Speaker distance and tow in?????/

Anyone else toe their speakers *out*? Because I sit (much) farther back from my speakers than the distance between my speakers, I toe them out just a bit.

Jadem6,

You're right on. My real issue is that my room sucks - it's basically a cube - and my placement options are very limited. I've (literally) taken my entire system to a friend's house and it sounds *soooo* much different / better in his listening space. Amazing (mindblowing) soundstage in his room. Good soundstage in mine. Therefore I'll try the unconventional for grins.

Also, by looking at my speakers, you probably wouldn't even notice they are toed out - it's that minor.

The next major upgrade will be a new house. Great equipment can't compensate for a bad room. You can try, and you can "fix" some things, but it won't completely mitigate it.

Jadem6,

My room is about 18' x 18' with 14' ceilings. My positioning issues are 2 fold: 1) I share this space with my wife and 3 year old son, and 2) I've got this Mitsubishi 48" RP TV that limits my placement (damn TV - it took buying a big screen TV to learn that I'm not a big screen TV type of guy). I've changed things around so that the TV is no longer between my speakers, but it's still taking up space in my room. If the TV was gone, I'd put a speaker on either side of the fireplace and be able to pull them out from the walls.

However, my comprimise is allowing me to use a 2 pair of 4 1/2' twisted CAT-5 DIY speaker cables (bi-wired) instead of the the 15' Audioquest GR-8 cables. Nice improvement in detail and clairity.

Jadem6,

Not necessary. I've accepted the fact that this is something I have to live with for the time being. However, it was a great lesson to learn - placement and room setup is more important (IMHO) than the hardware.

Maybe what the ladies tell us is actaully true - it's not what you have, it's what you do with it.

I'm sure there are audiophiles out there (none that visit the Audiogon forums, however) that constantly upgrade their hardware to no satisfaction, not realizing their room (or physical setup) is to blame.

An investment in a couple of hours one afternoon boxing up all my stuff and taking it over to a different room saved me unnecessary "upgrades". Sure there are things I'd like to do to my system (re-tube, new CD player, power cords, etc), but I consider those tweaks to my existing setup rather than looking to replace my core components.