One solution would be to reduce one of your room dimensions by some means. My dedicated room is 15ft x 12ft x 9ft and it’s very good sounding. PeterR actually put my room dimensions into his software which predicted my experience. With 16ft square hopefully you have some leverage with your lay out and can find a happy solution 
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It has been widely mentioned in publications related to monitoring studio acoustics over many years. It has been attributed to an acoustic designer called Wes Lachot maybe 30 years or so ago, though I haven’t read his original writing on it. As with all real room acoustics it can only be a guide / starting point, as everything in the room, even its construction, has some effect.
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BTW, 38% of course also applies to room height - but as there’s no ‘front’ that amount from floor or ceiling are equitable - for an 8ft ceiling, the lower is 3ft from floor, which is conveniently consistent with common sitting height, and the higher at 8ft from floor is close to average ear height when standing, though of course depends on floor/ceiling surfaces (and complicated if sitting on a sofa).
Or indeed standing on the sofa if your ears are 8ft from the floor… 
Thank you, there’s always something new to learn. I wasn’t aware of those publications. It’s always useful to know the “golden rules”, but one always has to be ready to break them when needed.
@WeekendWarrior I’ve read about it, by the way speakers’ placement isn’t symmetrical in my room. I have a couple of headphones, but I don’t use them so often.
@AndyR Quite a new way to listen to music, I’d prefer to be more comfortable!
Things like the 0.38 distance and Cardas “golden ratio” placements are absolutely not rules, just guidance to help - and infinitely better than starting randomly or basing layout on appearance or other non-acoustic reasoning, while understanding what is behind the guidance can help, too.
The only absolute rule is don’t listen in the centre of a square if you want good sound! (Sorry!)
Meanwhile, as the The listening room reality thread discusses, and system pictures thread visibly shows, consideration of the effect of the room seems rarely to be taken seriously despite it being a fundamental part of the system. It seems likely that a majority of people are not getting the best out of their systems, despite sometimes spending huge amounts on gear and tweaks etc.
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Wonder if this could help. ATB Peter
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I do agree with what you said, it’s always useful to understand what’s happening, a scientific approach is needed to start with. Then you need to adapt to the single scenario.
I know I know, the center of the room is not my choice… I’ve tested it already in the past and I know how bad it can sound. I’m very keen on solving my listening problems, but I also need to figure out how to move my furniture in the first place; it’s easier to be said than done. By the way now I got my acoustic panels so I can start my tests aas well.
I had this exact feeling too! I wonder how you can spend so much money on a system without considering the room acoustics. I do wonder why…
Thanks @PeterR!
And also remember changing the circuit breaker such as Doepke DFS for Audio series. The materials of MCBs nowadays is much worse than 30-40 years ago
Update: I finally managed to move the sofa in a better position (much closer to the rear wall). Right I’m tweaking everything to get a large and deep soundstage with the right amount of bass. However, apart from further tweaking to make, everything has become more cohesive, engaging and so much better over all.
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I have a much smaller room and having 4in or preferably 6in thick acoustic panels behind speakers is my recommendation. Of course moving speakers away from walls helps but this is not always possible. In seems counter-intuitive but bass absorbing panels make the bass louder as there is less cancellation.
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Right now I have 6 acoustic panels: 1 behind each speaker, 1 on the right side of the listening position and 3 on the rear wall. Now I’m trying to figure out what’s the best combination between speaker placement and panels behind them as I would like to get a crystal clear soundstage. I’ve already made some tweaking and the soundstange has improved dramatically. But I would like to get more if possibile. Maybe I just need to soften the bass reflection near the right speaker and everything will be perfect.
It’s definitely worth getting a copy of REW and trying things out using the room simulator dialogue.
And if you do get a sub, using REW is by far the easiest and most accurate way to set it up.
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@Blacknote-
It seems like you’ve tried many different approaches since starting this thread but I wanted to ask as your room is square have you considered implementing a diagonal setup? I’ve seen this done before in square rooms (especially smaller) and it seems to work well. Just a thought-
Best
Another approach that can work is Sumiko Masterset, do a search.
I believe that speaker setup method was one of the several different approaches mentioned in the previous thread I referenced at the top of this one.
@TWilder thanks for the suggestion but I can’t implement such a placement in my room. By the way since I managed to move the sofa near the rear wall, sound is so much better. Now I need to get everything refined with a lot of listening and patience!
@Yeti thanks!
Hello again.
I did a lot of work with different absorbation panels but the result was always just a little bit softening to sound. After reading about square room acoustics i bought good corner bas traps, vicoustic bass extreme and varibass and gik scopus, the change was like changing small screamy speakers lo large laid back speakers with much more bass instruments, with the sound that is nice to listen. The scopus is tuned by hz, so testing corners peak and null is needed. I wish i had done this sooner.
Regards Hannu
A well placed sofa can be a quite effective bass trap…
(As can an otherwise surplus 5’ mattress, but that’s less domestically acceptable )
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