Speaker toe-in & stereo imaging

I agree wholeheartedly with Newbee's comments suggestions above.

I would also like to add that the wider you space the speakers apart, the more likely you will have to toe them in. The more toe in that you use, the narrower that the sound stage will be. If the speakers are situated where you have a lot of gear / equipment / TV situated between them, you may end up having to toe them in slightly more. How much the gear in the middle affects the speakers will depend on how solid that structure is, if the speakers are in front of / equal to / behind the structure, etc...

I posted a method that i use to locate speakers that works pretty well in most any size / shaped room. This approach allows one to take into account the individual types of speakers used and the listening distance that one would normally use. That was a LONG time ago though and it requires having a "mono" switch on your preamp. Some newer gear doesn't have this feature, so it may be harder to achieve optimum results even if you were to find and follow the directions i made in that post. Sean
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If you can, go with Sean's mono method. If not, try to position yr spkrs ~65degrees apart fm each other as seen at listening position. Play with tow-in fm there. As newbee notes, a lot has to do with upper frequencies drivers' vertical dispersion.

If you go to our resource page there's a link to an article we wrote on speaker placement titled "Loudspeaker Placement Guide". One of the issues is toe in. It agrees with Newbee and Sean, just gives you another method of accomplishing the goal.

Rives Resource Page

Rives, your website has grown and improved substantially since last I visited (which has admittedly been some time). Thanks for providing a nice resource.

I think you're correct to assume that this would be speaker specific, but as others have mentioned don't limit yourself strictly to the manufacturer's recommendations either.

I have three different pairs of ProAc speakers and in their manuals they recommend toeing in the speakers so that only the front baffles are visible from the listening position. I've found this set up to yield a very precise center image without sounding bright, but I have always preferred to have them angled out a bit so that I can see roughly an inch of each speaker's inner sides. In my room, this creates a wider soundstage without sacrificing focus very much.

I've heard 104/2s facing straight out and wondered if toe-in would help them. I also felt that they needed a sub. How is the HGS working with them?