With the Cubes, the two reflection points on the right fall within the nine foot opening. Once I curbed Phydeaux, I was able to get the image depth to open up a little. In general, it is a good idea to start by following the basic rules but then to make your final placement using your own ears. Actually, changing the power cord on the digital front end from a cord under review back to my own Synergistic AC Master Coupler made a much greater difference in the imaging than the improvemen t brought about by the asymmetric speaker placement. The two speakers are 5 feet 6 inches apart, and the listener's ears are about 8.5 to 9 feet away from the tweeters.
All measurements are to the outside edges of the speakers.
If my listening room had been deeper, I think I could have i mproved the soundstaging further by getting the speakers farther out from the back wall. With speakers that don't need to be so f ar out into the room, the room irregularities are less of a problem because the listening seat can move forward. With the last two pairs of speakers I used, I had no problems and kept everything symmetrical. The Cubes imposed two forces that wanted to push the listening position backwards. First, the Cubes insisted on being farther out into the listening room.