Speaker Placement and Toe-In

So many great responses thank you. My room has been treated extensively. My room is 27 x 17 x 8. Three of the walls have exterior concrete. All of the walls and ceiling were made with separate studding and with 1/2" drywall with insulation behind them.

I have large 20" diameter tube traps in the corners and 7 Stillpoint Aperture ll’s located at the center and on the walls along with other wall treatments. Also, I have acoustic ceiling tile that is glued and stapled to the drywall. The speakers are 55" out from the back wall to the back of the speakers and are 37" from the wall side to the side of the speaker.

The wall behind my seating position is about 8 feet away and has a rack that holds over 6000 cd’s.

I was always under the impression that speakers should be toed in to dial in the soundstage. Obviously and to my surprise, with my room, speakers, equipment that is not the case.

ozzy

Oh, BTW, the air bladders were purchased from Amazon. A very useful tool when needing to move (lift) large heavy speakers (on stands) with the help of the furniture sliders.

ozzy

The general recommendation for my speakers Sonus Faber Amati Traditional)  is to the “cross the beams” 18” behind the sweet spot. In my room that causes a very restricted soundstage. They sound best with no toe in, just like yours,

I wish I was inclined to fiddle and tweak my placement to the Nth degree. If I have an expert guiding me I might. I had my Vandersteens pointed straight ahead for a long time (on the long wall, about 18" out from the front wall and 30" from side walls. My dealer suggested much more toe-in and it did seems to make an improvement but not radical. I think my ears need more training!

@ozzy - HOW do you like the Townshend podiums? I have a very live floor, and these appeal to me to isolate my speakers from the floor. Very expensive, to my mind (50% of the cost of my speakers) so I am reluctant unless the benefit would be significant. THX

Yeah, I think all the rules as to speaker placement should just be considered as a starting point. We still need to experiment. Moving heavy speakers on stands like the Townshends is near impossible. But trying to place the Sopra's in the right spot while off the stands gave a different result. And needed To-In. Thus the need to be able to move them around on the stands.

I have tried the spikes that the Sopra’s came with, then Stillpoints and then the Gaia 1’s. They were an improvement over the ones provided with the Sopra’s, but the Townshends podiums are revolutionary. Do they justify the cost? For me they do.

ozzy