LSi9 Toe-In: How are yours setup?

[wizzy]

Just a quick poll. I'm wondering how people have their LSi9's toed-in or not.

Let's say that you draw a line through your ears, and then you draw a line going straight out from your LSI9's from the back, through the speaker, to your back wall.

Pointing tweeters directly at your ears equals 45 degrees.

Pointing them straight back at the wall equals 90 degrees. That would be no toe-in.

See attached picture.

So, on a scale from 45 to 90 (or outside, if you really have your speakers toed-out or toed-in greater than the position of your head)

What's your toe in?

[suprafantx]

I have mine toe-in 75 degree. I tried toe-in and toe-out at different angles and I found out that at 75 degree I the best sound I have for both 2 channel and HT systems.

[steveinaz]

I don't have Lsi9's but,

I have never liked my speakers beaming directly at me. I prefer about 1/2" of toe in, makes for better seperation and slightly wider soundstage. My current towers sit at 11" and 11.5" from the back of the speaker, 8 feet apart on center, 9 feet from my listening position. My speakers are 18.5" deep, so this puts the front baffles at about 30" off the front wall.

[Face]

I had a pair of LSi9's here for a few weeks and ran them at 90's. The LSi's tweeter has excellent dispersion and doesn't need to be toed in.

[maximillian]

Mine similar to Steve's but 10' apart and 12' from listening position. I tried more toe-in but noticed a wider soundstage with this setup. Voices are nice and centered too.

[wallstreet]

You should toe them in so they are like guns pointed at your head when seated in your listening position.

[wizzy]

You should toe them in so they are like guns pointed at your head when seated in your listening position.

I believe that is Polk's "recommended in the manual" kind of position. I was just curious what people were doing with there 9's -- obviously lot of it will do more with room acoustics.

No 'right answer' I just got a bug to ask :)

Bought some LSi9's from polkdirect while visiting my cousin in NJ (February!!) and finally got around to hooking them up a week ago.

[xcapri79]

I had a pair of LSi9's here for a few weeks and ran them at 90's. The LSi's tweeter has excellent dispersion and doesn't need to be toed in.


The LSiC and LSi9 are both tapered arrays, meaning one woofer is only for low frequencies and one woofer plays low and mid frequencies. There are some slight difference in the crossovers, cabinets, and driver spacing which is why they sound slightly different.

"To get the best performance out of your LSiC, it should be angled directly towards the listener area. Placing it above your TV and having it fire straight across the room will reveal it's shortcomings.

Face, like Ricky said, "Lucy, you have some splaning to do."

[Face]

Face, like Ricky said, "Lucy, you have some splaning to do."Good catch.

By placing any speaker*, especially a MTM on it's side, it's dispersion changes. If you placed a LSi9 on it's side, it's dispersion would decrease(beam) and if you placed a LSiC on one end, it's dispersion may improve.

*Except for a dual concentric or single driver.

[xcapri79]

Good catch.

By placing any speaker*, especially a MTM on it's side, it's dispersion changes. If you placed a LSi9 on it's side, it's dispersion would decrease(beam) and if you placed a LSiC on one end, it's dispersion may improve.

*Except for a dual concentric or single driver.

The driver tweeter driver arrangements of the LSi9's and the LSiC are the similar with the difference being a wider spacing with the LSiC. Assuming a similar speaker design, wouldn't the up/down dispersion of a horizontally oriented speaker be the same as the side to side dispersion of a vertically oriented speaker?

[Face]

I would assume so, but that wasn't my experience with the LSi9 and LSiC.

[mantis]

Speaker setup is always a good topic for trial and error. There are many ways to accomplish the goal of synergy between the 2 front speakers. Depending on the role in your system, there could be very different setups. I will briefly explain a few.

Setup as 2 channel speakers:
You want to set up the speakers for a razor sharp Image and complete sysnergy between to 2 speakers so they sound like one speaker. With great movement across the front and separation between instruments. Correct placement of the singer as it all was recorded. Companies have slightly different setups due to the design and dispersion pattern of the given loudspeaker. But I have found a few things that work more general for most speakers.
I would recommend you first read your speakers owners manual for there suggestion on how they want the front speakers to be setup. There is a lot to be learned here before you just do it the way you want to.
So to get started a general rule is to build a equal triangle. So the distance from the listening position to the middle of the 2 speakers is equal to the distance the speakers are apart. Then you "toe in" the speakers so when you look at them from the listening position, you only see the front of the speaker. You should not be able to see the sides at all. This yields pretty damn good stereo imaging for most loudspeakers.
Now another rule to try to follow is this: Use the same idea as above but this time the triangle will be unequal. Measure the distance from the listening position to the middle of the speakers> I may not have been clear on this so I will explain further. Imagine the speakers sitting left and right where you are thinking of placing them. The middle point between the 2 speakers so if they are 8 feet apart , then your measurement will come from the 4 foot point between the 2 speakers. Ok , lets move on. So you take that measurement and use 3/4 the distance to space the speakers apart. This will bring the speakers 1/4 closer together then you are sitting away from them. If you now measure the distance to each speaker from you , it should measure 3/4 the distance that you are sitting from the middle point of the 2 speakers. Toe is is going to change here as well. You now want to now see the inside of the speakers side meaning stand behind your listening position about 2 feet back and position the speakers image behind your head. This is a strong setup which a lot of high end speakers work best. Companies like Dynaudio and Paradigm use this very setup and I have found it to work better then the equal triangle on most setups I do.

One final suggestion to setting up speakers for 2 channel listening is think of the speakers on a circle around you. Imagine you are sitting in the middle of a circle and your speakers are on the lines creating the circle. Use the measurement technics I have given you and follow the circle. You do not want your speakers touching a back or side wall. You may have to adjust them slighty off spec due to room boundaries. Bass loads up when your speakers are to close to back or side walls. Try to be around 3 feet from both or as far away as possible and trying to maintain the triangle rules.

For theater use the equal triangle technic's work excellent but close up the experience for multible listeners. firing the front speakers straight covers more seating and gives everyone a more even experience . If your front speakers are mounted on the wall or in the wall around your screen, this is a really good setup for a wide experience. A lot of technics go into play to double duty a system for 2 channel and theater with multiple listeners.

Dan

[SKsolutions]

It's all room dependent, but. . Given quite a bit of time, and lots of trial and error, NO toe at all for both 2 channel and HT. The tweet will fill nicely, and to me centers best without any toe when given just enough rear and side boundary proximity. Move them closer together if there is a hole in the middle. They are too far apart or too close to the wall if you need to toe. The Dyns, however, need a bit of toe to come together and they are in almost the same spots on the same stands.

[dougy]

I'm still tweaking my new-to-me LSi9's, but I seem to keep coming back to a toe-in with the speakers firing towards my shoulders; that is, the L speaker is pointed directly at my left shoulder and the R one at my right shoulder. In my room that gives good center-fill and good stage width and consistent image size across the soundstage.

[Hilbert]

Mine are perpendicular to the wall, about a foot away. Tried them with various toes and the image was nonexistent. No toe, and the image suddenly became quite clear.

ps also, about 6'6" apart. I read somewhere on forum 9s must be at least 6 feet apart for decent sound.

[ben62670]

When I had 15's here I did some fooling around with placement. In a smaller area I actually had better results over toeing them in one room that was having issues with reflections. Lesson learned is fallow guidelines, but don't limit yourself to the normal consensus.