DISTANCE BETWEEN THE
SPEAKERS AND TOE-IN
Most stereo systems are set-up with their speakers too close together. As a rough
guideline, the distance between spea-kers should be about 70 % of the room width as
a starting point, assuming that your speakers are aiming down the length of the room.
Too close together they will create "ghost" images, double images that blur clarity and
focus. Too far apart they will begin sounding thin and in extreme cases, will create
separate left and right soundstages. Move them inwards and outwards, again in small
movements as though you were adjusting the image on a pair of binoculars until a
single well-unified image is obtained.
Toe-In: In an ideal room, the speakers may be set-up so that the speakers fire directly
forward. For the rest of us, some degree of toe-in, that is rotating the speakers
cabinets until they point at the listener is desirable. Toe-in reduces sidewall reflections
of the mid and upper frequencies. Though one might reasonably conclude that aiming
a speaker at the listener would result in a brighter sound, this is mostly not the case.
Toeing a speaker inward will result in a smoother, warmer and usually more focused
sound.
