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Radical toe in once more

Hi all. I have bi-directional floorstanders, two way speakers with identical treble and woofer on the front and the back. Half of the sound goes to the front drivers, half to the back.

The toe-in of this type of speaker is very influenced by how the back sound wave and the reverberant sound behaves. These speakers often sound good with radical toe-in due to better room acoustics with a longer back wave towards the corners.

This is a huge topic, and my question is more restricted: what happens with the front firing sound?

Is there an "inherent" problem with radical toe in, when the main sound from the front drivers cross in front of the listener, instead of the more conventional setup where the crossing point is behind the listener - and if so, what?

Is this (potential) minus factor in fact low, if the listener is just a foot or so back of the crossing point?

 

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o_holter OP
957 posts
 

Thanks to both of you!

My room is quite large, I dont have major problems with side wall reflections or back wave boom, and the off axis treble response is quite smooth. So my speakers sound very good with radical toe in but also good with conventional toe in. I am just in two minds, regarding the front wave.

newbee
4,751 posts
 

Something rarely addressed is the effect of floor and, more importantly, ceiling reflections. Crossing the axis of your speakers in front of you might get a more diffused soundstage (for the better?) because of changing ceiling reflections. Whatever, it does make a difference if you listen closely.

erik_squires
15,902 posts
 

I am just in two minds, regarding the front wave.

 

If you had never heard of radical toe-in you'd be happy?  Then pretend you don't know what it is and keep things conventional.

ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,245 posts
 

Interesting topic. I will (hopefully) have new speakers next week. They are of the Planar/ribbon design. I have been told that they should be placed with no toe in, no absorptive materials behind them or at 1st reflection points and place them about 4-5 feet from the wall that is behind the speakers.

Very new concept for me, so, I shall see what this leads to.

ozzy

stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,384 posts
 

disconnect the back firing speaker

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