newb question

Airplay355

heres a dopey question but oh well here goes, should i toe in my speakers? my room is a rectangle and i have my HT on one of the longer sides ( about 16 ft). i'm not really sure if i should toe them in or not and i'm not sure how much. i really have no idea what to do and i dont know what sounds better. if you need pictures to help tell me what you need a picture of and it will be here.

brettw22

First, there's no definitive Yes or No answer to that, as is the case with MOST questions that people can ask here.

Is there something about the sound that you don't like? The only real benefit to toe'ing in the speaks is to either more focalize or broaden the sweet spot, depending on the speaker in question.

In the time that it would take you to take pics, and upload them here, you could have the whole thing tweeked out and tested with different levels of toe'ing them in or not. Just take each main and angle it towards your primary listening position and see if you notice much of a change or not.

VR3

Well, your the only person that can answer that. Try it, if you dont like it, put it back the way it was. When your listening, if your soundstage is correct, your vocals should be in the middle, drums behind the vocals, and guitar on right, and bassist on left. Bass should be everywhere. Everything should also be well blended within the speakers, no seperation. That is what you are looking for. If my RT35i's can do it, your towers can. No Doubt.

ChrisDurano

you listen to music (2channel) at all. If so, do you usually stay in the same spot to listen all the time? If you mostly use for HT, do you sit in the same spot all the time? If you "yes" is answer to all these.....I'd toe 'em in.

Airplay355

i dont have surrounds currently so everything is 3 channel, and i am never in the same spot, sometimes im in the left hand corner of the room, sometimes im on my bed in the right hand corner, and sometimes im in the middle infront of the TV.... i decided to toe them in because they sound best where they are supposed to sound best, infront of the TV. keeping them straight made off axis listening better in soem ways but since it was off axis the sound coming from the closest tower was usually noticeabley stronger then the rest of my system. plus toeing them in looks cooler

petrym

My main speakers are toed in to the sweet spot... 'cause it sounds better! Also, I tilted my center channel down using wood shims in the back.

Toed & Tilted I am!

Ron-P

I have my mains toed in about 15 degree's.


Peace Out~:D

madmax

When you play with this make sure you listen intimately to every sound in a CD. Keep playing the same song over and over while changing the angles. Sit in the middle sweet spot and make it sound best there. Listen for soundstage, (left to right positions of instruments), center image, depth of sound (how far back or forward they are on the stage. This should get you started.
madmax

danger boy

Airplay355 how far are your speakers from each other? 5 feet? 8ft? 12ft? If they are to close or to far you willl lose some of the imaging.

I just recently played around with this myself. I moved my left front about another foot from the right.. they are now 7' 5" apart. It did help with the imaging, and the seperation is better now.

burdette

Not much to add, I guess, but I'll tell you the process I went through. I put my mains pointing straight out and listened to different songs that I know pretty well. First run, I could hear a distinct separation of the middle of the sound stage. Not terrible, but enough to hear. I heard the lead vocals, for example, spead out just a little.. I could sort of localize each speaker. I toed them in a little at a time until the center of the sound stage became solid. I then went a little further to be sure the imaging started to get worse again, which it did. So, I put them back and left them in the 'best' sounding position for a two-butt space in the middle of the couch. No, I don't have two butts. My wife has one and I have one and together that makes two. That is the best position for the speakers for serious-couch-sitting movie watching or music listening. However, we do a lot of other things in that room.. playing with the kids, being on the computer, my wife's sewing room is in an attached room, etc. From THAT perspective, it didn't really matter how much the toe-in was.. it all sounded basically the same.

We have a two-channel system upstairs that is used exclusively for background music. Those speakers are also, as yours, on the long side of a rectangular room. They are too far apart for any amount of toe-in to help.. if I actually stand between them as if there were a sweet spot, I always get two distinct sound sources.

Airplay355

they are about 12 ft apart. i have them pointed directly at the "sweet spot" or atleast its more like spot right in front of the TV on the back wall. so uh i dunno if thats good or bad i know they sound better this way then they did straight but the difference is so slight, and most of the time when im really crankin music i do away with the 3 channel setup as it adds more wattage and more DBs so the toe in only really matters for movies or when i just wanna listen to music to show off my system to friends who love their little shelf systems. now im not good at math but if i were to make a right triangle using the angled polk base as the hypoteneuse the base of that triangle would be about 7" so thats how much they are toed.

gshisme

i decided to toe them in because they sound best where they are supposed to sound best, infront of the TV. keeping them straight made off axis listening better in soem ways but since it was off axis the sound coming from the closest tower was usually noticeabley stronger then the rest of my system. plus toeing them in looks cooler [/B]

You may have answered your own question. Right now I'm playing with rear speaker placement and only I will know where they sound best. But a few "try this, try that" suggestions from this forum has helped. It also helps to have someone move them for you so your not always bouncing up and down. Just keep plenty of beer on hand for your helper.