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What’s Your Triangle in Stereo Speaker Listening?

Which triangle is your stereo speaker setup?

  • Total voters
    176
Equilateral, approx. 2 m
Although I like ‘Multichannel - down with stereo’, I fear it doesn’t make much sense since all multichannel setups start with the stereo triangle, too…
 
Joffy1780 said:
Isosceles speakers leg longer? Measurements or it's not equilateral
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In my listening position my head sits 15cm inside equilateral triangle
 
Oh definitely not equilateral then ;)
On my stereo system my tweeters are 171cm apart and tweeter to ears is 178cm (just remeasured with someone else's head) and I'm not claiming equilateral!!
I'm joking, of course, but OP wants exact.
I'm guessing a lot of the votes for equilateral won't hold up to further scrutiny :D
 
Joffy1780 said:
Oh definitely not equilateral then ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah it’s a definite worry but I’m slowly coming to terms with my transgressions, sometimes I move my head from my rigid position when listening and it annoys me so much that I skip back to listen again, sometimes I even listen to my system from the kitchen with scant regard for audio quality and realism in playback. Basically I’m an uncouth philistine and do not deserve what I have. ;)
 
Acute Isosceles at 40 degrees, 2 equal length sides and angles.
 
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Instead of naming the shorter or longer leg, you could just state acute or obtuse. Personally I have always preferred obtuse isosceles setups, the imaging and placement of instruments in the sound stage are much better this way. In acute isosceles setups the stereo effect is much less pronounced.

triang.png
 
You know you're an audio nerd when you can answer this poll.
 
Joffy1780 said:
Isosceles speakers leg longer? Measurements or it's not equilateral :p
@benanders what is the leeway, btw? Within a mm, a cm, or say within 5 cm?
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I guess the importance of precision for triangle measurements could scale with setup size.
I’d feel better about a 5 cm margin of error applied to a whole-room setup than to a desktop setup, if that makes sense.

Based on speaker placement advice from one in the know, my general policy has been:
Be reckless when I want, but not more than a quarter inch of reckless at any one time. ;)
 
mm? cm?
where do you guys actualy aim? the forehead? the middle of the head? the tip of the nose?
when I setup equilateral to the tip of the nose I always end up moving my head forward. it's a few cm, a little more in the far field. there is a point where the soundfield really comes to live. Not sure if this is because of the fact that if you set equilateral to the tip of the nose you aren't really on-axis with your ears. I guess it's it. maybe I should go equilateral to the tip of the nose and toe the speakers out afterwards so they aim at the ear, but the before mentioned method works very nicely and I have read it beeing practiced by others over the years
 
iGude said:
Equilateral, approx. 2 m
Although I like ‘Multichannel - down with stereo’, I fear it doesn’t make much sense since all multichannel setups start with the stereo triangle, too…
Click to expand...

Most often, probably. But not always. :)
 
TimW said:
Instead of naming the shorter or longer leg, you could just state acute or obtuse. Personally I have always preferred obtuse isosceles setups, the imaging and placement of instruments in the sound stage are much better this way. In acute isosceles setups the stereo effect is much less pronounced.

triang.png
Click to expand...

Fair point.

Acute / Obtuse could confuse setups in which the listening position may not be the (D), (E) or (F) points of the isosceles triangles in your image. These setups are probably uncommon, but they exist.

I figured more analytically accurate to bin such setups as scalene and justify with a 1+ mm deviation. ;)
 
dasdoing said:
mm? cm?
where do you guys actualy aim? the forehead? the middle of the head? the tip of the nose?
when I setup equilateral to the tip of the nose I always end up moving my head forward. it's a few cm, a little more in the far field. there is a point where the soundfield really comes to live. Not sure if this is because of the fact that if you set equilateral to the tip of the nose you aren't really on-axis with your ears. I guess it's it. maybe I should go equilateral to the tip of the nose and toe the speakers out afterwards so they aim at the ear, but the before mentioned method works very nicely and I have read it beeing practiced by others over the years
Click to expand...

Good questions.

If the the Main Listening Position-point of the triangle is not inside the listener’s head, the setup might not be textbook equilateral. I don’t know if there’s a consensus.

Here’s another dilemma:
Do each speaker’s two triangle legs measure from the tweeter(s)?
From woofer(s) center(s, then average)?
The front panel center point?
One of the chassis corners?
:oops: o_O :D

A fair amount of variance is inescapable with this poll, and that’s okay.
 
Me thinks - from acoustic centers to apex at back of head.
 
Obtuse ad extremum = A person sits right between the speakers to simulate headphones listening ?
 
LS50W on stands on L/R side of desk, in small den with very little room for manuvering. Two inch DIY Rockwool panels and bass traps.

7'6" equilateral, slightly toed in. 2'6" off front wall. Apex just behind my head.

Happy :)
 
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A picture says more than a thousand words. ;)

It's a tall room (6m/19'8") and I use a projector instead of a TV. The speakers are a pair of Argon Audio Forte A5, which are starting to become a steal at €349 compared to it's €699 successor.

I do intend to replace them with some larger speakers later this year and then these will move upstairs to my desktop PC.





 
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