Speaker distance and tow in?????/

Some speakers are designed to be up against or very near the front wall. As such, one should not assume that their speakers will benefit from doing this as it can drastically alter the tonal balance, etc... Then again, i'm assuming that you knew what you were getting when you purchased these speakers and that they are designed to be pulled out in the room somewhat.

An old trick that works very well is to place the speakers using a mono signal rather than a stereo signal. I've discussed the specifics somewhere in the archives, but in which threads, i have no idea. Sean
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Here's an article we wrote on this subject that might be helpful.
Loudspeaker Placement

Rives, Nice article.

I've a question regarding the positioning of speakers near a side wall as it relates to 1st reflections, soundstaging, and sweetspot. Its based on something I have done "successfully" on quite a few occasions when I was using dynamic speakers with a wide and smooth radiation pattern (which usually means hot on axis highs).

Is there a down side, acoustically, to positioning the speakers close to the side walls and toeing them in so the the axis crosses in front of your listening position on the same corresponding angle as they would if they were toed in to have the axis point straight ahead or behind the listening position?

When I have done this it seems to have minimized the need for treatments to the side walls, maximized the sound stage width, and as an extra benefit for those in need, widened the sweet spot substantially, that is a person sitting in front of either speaker would still get usable stereo imaging with good (not great) center focusing. Unlike when pointed straight ahead the image doesn't just collapse into the closest speaker.

Anyone else ever played with this?

In my experiments, it seems that pulling the speakers off the wall really increases the depth of your soundstage.

On one of these august sites I read advice on toe-in that I've found works for my KEF 104/2s: Aim the speakers at half the distance between the prime listening location and the rear wall.

My room is about 14' by 19', and the front of LR speakers are about 4' from the wall behind and 3' from wall to the side. The listening positions are about 3/5 of the room length and centered laterally.

db