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Speaker toe in

Has anyone heard of The Tannoy Method used for speaker tie in? I have a picture I wish I could upload showing this method used on some Acoustic Research speakers. The speakers are toed in quite a bit past the listening axis. Is there a benefit? One person claims it take the room out of the equation. Thoughts?
128x128luvrockin
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
And in a long-wall set-up?  Presumably you aren't so worried about side-wall reflections...
audiokinesis
2,734 posts
 

Twoleftears said: "And in a long-wall set-up? Presumably you aren’t so worried about side-wall reflections..."

Very true.

However the proximity of the wall behind the speakers could constrain the soundstage depth (assuming you can’t pull them out into the room as far with a long-wall setup). I’m not saying the one configuration is more right than the other, but ime there are tradeoffs which often require trying it both ways in order to evaluate reliably.

Imo the arguments for speakers with good radiation pattern control go well beyond minimizing sidewall reflections, but that is one of them.

You know, if your ears weren’t both on the left-hand side of your head, all this talk about soundstaging might make more sense...

Sorry, I couldn’t resist!!!

Duke

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,540 posts
 
Great job of explaining Duke. Before I became committed to ESLs I had several speakers that did best with extreme toe in. It all depends on the dispersion pattern of the speaker. The brains method of localization, phase and volume also explain why line source speakers can have a wider sweet spot if their dispersion is uniform throughout the listening area. Their volume does not drop off near as fast with distance and if they are dipoles there is no radiation to the side walls. This is one of the reasons both Duke and I are attracted to Soundlabs speakers.
In the end it comes down to what you like best so try toeing your speakers in farther and pay attention to what the image does as you move away from the sweet spot. High frequencies may drop off as you toe in the speaker. You may have to compensate. If the speakers were bright to start with they may sound better. Much better. 
Duke, we all know you have two left ears. But, your two right ears balance it out fine:)

Mike
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audiokinesis
2,734 posts
 
Mijostyn wrote, regarding a side effect of extreme toe-in: "High frequencies may drop off as you toe in the speaker."

Yup! Severe toe-in can result in less high frequency energy in the first-arrival sound, but correspondingly a bit more in the reverberant field (which is typically starved of high frequencies relative to the first-arrival sound).

The solution is, tilt the tweeter’s response up a bit! This kills two birds with one stone: It corrects the spectral balance of the first-arrival sound, and further improves the spectral balance of the reverberant field. So the tonal balance is now better throughout the room.

Since 2006 I have been making speakers with user-adjustable high frequency tilt, via a single high-quality changeable resistor (in an dedicated terminal cup) on the back of the speaker cabinet. Imo this is superior to a variable L-pad. Typically this external resistor is bypassing a resistor in a particular location on the crossover board.

Anyway you correctly identified one of the potential downsides of severe toe-in, and that downside is something I should have thought to mention earlier. It hasn’t been an issue for me from the beginning because the tilt adjustment has been built into all of my controlled-pattern speaker systems, and that’s probably why I didn’t think of it.

Thanks for bringing it up! 

Duke
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