Butterfly layout, rectangle, 1,000 square feet

My old listening room was about 800 square feet; the new one is 1,000 or more. Those extra 200 feet are the least important number in this story.

When the search started, my focus was a butterfly layout: a living room in the middle, other rooms branching off to the left and the right, and crucially, a rectangle. Size came second. After years in an L-shaped room I had learned what a bad shape costs, and no amount of floor area pays it back.

The L gave me one possible speaker position and a seat against the back wall. Wilson's setup method, where you use your own voice to find the zone where the speakers interact least with the room boundaries, gave me almost no room to move there. In the rectangle I had real choices, and it did not take long to find a position where the sound and the room's looks could agree.

Shape is what decides your options. A large room in the wrong shape still dictates where everything goes, while a rectangle lets you place the system where it sounds best and treat what remains. Freedom of position is the upgrade, and only the floor plan can give it to you.

Size impresses your visitors. Shape is what your speakers hear.