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

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Definitely trial and error.  Since I read that horn speakers were directional or "beamy".  So I sit about as far away as the distance to my center of the speakers..  The speakers are toed in and pointing just over my shoulder. 

Some very interesting and helpful comments, thank you.

I'm still experimenting. I am leaning towards a very slight toe in. The Focal Sopra's are very difficult to measure distances from the walls due to them not having any real straight lines. 

I think the idea of re-checking again after a few months is a good one. Not that I think the speakers will move (duh) but my preference may change.

ozzy

I too find I prefer slight toe-in. As @ozzy found I found that the soundstage becomes flat when the tweeters are pointing directly at me. Some speaker mfr’s recommended having the tweeters line of fire cross about 2-3 ft behind the listening position. I find the soundstage opens up and the off-axis response is better when it crosses WAY further behind the listening position however.  Interestingly I don’t notice too much else changing with my B&W 802’s beyond this, as I mess with toe-in.  I don’t notice any change in frequency response from the sweet spot, as toe-in is changed.  I guess that has to do with the drivers being consistent across their wide dispersion range.

Currently my walls are being painted after I had dedicated AC lines installed (woo-hoo!). So my system is dismantled and covered in protective sheets right now. After the painter is done by Saturday, I plan to reconfigure my couch to be closer to my system - will try a closer configuration to an equilateral triangle with the speakers moved out further from the wall (was previously 20” of clearance behind the speakers). I will try the 1 to 1.2 ratio referenced above. For me this means speakers will be 7ft between tweeters and 8.4 ft from tweeter to ear. I might also try being even closer to the speakers. I find as I move back in my room, I lose some of the crisp upper frequency detail that I hear when I am closer.

@patrickdowns I've got the Townsend Podiums on my short list of near term upgrades and have had the same question, are they worth the cost?

I read somewhere that Townsend has never had a pair of podiums returned for a refund

That's a heck of an endorsement and has influenced me to give them a try in the next 12-18 months

I have the speaker bars. Max Townshend told me the were as efficient as the Podiums but not as easy to install and manage the the right position under the speakers. Aesthetically they are less fancy but the price is more friendly.

my 2cents