Toe in is crucial
I’m like the rest of us, obsessing about the smallest tweaks in power supplies, USB cables, cable risers, room acoustics, etc. But an underrated (or discussed) speaker tweak is toe in.
in my system (SF Amati, Mc components, Cardas, Weiss) adjusting speaker toe in by as little as ¼ inch has greater impact on SQ than many cable and other tweaks I’ve made at the tail end of refinement. The impact (and trade off) on sound stage, imaging, and treble presentation, by the smallest adjustments is profound.
I wasn’t quite satisfied with my system tonight—a little too forward; a narrower soundstage than I like. A ¼ inch toe in adjustment took me from hifi to the concert.
Not sure if others have experienced this, but thought I’d share.
I've heard people state that, with electrostatics and planers, you need to sit, head fixed in a vice, to maintain a balanced image and stage. I've found, with both my Quad ESL 63s and my Magnepans, that, with a great deal of attention to placement and especially toe in, I can achieve a large, well maintained image and stage, even when setting or standing, well out of the sweet spot.
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Great conversation. Thanks. I think a really good point is how toe-in in a given room and based on one’s one preference can significantly deviate from a manufacturers recommendation. If I recall SF Amati are recommended to be toed in direct at the listing position. For me, while this does create greater imaging, the sound stage decreases significantly, and the vocals become too defined in space, and treble a bit strident (despite having Mc equipment and a tube pre). My starting point is probably having the tweeters shoot past my shoulders, then ¼-½ adjustment out seems to be a good spot for now. Maintain a decent imaging, but the soundstage just opens up and envelopes the room. Truly for me, the change is more profound than switching up cables, and depending on the price point could rival the change of a DAC. At one point I was feeling my DAC was too sharp and went through an odyssey of different DACs. I wish I had understood then, that the first thing I should have done was to adjust the toe-in. Lesson learned!
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I currently have a (broken in) loaner pair of SF Amanti G5’s and after they set them up as they were instructed to, there was no depth and and the top end was muted. They said that they took a 12 hour course on how to set them up. After they left, I spent a couple of hours moving the G5’s around and now there is a soundstage and some depth.Still don’t have wife approval yet to spend that kind of money, but it’s looking like she’s going to give in. At least I'll still have the painters tape to use as guide lines when the new pair comes.😀
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@w123ale , You are so right. I used this and it opened a whole new dimension of my system: https://isoteksystems.com/products/ultimate-system-set-up-disc/ Doesn't save time, but when you get it dialed in, WOW! |
@daveteauk i am not wrong - i am talking about Zingali QA 3,8 speakers where it is so. |
