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Is toeing speakers a bad idea?

I was toeing in my speakers and that seemed like a good thing to do. But then I decided to de-toe the speakers. I was hoping that the speakers dispersed things well enough and maybe they don't need to be focused so much to create a so-called sweet spot.

I found the imaging in the room was a lot better and sound improved. The room is a rectangular room and the speakers are placed at one end of the room about 3 feet from the wall. Room sizes 17 x 23 with a 7 ceiling. Maybe someone can share some rationale for this.  I feel the sound waves may spread out better and not be so disturbed when they collide in a so called sweet spot near my skull.

emergingsoul

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,709 posts
 

The off-axis response of the tweeter + the room are the balancing acts. I do think the idea that all speakers need to be laser calibrated to point to the listener is a myth we should deal with more.

The correct answer IMHO is balancing your preferences with imaging.

Some speakers are meant for little toe-in (Revel, Magico) and throw a great image over a wide area IF they are not constrained by side walls.

Some speakers have raspy tweets on-axis which sound great off axis. 

I've found Focals to need minimal to no toe-in for instance.

Also, it's not just toe-in, but some speakers just sound better on mid range axis, so speaker tilt can really vary.  B&W's are IMHO like this.
 

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