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

Thanks for the question and thanks @hilde45 for posting the PS video.

I always thought my Harbeth 40.3's should be toed-in somewhat, and I thought they were pretty dialed in at roughly 10 degrees (actually 3 inch diff. in distance from the rear corners of the speakers to the wall).

I re-started with 0 degrees as Paul suggested and was surprised how much better the image was (centered vocals, wider sound stage) and landed at maybe 5 degrees (now 1 inch diff. from the wall).

Perfect timing for Jazz Sunday!

I'm not sure I'll helpful it is to know the dispersion qualities of any given speaker unless you see a straw coming out of the speaker rather than a cone.

Horn speakers definitely are dispersed otherwise no clue.

Sometimes my toe in is directly proportional to the amount of alcohol I've consumed.

I rotate four different pairs of speakers.  Three of them I set with no toe in, and the other I set with slight toe in. Go figure.  

for me it was.....actually my speakers work best when faced outward....toward the left/right ears