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.
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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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 |
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