We've disagereed on this before, and as much as I hate to re-run yet another old disagreement (as you and I are prone to do
), this POV just doesn't add up for me.
A wide spread will spread out the stereo image way wide, but the image will still be there in correct proportion and location, as long as the speakers are equidistant from the listener.
I didn't want to get into all this again too deeply, which is why I said in my last post that there is a certain amount of personal/subjective choice involved, but too late now...
...so I don't agree that ANY distance/position/angle is OK as long as you're “equally in-between the speakers”.
These days most people have tiny little mixing areas thanks to computers and small work surfaces...so most end up sitting real close by necessity. If you spread speakers 8' apart and sit up close, like say only 2' away from their L-----R line...you end up with a hole in the center of your image.
Now I know you're suggesting that as long as you are midway between the speakers and they are toed- in far enough to aim at your ears it's going to be the same quality image as the way I suggest placing them (and the way a lot of folks do that I've come across reading up on speaker placement, including most monitor manufacturers). You’re actually the first person that I’ve ever come across that says angles and distances don’t matter all that much as long as you sit midway in-between them, so I respectfully disagree that it doesn’t matter how far apart they are or how much you toe them in relative to where you are sitting.
The imaging just sounds weird when speakers are far apart and toed-in real hard to compensate, especially noticeable in the imaginary center ….or just the opposite, when they are real close (like a lot of DAW users have them), because at those very short distances, even if you do the triangle, you end up with a very Mono-ish sound no matter what angles you chose for the toe-in.
I’m not saying 30° is absolute (like some folks say) and that you shouldn’t stray even one 1° in either direction…but I will say that 30° certainly is the best ballpark to shoot for, with only some slight adjustment for personal taste…otherwise anything more dramatic just screws up the center of the image.
I tried a LOT of speaker positions and angles over a good period of time, sometimes living with one setup for awhile and then going back and revisiting my choices and maybe making a small adjustment and giving that a try…and not just haphazardly, but spending a lot of time/effort measuring and checking angles and what not…and I discovered first hand that there are ranges/positions that work and then there are others that just sound odd…and that just sitting equidistant was not the only factor that mattered.
IMHO, YMMV, CTA, MTA, AMTRAK, ETC
And.....as I said this to you in the last thread (which I think was what got our debate going)...the position of the speakers in that picture looks very wrong *to me*. It's kinda' like listening with headphones but without the benefit of the headphone cups to block out any outside noise/space and allow the proper creation of the imaginary center.
With speakers spread off to the sides like that and you sitting in that close...well...it's just very odd and IMO screws up the center of the image. When they talk about an equilateral triangle it's not just about the sides being of equal length, it's also about the 3 angles of the triangle being of equal size....and that would be 60° each....not anything else. In your picture...the speaker position and listening position are nowhere near being an equilateral triangle.
It's probably not a big issue for monitoring during tracking or for basic edits...but I would not care to mix with that speaker position...and again...I'm only speaking about *me*, and not trying to lay down any absolute, though as I mentioned, just about every bit of info I ever read was more along the lines of how I place monitors, which is why/what I ended up following that info for my own setup...but I also confirmed it by trying out a lot of positions/angles/lengths and not just following someone's suggestions blindly.
So again…I suggest people check multiple sources of info, and then make their own personal decision based on what their studio space allows.
I do notice though that a lot of folks come up with a “works for me” setup simply because their room situation doesn’t allow anything else, as noted by the OP’s case….but that doesn’t validate anything AFA what’s best/better...when you are just forced to adjust to something else.