Speaker toe in

I agree that proper toe-in is something determined by experimentation.  This is the case with ALL aspects of proper speaker placement in a room.  

As for a reason for extreme toe-in, this can be useful if you are attempting to widen the area that one can sit in and still have some stereo imaging.  With extreme toe-in, the listener who is pushed closer to the left speaker will now be on-axis with the right speaker and off-axis with respect to the left speaker.  That means that the closer proximity to the left speaker is somewhat compensated for by the more direct sound of the right speaker.  The opposite holds true for the listener closer to the right speaker.

Toe-in is essentially an old school left-over idea from the 70s and 80s, prior to the whole concept of tweaks, especially room treatment. You know, before Tube Traps, Corner Tunes, tiny little bowl acoustic resonators, etc. and before speaker set-up tracks on Test CDs. When your room is firing on all cylinders the best toe-in is no toe-in. Also, speakers are generally placed too far apart. People! Hel-loo! That’s why a lot of folks must use toe-in - because the center of the stage disappears when the speakers Re too far apart.

ganash, you bet. I always listen with my eyes closed when I am listening seriously. Visual cues can easily distort your audio perception. Our eyes and ears are wired together. As an example if one inner ear malfunctions your eyes will start to drift to that side then your brain says "look ahead you idiot." the result is called nystagmus and what you get is vertigo. The room spins. 
Put on Herbie Hancock's Sextant album and play rain dance with the lights out or Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller and Nubian Sundance. 

When your room is firing on all cylinders the best toe-in is no toe-in.

This is so incredibly speaker dependent.
As for imaging, I find that toe-in affects whether musical instruments appear in a continuous range from speaker to speaker. If there is a missing center, or there is a L, C and R but nothing in between, toe-in can be the game changer.

And yes, too often speakers are too far apart for the room they are in.

Not just toe-in. Tilt-back.


My speaker soul-brother, Troels Gravesen, and I have both found that sometimes when we design a speaker to be listened with the ear at tweeter height the best place to listen ends up being a little between it and the mid-woofer. 

The point is, of course, to have the most enjoyable listening experience for you.


No reason not to experiment even when all the tools and tech says to listen another way.


Best,
E