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I have a pair of bookshelf speakers and a powered subwoofer in my 2-channel audio system. The audio system was recently moved to my living room which is 12' x 14' with a sloped ceiling. The system is along the 12' back wall.
Currently, the bookshelf speakers are roughly 6.5' apart and 9' from my listening position.
What is the correct configuration for a toe-in setup?
Some claim 2'-3' in-front of the listener. Others claim 1'-2' behind the listener. While some claim pointing straight at the listener.
What have you found works best in your toe-in setup?
Also, what tool / instrument (if any) have you used to configure your toe-in setup? I was thinking a pair of laser pointers.
Follow Ups:
When setting up my Hales Rev 3, I found toe in had a great deal to do with soundstage. This varied with the sidewall. It was either a wall of LPs and on the other side, a rack of 1200 CDs or blankets covering the aforementioned media racks. And of course the music was something I was familiar with and had a soundstage. Likely jazz or classical, as I find rock seldom has much of a soundstage.
When the side walls are damped with the blankets, very little or no toe-in sounded best. When the racks are not damped, I found a toe-in that has the apex of the speakers about 30cm in front of my sweet seat was best.
I'd guess I was eliminating the first reflection from smearing the soundstage. Right or wrong in this conclusion it stills sounds best to myself, as it should.
Brian
Definitely if you find yourself boxed in with speakers close to side walls don't be afraid to toe them in. Try the equilateral triangle approach. Speakers are different but in the narrow, cluttered confines of many of our listening spaces (first reflections) substantial toe-in is often a big factor in attaining a soundstage image.
Go to Chapter 6 for speaker set up and toe-in.
I had a tough time getting my speakers (Zu Druids) set up right. There were a lot of factors that contributed. Having said that, I found a laser T (and a lot of patience) to be indispensable in finally getting my speakers set up well.
Good luck,
Tim
You're kidding, right?
Try This!!!
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/speakers/messages/27/279072.html
Toe in will take care of itself. You won't have a sweet spot, you'll be able to listen anywhere in the room with same sound.
My room is about same size as yours.
what is the brand of the speaker? do you know the tweeter used? is it a hard dome or soft dome?
then i may be able to give you something specific to try.
best,
b
This works well
Try toeing in one speaker at you and leave the other straight ahead
Symmetry is not always good in audio
Non Symmetry works well
Trial and error.
Start with owner's manual recommendations if there are any
In general, if the speakers are roughly at ear height:
Toe-in increases treble loudness
Tilt-back decreases treble loudness
A few days after finding the "perfect" positions,
after listening to 138 different speaker positions,
you will probably be moving to a new home
and will have to start all over again again.
.
.
.
Richard BassNut Greene.....................................................................
The "Cliff Claven" of Audio
and the "The Floyd R. Turbo of Bingham Farms Michigan"
Use your ears. Use some low tack masking tape to mark the locations that you try. What size speakers? Are they designed for near wall placement or do they need to be out a little bit? What kind of an image do you hear now at nine feet?
I would go back and listen at the same distance from the speakers as the speakers are apart, 6.5 ft. With the speakers pointed directly at your position. Then try focussing the speakers in front of and behind that position, listen to those alignments. Then move listening position back a foot at a time repeating the process. At this point leave the speakers 6.5 ft apart. You don't want too many variables at the same time. It's best to only vary one thing at a time.
You will quickly find a range where the setup sounds pretty good. Mark it well. Then try moving the speakers further apart from one another just to get a feel for that change. You may want to try moving them closer to each other also. But keep the listening position the same as you try different speaker separations.
I have found that an 8 ft equilateral triangle is best in my room. I can't move the speakers closer together because of room/furniture considerations. My speakers big floorstanders and can form an image at that separation. My system also does double-duty as a HT.
The center fronts of my speakers are about 2 feet from the side walls and about 32 inches from the wall behind. Not ideal but it's the real world intruding, darn. I would like them 3 feet from the side walls but I don't have room in between with the TV, sub, and component cabinet.
Oh yeah, if you can try to place the sub in the center to see if you like it better there. If you're only sending the lowest frequencies, <30hz, to the sub it may not matter. I set the cross at 80hz at first so the sub needed to be in the middle. I'm experimenting at 40hz at the present. It still seems like the central location will be best for music. I'm kinda stuck with the room config anyway.
Bill
Your best bet is the good old trial-and-error approach.
Should be easy with bookshelf speakers and I wouldn't waste money on laser pointers either.
The 'proper' set up depends solely on your speakers, there is no right or wrong.
I had speakers which worked best crossing in front, others just behind and my current ones work best with no toe-in at all. Never needed pointers, aiming by eye is plenty good enough.
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