The trouble with this advice is that the sound reproduced by your loudspeakers (based on their placement) is left to chance. This is not a great approach for accurate sound reproduction. We, however, recommend using a combination of measurements as well as your ear to optimize your speaker placement. For a solid introduction to speaker placement and its related concepts, have a look through the following Sonic Scoop article here.

We recently completed a project for Mr. Sahni, an audio-video enthusiast from St. Louis, MO. For this project, we designed the speaker layout around the front row seats. While the rear speakers had to be slightly elevated for clear lines of sight, the bar height is low enough so that the angle between the rear speakers and final row of top speakers is not too compressed. While the sound quality for the second row of seats will be somewhat compromised, the sound quality at the main seating position has been preserved as well as possible. You can read more about Mr. Sahni’s project and the design challenges it posed here.