Speaker toe in


Has anyone heard of The Tannoy Method used for speaker tie in? I have a picture I wish I could upload showing this method used on some Acoustic Research speakers. The speakers are toed in quite a bit past the listening axis. Is there a benefit? One person claims it take the room out of the equation. Thoughts?
luvrockin

Showing 4 responses by mijostyn

ganash, you bet. I always listen with my eyes closed when I am listening seriously. Visual cues can easily distort your audio perception. Our eyes and ears are wired together. As an example if one inner ear malfunctions your eyes will start to drift to that side then your brain says "look ahead you idiot." the result is called nystagmus and what you get is vertigo. The room spins. 
Put on Herbie Hancock's Sextant album and play rain dance with the lights out or Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller and Nubian Sundance. 
rbodner, It is extremely different. ESLs beam like crazy. There are ZERO high frequencies beyond the border of the panel.  MLs are curved to increase their dispersion a little but if you toe the speaker in to far the high end will jump off a cliff. ESLs should be aimed directly at the listening position in most installations.
Great job of explaining Duke. Before I became committed to ESLs I had several speakers that did best with extreme toe in. It all depends on the dispersion pattern of the speaker. The brains method of localization, phase and volume also explain why line source speakers can have a wider sweet spot if their dispersion is uniform throughout the listening area. Their volume does not drop off near as fast with distance and if they are dipoles there is no radiation to the side walls. This is one of the reasons both Duke and I are attracted to Soundlabs speakers.
In the end it comes down to what you like best so try toeing your speakers in farther and pay attention to what the image does as you move away from the sweet spot. High frequencies may drop off as you toe in the speaker. You may have to compensate. If the speakers were bright to start with they may sound better. Much better. 
Duke, we all know you have two left ears. But, your two right ears balance it out fine:)

Mike