What is Really Important...

[AJ Soundfield]

Don't the room node locations change with the placement of the speakers?

The strength of excitation of the nodes/anti-nodes depend on where and what type of acoustic source they are driven by.
So yes, placement of speaker, relevant to room/listener does matter there. A typical audiophile box speaker is a pressure source and omni-directional at LF, which will maximally excite every mode based on placement. What ensues is based on this.

This leads me to believe that the room is being excited differently.
Therefore how do you go about initially setting the speakers so that you can set the chair?

Yes.
Depending on speaker types, these are good general guidelines https://www.linkwitzlab.com/rooms.htm
"General" because real rooms/domestic situations...and taste, varies.

cheers,

AJ

 

[Spock]

I know that speaker placement and listening location is important but,

- in 1st place you should say that to MBL! It seems they don´t care so much about it. Perhaps Mike could say something about MBL concerns about speaker position in a room.

- 2nd, and a little more serious, in my opinion, the most important and prior thing to do before all these steps that have been mentioned, is the fine decoupling of the speaker in relation to the floor. If decoupling is not efficient, in my opinion all conclusions about the speakers and about the room could be wrong. On the contrary, if the decoupling is fine and if we assure they are very well stable, the placement does´t need to be so “careful”. Different placement of the speakers always gonna give us a different sound. Sometimes is just a matter of taste. Or that or probably i´m just a lucky guy with a good room.
Regarding the choice of the sweet spot, I follow the rule of the triangle between the listener and the speakers. They must be fyring directy to the listening position. Than some experiences in the vertical angle of them could help. You can do it easily playing with the height of the front and back spikes.

- 3rd, no one denies the importance of the speakers and their interaction with the room (I am the first to consider them the most important piece of gear in a system). But 80%? I would like the author of the topic to explain how he would spend the other 20% distributed by the amplification, source and the unavoidable cables.

 

[nicoff]

.....

- 3rd, no one denies the importance of the speakers and their interaction with the room (I am the first to consider them the most important piece of gear in a system). But 80%? I would like the author of the topic to explain how he would spend the other 20% distributed by the amplification, source and the unavoidable cables.

The answer to your question with references to objective measurements is below. I agree with the author of this article.

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/07/summer-musings-how-much-difference-does.html?m=1

 

[Mike]

MBL recommends and uses diffusors from this company:


http://www.diffusor.com


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[jaxwired]

Hmmm...well, I don't think it can be distilled in such black and white terms. I think speaker placement, listener position, and room acoustics play a role, but for me, as long as those things are not silly stupid, I ignore them entirely. For instance, I don't place rear ported speakers 1 inch from the wall. I don't sit in far corner of the room when listening, and I don't listen in a room with glass walls and floors. Other than that, I completely ignore those items and I believe I've been able to achieve draw dropping sound over the years with various systems I've owned.

I do agree that of the major components that speakers are the most important to great sound. But, IMO, the electronics cannot be ignored. I think performance from great speakers with a Best Buy receiver would suffer greatly.