Someone posted a bedroom setup asking whether 9 feet between left and right is a problem when they sit about 10 feet 5 inches back, with a hallway opening just off the right speaker. The equal sided triangle thing gets repeated so often that people treat it as a rule, and it really is not. It is a starting point borrowed from nearfield listening, and 9 feet at that distance is close enough that you would need a very good room before the last foot of spacing became the thing holding you back.
The hallway is what I would actually worry about. One speaker working against a boundary a couple of feet away while the other fires into an open corridor is an asymmetry you hear twice over: as a tonal difference between the channels, and as a centre image that quietly leans toward the closed side. Bass loading shifts as well, since a wall reinforces low frequencies and an opening does not. That is a far bigger effect than the spacing.
Before moving anything, I would try to match the distance from each speaker to its nearest side wall as closely as the room allows, even if that means the pair ends up off centre relative to the screen. Then toe them in to the seat and check the centre image on a mono track, or measure if you have the gear. Sort symmetry out first and treat the triangle as the last adjustment, not the first.
Has anyone actually beaten an open hallway on one side without hanging something in the doorway?
The hallway is what I would actually worry about. One speaker working against a boundary a couple of feet away while the other fires into an open corridor is an asymmetry you hear twice over: as a tonal difference between the channels, and as a centre image that quietly leans toward the closed side. Bass loading shifts as well, since a wall reinforces low frequencies and an opening does not. That is a far bigger effect than the spacing.
Before moving anything, I would try to match the distance from each speaker to its nearest side wall as closely as the room allows, even if that means the pair ends up off centre relative to the screen. Then toe them in to the seat and check the centre image on a mono track, or measure if you have the gear. Sort symmetry out first and treat the triangle as the last adjustment, not the first.
Has anyone actually beaten an open hallway on one side without hanging something in the doorway?
