The idea of setting up a hifi system in a modern 'tag wall' house would fill me with despair . . . ? However I'd love to have a go as a challenge . . .
My home was an un known quantity, in fact I had little hope or aspiration to producing a true out of the box performance, especially as my last proper listening room was perfect.
I thought the 12ftx12ft Victorian cottage room I now have was going to present problems with a capital 'P', one being along the lines of, how close can the speakers go to the wall . . . how close 'must' they go to maintain a practical living space? I was also stuck with the speakers I had dug out of storage that I could remember very little of after nearly 20 years?
Chebby was helpful digging a few fact from the net for me, I get the impression that 'transmission line speakers can back up close to a wall if required, in fact desirable if more base was the aim? As it has turned out, my study/office/listening room/late night retreat situation, (see, no mention of Horlicks) dictates the speakers are better each side, at the front of my desk, speaker front baffle 660mm from the wall. Doors and fittings dictate the speaker spacing was not wide enough at 5ft between driver centres and that they had to sit off centre to the side walls? A speaker in the middle of the doorway leading to the kitchen was not good.
My next concern, the room is square with tallish 8ft6" celling.
Amp, CDp and TT had to go on a free standing bookshelf cupboard, no option. The right speaker sits within 12" of a free standing open shelf unit that houses most of my record and CD collection.
An unpromising start, although, I had got a feel of how the room sounded, when I temporarily placed said speakers on a 4ft 6" shelf with 2ft between them . . . not as bad as you might think.
I have pushed, pulled, prodded and pocked, adjusted, tweaked and moved most items by a few centimetres here or there. After 12 months, one has achieved near perfection within the confines of the system. It became obvious as time progressed that the room was not as limiting as I had first thought, provided I did small, almost unperceived adjustments that did not upset the living space. They however did affect the hifi's performance. The final revelation was the kitchen door, the right speaker is close to storage shelves, the left speaker is by the kitchen door, said door opens into the listening room beside the left speaker. Serious listening, set the kitchen door about half open, makes a matching baffle to the right speaker, balanced sound, perfect imaging, wide, deep, high sound stage.
Listening position is not perfect in the central sweet spot . . . so, the vagaries of the Croft amp come into play, it has separate volume controls for left and right channels. I simply adjust to suite . . . plus, some records are over biased or seem to react in strange ways to my less than ideal room . . . no problem, the amp is within easy reach, adjust accordingly.
So a listening situation far from ideal, living comes first??? 'Adapting' was the answer, which, in the end has proved to be a most rewarding hifi listening and most important, musical experience shared between the two of us.
One final point, sitting listening to music is fine but a 12ft square room is still 12ft square . . . at night, draw the curtains, snug, cosy, choose your music, a couple of fingers measured up the glass maybe? . . . then turn the lights off, a very small lamp by the TT perhaps, I even turn that off, cos I sit by it. A new musical dimension emerges . . . trust me, try it, it works, the last vestiges of the walls disappear, you can transport to the virtual reality of the performance in hand. Works really well with live performances or recording with natural ambiance like churches . . . I'm drifting as I type . . . . .
So I have gone from the problems of modern living and speaker design, to a full listening experience by adaption of what is available . . . I hope thats not to much of a leap from what the OP intended?
CJSF