Speaker Placement and Toe-In

So as everything with this hobby (at least for me) changes with time, I have now toed the speakers (slightly) and yes, I now prefer them that way.

Although getting the symmetry right is very important.

ozzy

@ozzy 

Congrats to you for sticking with it- my room was pretty challenging so I hired an acoustic analyst to work it out. Thought I’d send this your way though- similar to what has been discussed previously but with a little less ratio. I prefer a 1.1 ratio in my setup.

WASP Setup

Thanks all for the additional help.

The difficult part of all of this is the size, weight and shape of the speakers. It's not as easy as just measuring the sides etc. The Sopra 2's really have an exotic shape.

I have tried to zero in on exactly the same distances, side to side, distance to front wall, toe in, and listening position. I think I have it!

Funny though, just moving one dimension can throw off the other distances.

ozzy

My best friends in speaker positioning have been multidirectional laser levels. Some good models can be bought for under USD $200 each.

Having 2-3 multidirectional units makes things even quicker. I don’t find unidirectional laser levels as helpful, and spirit levels can’t well apply in my use case.

Others have posted that  toe-in/toe-out are more about the room than the speakers, or rooms that are more reflective/less reflective.

That's not been my experience. My dedicated room is acoustically treated on all four walls and the ceiling, with a thick rug on the wood floor. Reflective it's definitely not.

My Vandersteen 2Ce Sig IIs demanded toe-in due to the very narrow dispersion pattern of the tweeters. They also demanded that ears be lower than the tweeters.

My B&W 803 D3s (in the same positions, in the same room) make no such demands, though they do sound their best by a very slight margin with toe-in, and are ambivalent how high or low my ears are.

My experience is the speakers dictate toe-in/toe-out, not the room.