A while back, a friend cornered me at an event we were both attending, and unburdened. ‘I’ve got these speakers I’ve had for a while, and I’ve never been really happy them,’ he said, adding, ‘I’ve got a bit of money to spend – what would be better?’

Often such a question, usually asked at a hi-fi show, is going to lead to a barrage of questions from me, anxious to avoid one of those ‘how long is a piece of string?’ responses to the enquiry. Fortunately, in the case of my friend I knew his room, had some idea of the rest of the system he was using – though some of it seemed to have changed every time I visited! – and had heard once or twice how he listened, usually after a brief blast of music followed by an apologetic ‘You’ll think its pretty poor, given the kind of systems you spend each day listening with.’

The interval of a concert was neither the time nor the place for lengthy explanations that some of the expensive systems with which I’ve worked have sounded fairly horrible, and some modest ones rather fine, but before we were called in from the bar for the band’s second set. I just had time to pop round that weekend with something I hoped would help him enjoy his music much more.

When I turned up on the Saturday afternoon, my friend looked a bit disappointed as I opened the boot of the car and there wasn’t much to see. Instead of the telltale large boxes confirming the presence of some new speakers, I had little more than my go-everywhere backpack, and a few bits of ironmongery, and he looked doubtful when I explained I was going to try a few things before we went for the ‘nuclear option’ of junking his not inexpensive loudspeaker and replacing them with something pricier.

After all, his amplifier was more than up to the task, and his CD player and network streamer were more than good enough, so I was confident Things Could Be Done. He looked doubtful, but I gave him my best ‘Trust me, I’m a hi-fi reviewer’ smile, confirmed that no, I didn’t take sugar in my tea, and left him to wander off to the kitchen while I had a quick listen and look.

Then out from my bag came an inexpensive socket set of screwdriver and bits, some spanners and Allen/Torx keys, a laser distance-measuring device (though a long tape measure would do), some wire-strippers, a soldering iron and my box of oddments, which usually contains speaker plugs and the like. Left in the boot of the car was a pair of speaker stands, and a couple of spare runs of speaker cable – just in case.

It didn’t take long to reach a diagnosis: with one speaker in a bookcase and the other on a sideboard, at different distances from the couch on which friend and partner sat to listen, and with speaker cables cut to the different distances with bare wire ends wrapped around the terminals at amplifier and speaker ends, things were not promising. Oh, and one of the speaker cables was connected to a speaker with polarity reversed – easy to do with bare cable ends – the system really didn’t have a chance.

With that last put right, things were improving, and with equal lengths of cable to each speaker and banana plugs soldered on – the ends of the bare wires were corroded, as copper does when it’s exposed to air, something soldering into the plugs should avoid – improvements were already apparent in terms of clarity and stereo focus. I also took the opportunity to tighten the speaker drivers gently with an appropriate Torx wrench, and take off the speaker grilles, vacuum them – they were rather dusty – and replace them.

On which subject, while hi-fi know-alls will tell you speakers always sound better with the grilles off, that depends on how the speakers are designed. For example, the Wharfedale speakers I review this month really do sound better with the grilles in place …

Finally, stands and positioning, and while my trusty Atacama stands helped no end with the speakers, especially with their spikes through the carpet and into the concrete floor below, they’re not the prettiest of solutions. About £100 or so online will find something domestically acceptable, however.

And positioning? Well, be guided by the speaker maker’s set-up manual – yes, it was in the box, but you can probably find a copy online – when it comes to distances from the walls behind the speakers and to the sides. Most smaller speakers will benefit from some boundary reinforcement, but too much can make the bass overpowering, and reflections from the side walls can impinge on the stereo imaging.

Toeing the speakers in – angling them slightly towards the listening position – will sharpen up the stereo image, not least by reducing these reflections, but some manufacturers design their speakers to be used firing straight forward. Remember that Dali thing? The company says its name also means ‘Don’t angle loudspeakers inwards’.

And my friend is enjoying his system much more, thank you, now that ‘new speakers’ itch has gone away …

Some speaker companies, like Dali, suggest speakers should be used with no toe-in – but set-up can make or break how a loudspeaker plays music.