Background
Professionally, I am what the pro audio guys call a “room tuner.” I travel around the world, from Sony Studios in Tokyo to Abbey Road in London, helping audio professionals tune their sound systems in their rooms, using acoustic and electro-acoustic solutions. I also tune high-performance home theaters and audiophile listening rooms. Some of the more notable home clients include George Lucas, Shaq and Intel Chairman Andy Grove, as well as much smaller projects for both the editor and publisher of AudioRevolution.com. I do both a system consultation via remote, which starts at $900 per room, and on-site tuning and EQ, which ranges from $1,500 to $3,500 per session. For readers of RevolutionHomeTheater.com and AudioRevolution.com, my advice is, of course, free.

Setting Up Your Speakers
Before we can think about acoustic treatments, we need to optimize the speaker positions in your room. This is the single most important task you can accomplish to improve your system’s performance. It is very important that you become extremely familiar with the speakers you are going to use. You will also want to take a good look at the manufacturer's frequency response charts. Remember that these are anechoic measurements. As soon as you put your speaker in a room with boundaries (walls), the bass response will start to change significantly. Bass response will build up even more when you place the speaker against the wall or in a corner. However, the response charts are useful for knowing what the speaker’s limitations are. For example, bookshelf speakers can roll off dramatically after 125Hz, so you don't have to be too concerned about deep bass problems when positioning them. Using a wall or corner may even be to your benefit. You’ll also want to pay close attention to the recommended position for proper phase alignment. For some speakers, it's directly aligned with the tweeter. For others, it's a point between the woofer and tweeter. It depends on the design, so check the manufacturer's literature. Hopefully they cared enough about this when building your speakers. You want to make sure, when you position your speakers and listening position, that this alignment point intersects at your ear level.

For this month’s model, I am assuming that your room has four walls with equal spacing, i.e., the common rectangle rather than an “L” shape.