I know the answer is probably “try it” but would appreciate a little counsel on speaker positioning
Room is 5.3m x 3.7m at widest but a couple of insteps narrowing to 2.87m half way along.
I have tried firing across the room but with the insteps it didn’t work out……listening position had to be hard up against a back wall.
Currently I have the speakers firing down the room towards the narrowest part (2.87m) with the speakers set up in the widest part 3.7m. (Listening position in the narrowest part)
I am musing if there are any room acoustic principles that would point to better sound if the speakers were placed in the narrow part of the room (2.87m) firing towards the wider part of the room.
I have made great progress by changing speakers, adding a sub and acoustic panelling but as always seek out perfection and try and make it better!
One benefit of placing the speakers in the narrow part is the back wall is solid brick (could improve sub) where as all the other walls are plasterboard with large gaps and on one wall is back to back plasterboard with a good 30inches in between. The down side is the speakers would be closer to boundary walls and closer together but I think I could get it to work.
The room is dedicated so can pretty much do what I like with no “management” sign off required.
You know that the right answer is to try it, and to be pleased that this is an experiment you can conduct without having to buy new boxes.
Having said that, and FWIW, conventional wisdom supports the existing arrangement. That is because 2.9M is quite tight for your speakers - either they will be close to the sidewalls or to each other. If you want to avoid blurred sound from reflections and excess bass, these things need space.
Ideally, the distance from ear to speaker won’t be too much bigger than the distance between them. Hence, opting for the narrow end may mean sitting within about 6 feet of the speakers.
Except, as you note, that not all walls are equal. If the narrow section side walls are insubstantial, and if you need the extra bass support from a solid wall, and if you don’t turn up the volume too far and/ or if you use some room treatments, you might find it works better with speakers toward the narrower end.
First thing I’d do is get that speaker out of the doorway - it will be walked into and the subsequent damage will have you cursing ! Acoustically it’s probably not good as the other one has a wall, rather than a gap so the performance difference will probably be audible.
With those in mind I think I’d go with your idea of reversing it all, your room looks pretty “standard” really so you should find a good layout pretty quickly. Try making paper models of your furniture and other items, then move them around a piece of paper representing the room before moving anything, that way you can remove some layouts without dragging heavy items round. You’ll be able to see easily enough the bad placements leaving you to only try the ones that look as though they’d work.
Good luck and try to enjoy the process of experimentation as well as the final result.
