Is toeing speakers a bad idea?

I have a pair of very tall ESLs. As many planar speakers do, they "beam" meaning that the sound stage is not very dispersed. However, you CAN play with it by using  varying amounts of toe-in. 

Counter intuitively, less toe-in creates a very focused image, and a very small 'sweet spot' to go with. More toe-in creates a wider, more defuse soundstage. 

I go through phases where I'll listen to one configuration for several months then one day I'll switch to the other. It's fun to hear the differences and keeps things fresh! 😉

Happy listening.

Thanks for the question and thanks @hilde45 for posting the PS video.

I always thought my Harbeth 40.3's should be toed-in somewhat, and I thought they were pretty dialed in at roughly 10 degrees (actually 3 inch diff. in distance from the rear corners of the speakers to the wall).

I re-started with 0 degrees as Paul suggested and was surprised how much better the image was (centered vocals, wider sound stage) and landed at maybe 5 degrees (now 1 inch diff. from the wall).

Perfect timing for Jazz Sunday!

I'm not sure I'll helpful it is to know the dispersion qualities of any given speaker unless you see a straw coming out of the speaker rather than a cone.

Horn speakers definitely are dispersed otherwise no clue.

Sometimes my toe in is directly proportional to the amount of alcohol I've consumed.

I rotate four different pairs of speakers.  Three of them I set with no toe in, and the other I set with slight toe in. Go figure.