sweet spot hell

I have my speakers toe'd in as Aragain suggests. Works for me.

Not that one is better than the other here ( personal preference ), but the more "toe in" that is used in setting up the speakers, the narrower the soundstage. Whether running the speakers "flat faced" or "toe'd in", this also affects the frequency response / tonal balance at the listening position. LOTS to think about and play with on this one. Sean
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Actually, as Aragain says, toe-ing in to a point IN FRONT of the listening position has the effect of widening the sweet spot. If you'd like a wider sweet spot, this is the best way to achieve it. Of course it will be suboptimal for the listening position but will be pretty good for your friends too.

The tonal balance is preserved due to the dispersion characeristics of most speakers. For a person sitting to the side, the decrease in dB due to one speaker being further away will be offset by the fact that it is pointed more directly at your guest. Likewise with the closer speaker; the increase in dB is set off by it facing further away. As for the prime position, the tonal balance will be as good as if they were slightly toed in, but the imaging will take a performance hit.

Dear All,

Actually I think both points are view are incorrect.

Firstly if you toe the speakers in, what you are actually doing is moving the focal zone of the speakers forward. i.e. the truely sweetest spot moves more forward. You are then more distal to the true focal zone or sweetspot. At that point the sound waves are already diverging from optimal. (this is called the fraunhofer zone for all you sonographers out there).

Sean's opinion I believe is incorrect also. Actually as the speakers get more and more in focus than the sweet spot narrows more. Any placement of the speakers which widens the sweet spot or faocal zone will cause less sharpness in in that sweet spot. So that if you untoe the speakers for instance the sweet spot will in fact be wider but the focus will not be as sharp.
This bothered me for a bit so I called Avalon (I have eidolons) and asked them abou this. Their answer is that with these speakers the focus is already so sharp that it is a matter of degree. The loss in sharpness is not very significant given to the overall sharpness of the image already. BUT if you were to toe themin more it would increase the sharpness and narrow the sweet spot in the near field.

SO I guess I am going to untoe my speakers a bit.

jd

If I have somebody sitting on the couch with me while music is playing, I'm sure not there for listening....Ooops, almost forgot, of course I'll be listening, what else is there? I'm married.

Never mind.