AcouField

Speaker placement

How to Position Stereo Speakers

Begin with a symmetric left/right arrangement, a clear relationship to the listening position and an approximately 60° stereo geometry if it suits your system. Treat separation, angle and wall clearance as variables to test — not as universal acoustic laws.

Start with a stable geometry

A practical stereo setup usually starts with a symmetric left/right pair and a listening position that relates clearly to both speakers. Separation, listening angle and wall clearance are useful geometric variables to inspect together rather than as isolated magic numbers.

SEPARATIONWALLLRLISTENING ANGLELISTENERExample geometry — amber dashed shapes are an illustration, not a calculated result
ExampleA measured-field placement sketch. Amber dashed speakers show an example depth move, not a calculated recommendation.

The approximately 60° triangle

Use an approximately equilateral stereo triangle

Engineering convention

Why it exists
A reference layout with the speakers about ±30° from the listening axis gives a repeatable starting geometry for stereo and multichannel monitoring.
Where it helps
It makes left/right symmetry and the relationship between separation and listening distance easy to establish. ITU-R BS.775 uses the ±30° front-speaker reference for its monitoring layout.
Where it stops being universal
60° is not an acoustic optimum for every room, loudspeaker or listener. AcouField uses listening angle as a validity condition; it does not claim to model imaging quality.
What to test in your room
Set a clear symmetric starting geometry, then evaluate the low-frequency question separately from personal imaging preference.

Wall distance is a trade-off, not a law

A loudspeaker near a boundary can interact with its reflection and create frequency-dependent interference, commonly discussed as speaker-boundary interference response (SBIR). The effect depends on the relevant boundary, distance, frequency and the rest of the system; “closer is always worse” is too simple.

Wall clearance also matters practically for access, symmetry and repeatable placement. AcouField V1 treats it as a geometric constraint in the speaker-placement search. It is not a separate SBIR model, and no SBIR effect is added on top of the modal objective.

Keep the models separate

Room modes and boundary interference are related to the same physical room, but they are not interchangeable explanations. This product's speaker-placement ranking is modal-only with a practical wall-clearance constraint.

Small changes can be worth testing

Moving a symmetric pair changes both its relationship to the room boundaries and how it excites the modeled modes. The useful movement is room-dependent, so preserve the listener and search only within the distance you can actually use.

What AcouField models

AcouField models a fixed listener and a movable symmetric speaker pair for the speaker-placement path. Validity includes room bounds, clearance, listener-side preservation, angle and maximum Euclidean movement. Calculated recommendations are not measurements of your loudspeakers or room.

Try this in your room

Model your room, say how far the speakers can move, and see one modeled placement suggestion.

Check my speaker placement

Technical references