If I remember rightly, the ITU-R recommendation (if not the ITU-R then some other professional body) for stereo speaker placement states that the two speakers should be placed at +30 and -30 degrees relative to the listening axis (i.e. you and the speakers for an equilateral triangle). It’s a pretty irrelevant detail though as it assumes that the end listener will have their speakers set up in the same way at home, presumably with a big armchair in the middle, in a special ‘hi-fi room’ with brandy and cigars on-hand.

Accurate stereo imaging isn’t that important in dance music (certainly compared with classical recording, where engineers go to great lengths to make sure that each instrument appears in its correct position in the stereo field), as the stereo field is used more to give width and head-fucky effects to the sound, and not to place individual sounds at a particular angle (no-one’s going to be sat at home going ‘something’s not right here, the TB303 is panned +20 degrees instead of +15!’).

So the things to consider when placing the speakers are:
– Should be close enough to you that you’re getting a good direct-to-reverberant sound ratio (Control 1s are only small, nearfield speakers)
– Keep them away from room corners, which are a pressure node for all room modes and will result in a coloured sound (same reason why putting a sub in a corner gives more SPL)
– Put them roughly at +30 and -30 degrees

Sorry if I’m teaching you to suck eggs btw (you worked as a broadcast engineer, right?).

JBL make wall brackets for the Control 1 – I’d just mount the two speakers on the wall at about head height as you’re sat at the computer.

as far as i understand it the speakers should be roughly at 30 deg angles and you should be sitting at roughly the same distance away from the speakers as they are from each other, so if they were at 30 deg angles you would have them pointing at each ear (what would result in you sitting x-distance away due to the angle).

If for example you have a problem with space (as i do) you may have to put the speakers closer together (or further apart if things have to go inbetween them) this would throw off your 30 deg angles as you need the speakers pointing at your ears. What you need to make sure is that you got the same distance between the two speakers as you have distance between you and the speakers and angle them acordingly.

It’s not ideal, but the best way I’ve found of getting round this problem. I would be sitting half way across my room otherwise trying to make a sound leaning right over and then hoping to sit back up in my seat to the correct position quickly within the 5ms of delay i get on my midi keyboard. :laugh_at:

My 2p is to try a load of likely positions with some piece of music you are very familiar with and then check them with a variety of random sounds to make sure they are working for you; I say this as a person who has different hearing to 95% of the population and can hear stuff no-one else notices as a problem till I have corrected it. The speakers have to be right for you. There are technical calculations which are a good starting point but nothing will be as good as what you feel is best for you to work with.
I do sound checks with vivaldi, enigma and a load of frequency specific music specifically picked to help me tune the rig up [one cab pair at a time] but as you have two speakers pick out something with a good overall frequency coverage [vivaldi, phil collins, etc] and try adjusting them till you are happy.