Who positions their speakers straight ahead (zero tow in) and why.


I’ve been experimenting with toe in and tweeter position (inside v. outside) for my LRS and ProAC Studio 3 speakers. My listening position is about 8.5 feet from the speakers front surface.

In both cases I ended up with tweeters on the inside and zero toe in. I like the more immersive soundstage I get with zero toe in. I sacrifice a little of the lock in for the center image.

Zero toe in also makes my sweet spot for listening a little wider.

Sorry about the incorrect spelling and the missing question mark in the subject. I couldn’t edit the subject.

g2the2nd

My Rega RX5 towers with woofers outwards and no toe in. Speakers are designed with a wide dispersion and it certainly plays that way. 
The most toe in I’ve played with is very minimal maybe 1/4”. 

@simao 

Agreed. I’ve owned Ref 3a Grand Veenas twice and they absolutely don’t work with any toe in.

Thiels work best straight ahead and ,so far, my PMC's seem to work best that way too. Jim Thiel recommended straight ahead and the PMC's also have wide dispersion.

With my Martin Logan CLSs and now CLXs, I prefer no toe-in.  A couple of things though that others might find helpful:

1. I have no toe-in, but frequency balance and imaging is also affected by lateral distance between the speakers and distance you sit from them.  I like to be in an equilateral triangle, or closer.  I more back and forth until in what I describe as a sonic "bubble" that forms a time machine that takes me to the time and place of the recording.  For me, too close or too far collapses the bubble.

2. I use precision tools to help make sure the speakers are set up as well as possible, and record the measurements, for dialing in, or re-setting the system in case it is moved.  I use a Leica Distro digital tape measure for horizontal measurements, and a Swanson Tool Co SVT200 9 Inch Digital Torpedo Level that is accurate to 0.1%.  The later is used to ensure the speakers are both tilted exactly the same.

 

-docknow

In my acoustically treated room my B&W 803 D3 sound best to me with no toe-in. The front of the speakers are 3'  in front of the front wall, they are 8' apart, and the listening seat is 8' from the speakers. Soundstage width and depth increased, and the tonal balance top to bottom improved, after changing from 30* toe-in to 0* toe-in.