There are always other constraints:
CinC(Nav)Home - also known as Mrs NFG’s requirements
Furniture placement
etc
Were alone then it would be quite different, the television would go and in would go a Fraim, maybe two once I’d got the 252, SC & 300.
One of the few hi-fi demo rooms (Windsor and Ascot) who have either positioned source components to one side or behind the listeners have been Mike Valentine in cojunction with Synergy. At the Ascot show last year a lot of the rooms facing the race course have their longest dimension unsuitable for music. Plus the plate glass windows. Hmmm.
At Ascot they had a room away form the front and a decent size. Sources behind listeners as well.
You have to stand on the sofa with the french doors open to get good sound?
Whilst doing yoga.
.sjb
I expect standing on the sofa arms horizontal with one leg out stretched will improve sound staging but might create unwanted standing waves
Ha! No just to get a wide enough shot. 
Currently sitting, doors closed - listening to Agnes Obel - at 5am so I can get any sound at all before the rest of the family wakes up. Both walls you see and the ceiling stuffed full of Rockwall insulation. My wife refuses a rug in the room - I guess at the cost of these floors I can’t blame her.
Nice wall. Very homely and warm. 
Well done not having speaker cable running across the french door. 
A bit scared of the spider on the speaker. 
There’s much spoken here about Source First. But the truth is the Source that’s unquestionably First is the ROOM. The LP-12 or Rega or Dave, none of these are first. If you’re one of these apparently well off folks who’ve stuffed all kinds of expensive equipment in a little room, it might make sense to get a better room then waste more money on power supplies and boxes of dubious value.
I have a friend just a sort of normal upper middle class fellow who lived in a small house with wife and cat. He’s a musician and audiophile. He needed room for his Instruments and band to practice, room for his Hifi, and his large wine collection. So he bought a rather simple sheet metal commercial type garage. Maybe 20x40 ft. Sheet rocked the inside poured a foundation put a nice enclosed room with AC for his 80 or so cases of wine and ports. I’m leaving a lot out but it was called the Voodoo Lounge. Three walls covered with guitars two drum kits a hifi with Quads, you get the picture. The Room sounded magnificent! If I recall he spent less than the cost of a Nap500 DR… Thats source First!
Continuing the discussion from Crammed Speakers:
Many contributors to these discussions talk about their system making the artists sound like they’re in the room with the listener or that the listener feels they are with the artist wherever the music was recorded. I don’t see how that can be achieved and content myself with a system that sounds like I want it to sound and plays the music in a way that I enjoy.
In case anyone is interested, the items in the IsoBlue rack are NDX2, Dynavector pre and power amps plus Sky box, Blue ray player and network switch for this end of the network.
Yeah, the speaker cable was a conundrum. I thought I might have to run it below somehow, and wasn’t looking forward to that. But then lo and behold, looked on my local dealers used listing page and there he had 25’ pair of Chord Rumor 2 for $175. Wouldn’t have been my first choice if money was no object, ut it’s white and sounds perfectly fine to me compared to the obligatory NACA5 I was using before. And no, not an audiophile spider, just your run of the mill plastic purple Halloween one!
This is my set up. The PMC’s are not yet two weeks old so they are ‘plonked’ a little out in the room. Once they are run in properly I may fiddle with them, but they sound great so far. Single life and no TV means I can put my gear pretty much anywhere, but this is ok for now. If I do want the speakers closer together, I will put the rack in the corner and haul the speakers nearer to the fireplace.
That looks like a nice set-up, except the clock is too prominent 
. The idea is to escape from all your cares or worries and not have to worry about time.
The clock is a beautiful piece of burr walnut and when the ceiling light is on, the reflection of the light makes it unreadable
I think that yours is a great observation and one that I’ve also thought about many times over myself — not so much here on the Naim forum, but elsewhere where I’ve spent more of my time in the past. (These days I’ve stopped hanging out on hifi forums altogether but I received notice of this particular post in my email inbox so felt compelled to respond.)
In my case, my speaker positioning is definitely compromised most of the time. I do occasionally pull the speakers out into the room but the majority of the time I let them remain right where they are. A few thoughts as it applies to my situation and my way of thinking:
1.) The sonics in my room are difficult begin with. The old adage “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig” would apply in the case of my room.
2.) Because of #1 above, I long ago acknowledged the fact that only speakers with sealed designs (acoustic suspension) or with front-firing ports will work to my satisfaction.
3.) My preferences have always been geared towards getting the dynamics and timbre correct. Imaging, soundstage and the like have always taken a back seat to these other things in terms of my priorities.
4.) You can only put so much lipstick on a pig. In a room like mine where the sonics aren’t all that great and my speaker placement is admittedly compromised, there is no point in upgrading my system beyond where it’s at now. The reality is that I love the gear that I have and don’t feel the need to upgrade. I’ve been ecstatic with my Naim 5i (the original “I”) ever since I first brought it home. I’m more than happy with the output of the CD5/FC2 combo. The Planar 6/Parasound JC3 Jr. combo is fantastic, and the last addition to my system, the Naim DAC-V1 carries all of the things that I liked about my system to begin with into the digital streaming realm. There is really no point in upgrading my system given the limitations of my room and the fact that I’m already incredibly happy with the musical enjoyment that I’m getting. (Despite the compromised room setup.)
I’m sure that the imaging and soundstage could be improved simply by removing the chairs sitting in-between my speakers but I’m not really all that worried about it. If I was still feeling the need to continuously update my system then that would definitely be a problem. Years ago I couldn’t get myself off of the hifi merry-go-round so I know of what I speak. But these days I’m more than content with my setup just the way it is, compromised speaker placement and all.
Would love to have a larger room to allow full range speakers with adequate space for perfectly symmetrical positioning and better acoustic treatment. Fortunately I have my speakers reasonably well clear of room boundaries and have chosen speakers which work in the room, better with some limited room treatment.
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