The 38% ‘rule’

Ethan Winer’s advice on speaker placement is surprising: “the inevitable low frequency peaks and nulls present in all rooms are the least damaging when listeners are seated 38 percent of the room’s length away from the front wall.”

http://realtraps.com/Newsletter_19-04-09.htm

I applied this in my own listening room, which is 6.1 m wide, 3.9 m deep, and with a 2.4 m ceiling height. My speakers are a little over 1 m from the ‘front wall’, and my listening seat is almost hard against the back wall.

Refer to the photo (below): according to the 38% rule, I should sit either at the front or rear edge of the coffee table (which shouldn’t be there!). I tried it, as best I could without injury to myself or the table, and it does sound good.

The room is shared as a sitting room, so whilst I would happily relocate the table to another room, I know someone who says no!