Anyone that owns a home theater system can tell you that no matter how much money you spend on a stereo system or home-entertainment center, the sound will never get any better than the speakers you have connected to it. If you bought cheaply made speakers because the price was cheap, don't expect great sound quality either. However, even the most expensive speakers don't put out the best sound. This can be fixed through moving your speakers around.
It's an overlooked fact that the placement and positioning of your speakers plays a large role in your system's sound quality and performance. Ask any expert or guru and they'll tell you that speaker placement is especially critical because it affects the tonal accuracy, staging and imaging, and realistic sound reproduction.
While every system and room is different, here are some general guidelines that should help you set up your stereo speakers for their best sounding performance.
You're going to be basing all of your listening decisions from the spot you will be spending most of your time and set everything up from there. For example, if you like to watch movies lying down on the couch, you need to move your couch to an optimal listening distance. If you don't do this, all your hard work will be for not. Decide where in the room you will do most of your listening and set it halfway between the speakers and the back wall.
If you own two speakers or just a set of high-frequency tweeters, it is important to position each one around ear level and near the same distance from your main listening position as possible. Once, you have the distance down; point them to your set listening spot.
Next, you'll want to set up the speakers in a way that the distance between all of them is no greater than the distance between the speakers and the main listening position. Be sure to situate them symmetrically so that each has an equal and matching relationship to the surrounding walls.
Once you have all the previous tasks completed, it is time to place the subwoofer in the correct position. Most people usually set it up on the floor in a location that isn't the same distance from the different walls. This is because walls emphasize certain bass frequencies more than other ones and the last thing you want is multiple walls emphasizing the same frequency. You'll notice the poor sound right away.
This step is all on you. How good are your ears to picking up the difference in sound quality? You'll be using some adept listening to make a final decision about whether or not all the speakers sound good. Pick out a certain piece of music that you know pretty well and use it to evaluate the effectiveness of your speakers' positioning. Experiment with the sound by making a few slight changes in speaker positioning until you're completely satisfied with the most natural sound.
Last but not least, you'll need to do something about speaker wires. You really don't need audiophile cables for your speakers but they are definitely a good investment. You can also use a heavier-gauge wire. They have less resistance than regular speaker wire, plus a purer signal.
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