How many have speakers toed in?

[Guest125]

Everyone thinks point source speakers with domes have the best distortion. What a fallacy. Most can't maintain even response 15 degrees off axis above 10 KHZ. Horn speakers are much better. But that said the fall off allows you to voice your system by the way your orient your speakers as far as the direct sound from the speakers is concerned. What the reflected sound response is another story. How they support or degrade each other is another story. There is no simple answer. Thats why a lot of folks use Room Perfect to voice their systems. It takes a lot of the variables in to account before touching up system. And if you want to change the over all tenor of the system; that's possible, too.

Room correction is one of the advantages of using a more modern AVR as the source.

 

[FONSguy]

KEF 104aB's toed in. ON AXIS.

 

[cartop]

In my HT I toe them in just slightly and in my LR not at all.

 

[mkane]

A bit

 

[BigElCat]

Yeah I've got them toed in. Bout half a degree negative camber and 5 degrees of caster too.

Round of wedge in the chassis...all new rubber.

This race ain't over yet.

 

[quaddriver]

I was just thinking about this as I play with different speakers in my modest room. I have some Epicure 20s that are designed to be placed up against the wall. Doing this would eliminate the process of toeing them in. I normally don't toe in speakers just for appearances sake, although when I play with it is helps some speakers, not others. Anyway, so my question is: How many just set their speakers up straight and rely on sound dispersion to make it work and how many experiment with toeing in to refine their sweet spot?

A

I dont worry so much about toe in as I do camber and caster....cross camber in my living room is a biotch.

 

[quaddriver]

Yeah I've got them toed in. Bout half a degree negative camber and 5 degrees of caster too.

dammit beat me to it

 

[62caddy]

In.

Best response is dead on for the vast majority of forward radiating speakers.

 

[RT Fan]

Call me Pigeon-toed.

 

[Hyperion]

Yep, toed in.

 

[Mlistens03]

I keep my Polk LSi's toed in, pointed straight at my ears. Otherwise, you basically can't hear the tweeter. They are that directional.
Mission Freedom 770's, no toe in, about 7-8 inches from the wall.
Polk SDA-CRS, no toe in, 10-12 inches from the wall.

 

[WaynerN]

The distance between the speakers and the distance between the listeners dictate the toe-in. My life partner also listens to music with me, so the sweet spot has to be for 2, not 1 person. This requires careful alignment. I have created a datum line as a reference, making the speakers symmetrical within the room, and adjusting toe-in angle until both parties get happy stereo without developing cross-channel distortions (left ear hears right channel, right ear hears left channel), as Mathew Polk researched about. In my vinyl room, the 5 pairs of speakers on the shelf very in distance between from 4 1/2 feet to 12 feet. As the distance increases, so does the toe in angle.

In fact, I would say that listening to speakers that have good off-axis response, produce a better stereo image when they are not directly pointed at the listener. In fact I do not like the tweeter at ear level, I like the tweeter at least 12" higher then ear level.

I also think that some tipping angle may be OK, but many manufacturers have designed their drivers to be time aligned when they are in their normal, straight up position. Adding additional tipping angle may alter the time alignment.

 

[KlipschFan61]

Not a chance. I never 'cross the streams' on the horns lest I end up headless.

 

[BigElCat]

What ever sounds best should dictate the toe in.

It's not required.

Mine are toed in, so the front baffles face me directly. But toe in should be played with, IMHO.

 

[cason]

Yes, toed in.

 

[62caddy]

The closer the listener to the speakers, the greater the angling is needed; less angling the greater the distance - not the other way around. For example, if distance were a theoretical 0, the speakers would need to be turned in a full 90 degrees- with the speakers facing one another and the listener seated between with the speakers directly facing the listeners ears. (Effectively creating a very large set of headphones)

Few realize how prevalent "beaming" is even among the best dome tweeters. The higher the frequency, the more difficult it is to achieve wide dispersion. To combat this, some designers use arrays of multiple tweeters in semi-circles or other such arrangements, however this can introduce other acoustic problems.

 

[quiet]

Most of my old beam box speakers have paper cones and are all collectively stacked to close to the wall for bass control, so yes aimed straight at the chair.

 

[Bodyblue]

In our small front room we sit about 8 feet away and the speakers are about 7 feet apart so they are not toed in at all (for both the Imperal 6s and the CS88s that I rotate in and out of that system). In the bedroom the speakers are placed in the corners of a 20 foot long wall with the listening spot on the bed about 10 feet away so the speakers are fairly heavily toed......no matter what speakers are used. (Imperial 5, Rectilinear Mini lll, KLH 17, Sansui SP 75, Nova 7.

 

[motorstereo]

I used a 10' straight edge and a laser pointer to make sure my SDA's have no toe in as specified in the manual for proper set up. I haven't tried any toe in on my ADS 1530's in the years I've had them as they seem to work great firing straight ahead. I'm guessing it would be called toe in on my khorns that are properly placed into their respective room corners and the same for my corner loaded stacked Mcintosh ML1C's.

 

[KingBubba]

In our living room, my wife and I each have our own comfy chair facing the speakers. My chair is right in the sweet spot, but my wife's is 6 feet to the right. I have to toe in to keep her listening balanced. It works somewhat, but I would rather keep all speakers forward facing. You just have to make concessions sometimes. I need no toe in in the bedroom system. I will often lay on my side of the bed facing the foot of the bed. This puts me right in the sweet spot and allows considerable imaging from the DCM TimeFrame 400s.