Yes.
Cool - what did you gain from that - was it a significant benefit?
Hi
It was just a matter of getting them set up in a suitable way to give a slightly more accurate and central stereo image.
And to be equally honest it looks much better than staring at the in sides of the cabinets like Marty Feldman.
Straight on at my sitting distance created a hole in the middle.
In the ideal world then straight on might work depending on the
“ triangle “ and size of room but domestic harmony and compromise must fit in.
1 Like
That’s not my experience. See my earlier post where I mentioned using Vivaldi’s Gloria for setting up toe-in. Once I get it dialed in for that, it’s also at its best for everything else: all classical, jazz, rock, and so on. Ditto for my subs. Once they are dialed in, they’re dialed in for everything. I certainly don’t start changing setup as I change the type of music I play.
1 Like
I agree @JosquinDesPrez, I had a similar experience. IMHO a proper toe-in works with every genre as well as the right distance from the wall behind the speakers. A proper positioning can improve the soundstage and clarity dramatically.
thanks for the clarification
ProAc D30’s
Slight Toe in….only enough to make me think there’s a difference. I’m not sure I’d notice either way, but for me it’s sort of a mental thing
Around 8 degrees of toe-in here. Neat Ultimatum XL10s. They’re close to firing straight at that angle but the soundstage is improved with a little toe-in in my room.
The Focal Kantas, as well (there are a few of those on the thread), have forward (and rear) ports designed to allow them to be placed a bit closer to the wall than traditional speaker placement math would suggest.
More than that, though, it is just reality! Dedicated listening rooms of sufficient size to place speakers and the listening position just where they would theoretically belong are rare, indeed!
I am building a new home office/man cave out back of my house right now, and I hope it will provide a bit more ahem flexibility to accommodate speaker placement and listening position. But I still think the speakers will be fairly close to the front wall. I just don’t have the space to build a 7-meter deep room!
As for toe-in, I have mine toed in a little, but honestly, given the size of my room, leaving them a bit open facing helps the soundstage to my ears, probably due to how close I am sitting.
Toe - in
My right speaker is straight on.
My left speaker is toed in.
thanks, I thinks having the possibility of building a dedicated listening room is a dream of many music lovers… you have a great opportunity. I agree that opening boxes increases soundstage, at the price of smaller focalization sometimes
do you have the speakers in peculiar position in the room? maybe 1 is close to a corner?
My ATCs are slightly toed in, though I find they are not particularly sensitive to the degree of toe-in. I suspect this may be partly down to the very wide horizontal dispersion of the midrange dome.
Roger
1 Like
I’m still surprised at how even small amounts of toe-in can affect the sound. I’ve been using DBL’s for the past 7 years and tried lots of positions to find that just 1cm of toe-in is perfect. Any more or any less changes image depth/width coherence quite dramatically.
I’ve also started using a laser level to check vertical adjustment after I found that if I fired it off the top of the speakers (at the seating position) the laser was at least nearly 10cm higher from one speaker to the other. Adjusting the spikes a few turns was all that was needed. The result was again very surprising.
Another tip I found is to ensure equal pressure from all the spikes are on each of the Naim chips I use. Easy for me as I’m on a wooden floor. I make a simple lever system that can lift the speaker stand from the centre very slightly and spin the chips. It’s easy to see if the pressure isn’t equal as they just drag or are too free.
Get everything right and I get notes that seem to charge the air, like real instruments. The start and stop of notes are so much better, as is the timbre accuracy.
As the performance of any system increases It’s the small things that really start to matter.
3 Likes
thanks Geko, this is very interesting and useful, suggestions that speakers makers give are very approssimative, I think a careful and precise approach like you can help a lot, should be developed a dedicated guide
However, as said in a few posts for the above, a lot depends on how directional the speakers are: some like those with dome mid range, such as ATC and PMC, and large panel electrostatics tend to have a much wider dispersion than some other designs, making angle of toeing much less critical. also related is the distance and reflectiveness of surfaces to the side of the sound to pass from speaker to listener, side walls in particular.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.