left and right speakers, which goes much as for stereo. Rear speakers are less critical, but do try to have some sort of symmetry around the main listening/viewing position.

In many homes, a surround-sound system for video also does stereo duty, the centre and rear speakers being simply inactive. Especially in systems with no subwoofer, you may find that the bass is either too light in stereo or too heavy in surround. This is hard to avoid and there's a lot to be said for subtle use of tone controls in this case.

Optimum speaker positioning is by far the biggest free lunch in audio. If you've a little patience you'll not regret the time spent.

Useful links for speaker stands:

• www.alphasondesigns.com
• www.partingtonspeakerstands.com
• www.soundorganisation.net
• www.atacama-audio.co.uk