Once you get into the final tweaks, I feel it's all personal.
How much do you toe your speakers in? Is there a formula for that stuff
For source material, I would use stuff that you're very familiar with and is wide ranging in content. I think the big test is when you pull things that you've done and are comfortably doing in your room and get that feedback from outside to match up consistently.
In my case NOLA/Arcadian Systems recommends strait out into the room with no toe in. They also recommend a minimum of 3 feet from the rear wall and minimum of 18" from each side wall. This is about what I have set up with the front of the speaker about 58 inches from the rear wall and the side about 29 inches from the side wall using the Cardas setup outlined in my original post. They also recommend tri wiring which I have also done. The speakers are mounted on toe points and on 2 150# granite slabs. The floor is concrete with a carpet on top and the granite block on top of that.IMHO the speakers sound incredible but I am always tweaking them for optimum performance.
Some of my source materials include...
The sound track from Casper the Movie - Great Bass
Mark Isham Blue Sun - Over all good CD
Master and Commander of the World- Good recording - good sense of space - good bass
Patricia Barber Companion - if you speakers cannot handle the bass fiddle don't play this one. I almost blew out a pair of speakers in the show room when they could not handle the bass on this CD.
Branford Marsalis Trio Jeepy - Well done CD with lots of ambience.
Eric Bib and Needed Time - Spirit and the Blues
Telarc Papa Doo Run Run California Project
Donald Fagen The Nightfly -Classic
Peter Hammill - Track 3 from Various Artist Plus from Us - GREAT localized bass drums.
ETC ETC plus a lot of what I have mastered over the years.
Thanks for the help so far...keep em coming