Speaker Placement and Toe-In

I just spent hours moving my Sopra 2’s with them sitting on the Townshend’s podiums #3. I kept intense measurements. My speakers are 115" from the woofer center to the other speaker woofer. I am sitting at that same distance from the L&R speakers’ middle centerline. They are 37" from the sidewalls to the sidewalls of the speaker.

I used one of those air bladder wedges that are used for lifting car doors and lifted each leg individually of the Townshend podium just enough to slide a furniture mover/disc under each leg.

What I found is that I prefer no Toe-In. That is, I prefer the speakers straight out into the room.

At least at this moment I am content.

ozzy

ozzy08-22-2022 10:25pm

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noromance Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 9,869 posts 08-23-2022 at 03:40am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Needless to add, my Quad 57s are toed in to a 1/16th of an inch to each ear!
holmz Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,328 posts 08-23-2022 at 05:47am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete and I know this sounds counter intuitive, but I toed-in both just slightly, and, wala, it worked. Wider stage. @bkeske - yep, that is counter intuitive… but listening to it, and liking it, is hard to argue. Sometimes it is weird and magical how it just all of a sudden seems to snap good. Young fellow (work mate) had his speakers playing and I asked if he liked them. He said that the bass was a bit low. I asked if I could move the speakers, and I shoved them back to about 15” from the wall and toed them in 1/2 way. He said, “wow.” And wanted to do more adjusting. I told him he could spend most of the day with a roll of tape, and taking notes… and we had to man the BBQ for the lady folk. He asked how will he know when they are right. I shrugged my shoulders and told him, when which ever way you move them gets worst, then we assume that they must be right… we both had a larf, and retired to the BBQ tongs.
mijostyn Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 8,570 posts 08-23-2022 at 12:07pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete With more or less omnidirectional loudspeakers toe-in does not matter much. You might change reflective patterns a little but that is all. With directional loudspeakers it is a totally different ball game. The idea is to cover the listening area with both channels and minimize reflections thus toe-in becomes very important for controlling room reflection. These are speakers like horns and dipoles of one sort or another. Even with room treatment, you will never get the image out of an omnidirectional speaker to match that of a speaker with controlled directionality.
jjss49 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,612 posts 08-23-2022 at 03:18pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete ideal speaker placement is room specific, speaker specific, non transferable i-p among users, as important is proper placement is for any specific user
blisshifi Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 1,204 posts 08-23-2022 at 03:30pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete +1 @holmz on saying a lot about the room. I started a similar a similar thread last month on this as well that some of you contributed to. @ozzy How wide is your room, how far apart are the speakers, and what’s your listening distance? The fact that you have the sopras set up with no toe in means they need to be close enough together to create a coherent center image while also reflecting beneficially off the walls to provide a wide soundstage. This is fairly difficult to achieve in many rooms using no toe in, but when possible, it is incredible.