I’ve been periodically playing with placement of my Tannoy Stirlings over the course of the past year and a half. Per their manual, radical toe-in is recommended. Historically I found the treble energy to be a little much while reducing the soundstage in exchange for a very solid and dimensional phantom center.
On a whim I went back to the radical toe-in for the past three weeks with the drivers crossing about a foot in front of me. For tone, I pushed the speakers a little closer together while giving more space between room boundaries. Perceived width of soundstage diminished a little, but I think to some extent this perceived width was artificial due to 1st reflection points which now seem more detrimental than beneficial in my room. This became clear after the radical toe-in which remains “insightful” in terms of depth and clarity, but not “too hot” in treble which I suspect is from the reduction of space between speakers and crossing of drivers in front of the listener (more so than previous experiments with speaker placement). I’ve found myself appreciating the depth and tone much more so than the width of the soundstage.
Room acoustics and what’s considered appropriate and not too “attention grabbing” continue to be a challenge. Speaker placement is one of the few things I can control as a listener which may explain periodic experiments and lots of tape and a tally of measurements in a notebook.
Very educational thread, OP.