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 2 responses by immatthewj

I remember once upon a time using a Sheffield Labs disc that had an in-phase/out-of-phase track and Doug or Rodger (I cannot remember which) said, when out of phase, to position the speakers enhance the out of focus as much as possible (when out of phase) and then when they were back in-phase, that positioning would result in very tight focus.  So I did that, and that turned out to be what I consider a rather severe toe-in in a near field room, and the focus did wind up being real tight . . . but I lost a whole lot of peripheral sound stage.  Now I don't use any toe-in at all . . . focus is good and I have (by my standards) pretty good peripheral sound stage.

Of course, this is all in a near field listening environment, and that is not what you have.