# Optimal "toe in" for a wide stereo image (help please)



## Chester (Feb 19, 2007)

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has any advice regarding setting up a pair of speakers to increase the width of the 'sweet spot'. I have two 'triple cushion' wide couches side by side and am looking to make the sweet spot as large as possible... I currently have each speaker setup to be angled so that the on axis response has an equal angle between the outer corners of the couches. If you look on the Picasa web the image is actually 1600x1024 instead of the 800x512 preview here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Py7HOtAjLLGB7l5dLArypg?feat=directlink









If anyone has any suggestions or ideas how they would setup the speakers (the placement is as wide as I can go, the left speaker is next to a fireplace...) as far as ways of doing the "toe in" I am all ears  Thanks for your help

To describe the layout... the angled rectangles are the couches... the right wall is windows, the 'top' is a stone wall, the protrusion "down" is the fireplace, the circle in the corner is a sub-woofer, the odd shaped object near the sub-woofer is the tv stand and the points near the tv stands that make triangles towards the couches are the center's of the speakers.

Also, the circle between the couches is a 'head shaped circle' to center things around


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

In my limited knowlage about this, every speaker will have a different sweetspot so toe in will depend on the speaker as well as the room acoustics and orentation of the room so you may just have to play and see what works best in your situation.


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## Chester (Feb 19, 2007)

well as far as I understood, the response of a speaker should be *relatively* symmetrical as you go off axis... with the high frequency response tapering off as the you get more and more off axis


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

It all depends on the speaker design, driver type, and crossover. Some speakers "beam" at higher frequencies, some have a more directional midrange and bass with an omni tweeter, others, like line arrays have a very good and wide main beam.

Usually, toe-in focuses the sweet spot. You could try something like a toe-out, but that would only sound good with movies if you had a center channel to anchor the dialog. And if you did toe-out, it should be very minimal, or you would lose a lot of the center imaging of the sound field. This is often referred to as "collapsing to the near speaker", where what should be a center image (singer, lead guitar, etc) just sounds like it's coming out of the left speaker if you are sitting closer to the left.

So it all depends. Toe in is really one of those trial and error things.


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## Chester (Feb 19, 2007)

I get what you are saying; I do notice (and am trying to eliminate) the "collapsing to the near speaker" you mentioned. Collapsing to the near speaker is my big problem  Thats why I was thinking I should almost have more toe in so that say I am on the left side, the right speaker will be more pronounced (because it is more on axis) and since the left channel would be 'less on axis' there would be less sound from that direction... However that would be an ideal world


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## Chester (Feb 19, 2007)

With further experimentation I have noticed a bit better stereo experience on the couches (instead of the 'perfect experience' in the ideal listening position) with each speaker pointing at the center of each couch opposite it (so there is more toe in than the initial diagram). I will continue experimentation tomorrow; I need to find some material with good panning that I know well...


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