Question about speaker angle


I've always been under the impression that your front main speakers should be angled so that the "face" of the speaker is basically perpendicular with the listener's face when viewing the speakers from the sweet spot. I do however see others placing the speakers parallel or inline with the surface of the wall behind the speakers. I'm wondering, how much loss to the sonic sound stage this creates.

waxensens
Post removed 

The short answer is “It depends…”

as for a longer answer. I do not think I can add anything of interest that has not already been said. 
 

As a general rule, I keep them mostly parallel with the rear wall, toed in maybe a couple of degrees at best, but sometimes I need a change, and I toe them in. 
 

in other words, not only does it depend on your room and equipment, it depends on your mood that day. 
 

theaudioatticvinylsundays.com

Getting it right is like getting to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice, practice.
I've had my Wharfedale Linton speaker stands for a couple of days now and with my JBL 4319 monitors in the same space and position, I have the widest sweet spot imaginable. 

I got this cheap couch a while back that's ergonomically perfect for my height and I can move anywhere in the 56" seating width and still hear what I can in the exact middle. Never had that happen before. 

All I lose is the center image stability, and it's perfectly fine for casual listening. These new stands puts the top third of the mid range driver just below my ear and almost halves the distance between it and the tweeter. 

They're toed in to just an inch or so outside my ears so all this tells me I can reduce the toe in some and still retain the coverage of the horizontal spread and move the outside limits of the soundstage some to what I was used to.

They look rather imposing next the the TV (sitting up that high) but the additional amounts of musical info I'm getting is wonderful. The only trade off was a slight lessening of the base which turned out to just be a loss of bloom as the base tightened up some. (I used to have them on some low and angels back stands much like the L100 come with). 

It's moments like these that make this hobby so much fun.

All the best,
Nonoise

I usualy have 55 inches between center of the speakers.  I move them closer together, 45 inches.  There is more focus and details, the bass is less boomy because of the left side wall.  I put just a little toe-in.  it is realy more musical and coherent, so positionning is a must to experiment with, absolutly.

@audiosens 

 

Nice system! 45” - 55” in general would be a very short base, but as always very system / room dependent.  Looking at your system / room it looks completely appropriate.