Radical toe in once more


Hi all. I have bi-directional floorstanders, two way speakers with identical treble and woofer on the front and the back. Half of the sound goes to the front drivers, half to the back.

The toe-in of this type of speaker is very influenced by how the back sound wave and the reverberant sound behaves. These speakers often sound good with radical toe-in due to better room acoustics with a longer back wave towards the corners.

This is a huge topic, and my question is more restricted: what happens with the front firing sound?

Is there an "inherent" problem with radical toe in, when the main sound from the front drivers cross in front of the listener, instead of the more conventional setup where the crossing point is behind the listener - and if so, what?

Is this (potential) minus factor in fact low, if the listener is just a foot or so back of the crossing point?

 

o_holter

Showing 1 response by rhljazz

I have ESP loudspeakers in one of my systems.  These speakers are specifically designed for a 45 degree toe in.  In my summer home they are setup in a spare bedroom 10x13x8, technically too small of a room according to the instruction manual.  The speakers are 42 inches from the front wall, measured from the furthest edge of the front baffle.  My listening position is approximately 7 feet away.  In this setup, I ended up reducing the toe in to around 35 degrees so the intersection occurs just at the front of my chair.  The resulting soundstage is much to my liking.  Out of my four systems this is the only one that consistently delivers the “you are there” listening experience versus the “they are here” experience.  It is more of a concert like effect and I like that.

This room is a good sounding room to start with and is treated with two diffusion panels, two tube traps, and several absorption panels strategically located by listening.

I don’t think this degree of toe in will work with most speakers or rooms.  However, experimentation is the only way to find out.