I have attached an Excel drawing of the speaker locations in my downstairs "media room". This room is crowded with furniture and is where my wife and I spend most of our at-home time together. By necessity, the room must serve both of our needs, so I do not have complete freedom to arrange the room for "best sound". The attached drawing provides a good approximation of how my speakers are arranged.

I cannot follow the maxim of having the distance between my Triton One Front Speakers and my PLP be an equilateral triangle. The distance from my Triton Ones to my PLP is greater than the distance between the speakers. I have always had the Triton Ones toed in enough to point straight at my PLP. But, within the last few days, I have been trying another placement idea. I now have the Triton Ones toed in such that they point to a position about halfway between the speakers and my PLP. This toe-in angle presents a different sound stage in my room. The center of the sound stage is in front of my listening position, as though I am sitting close to and directly in front of the center of the stage. This effect is most noticeable when I listen to a vocal or to a small ensemble.

I have angled the two SuperSat 3Cs in a similar fashion to match the Triton Ones' angle. I have also been playing with the relative levels of all of the speakers while listening in the 9.2 channel all-stereo mode. The placement of my two outboard sub woofers is mostly dictated by room logistics limitations, so I have them adjusted to augment the bass, but not to be prominent when compared to the Triton Ones subs.

Has anyone else tried this more acute front speaker toe-in angle approach?

Happy Listening!

Art

Hey there Art. You and I have agreed- to-disagree in the past, so why should this thread be any different?

Seriously though....

As to the equilateral triangle, the distance between your speakers should be no less than 75% of the distance you are seated from them. If it is, "no good".

The toe angle should be such that the intersection of a line drawn from the tweeter of both speakers should be directly behind your head. If right in front of your face, fine. If a foot or more in front of your face, "no good".

In this context no good simply means, "not ideal".

Hi GDHAL,

Your recommendations match those in the Triton One setup section of the manual. However, due to constraints in my room, I cannot achieve the "equal to or not less than 75%" recommendation. In my case, the distance between my PLP and each speaker is about 12 feet, while the distance between the speakers is about 7 feet. To meet the 75% minimum criteria, my speakers need to be about 9 feet apart. I could place the speakers to achieve the 9 foot separation, but they would be very close to walls. Previous placement experiments have yielded the best sound when my speakers are at least 3 feet from the nearest wall. I cannot move my PLP to achieve the 7 to 10 foot location range needed to match the speaker placement.

Now for a couple of questions about your "no good" comments. Could you elaborate on your "no good" comments? What sound losses do you anticipate in each case?

Obviously, I can angle the speakers to achieve the "behind my head" positioning. I have chosen to experiment with different angles to learn how these angles affect the sound stage in my room. So, my question in my original post was intended to elicit comments from other people who might have tried the same angle placements. I will probably be trying other angles as I continue to experiment with my gear.

I'll look forward to your reply and to any other comments which might be forthcoming.

Best,

Art

ArthurDaniels wrote: ...Now for a couple of questions about your "no good" comments. Could you elaborate on your "no good" comments? What sound losses do you anticipate in each case?...

That's a fair question. In fact, shortly (20 min?) after my initial post I anticipated that question. I edited the post to include "In this context no good simply means, "not ideal"." It's possible you hadn't seen that portion of my post. Anyway, if the speakers are to close to one another relative to your PLP, imaging is reduced. In an extreme case, you loose the 2 channel stereo separation. In a sense think of (or easy enough to test) what would happen if you place the speakers directly next to one another. At that point the sound is basically emanating from only one speaker and from your PLP you should sense your being hit with a "beam" of sound as opposed to being enveloped by it. In the case of toe angle, if too great the sound is essentially focused in front you of so it should sound "distant" relative to your position. If too little you should begin to sense the sound is to far. Easy to test by turning the speakers 180 degrees. There are many articles on the Internet you could find about the subject of speaker placement and undoubtedly there are many other descriptions of the negative effects of improper placement. In your case it doesn't read as though you are doing anything extremely wrong, but as I stated it's merely less than ideal/optimum. Your point about the speakers having to be closer to the wall to make them further apart is certainly a valid point as to why you've reduced the distance between them. Nevertheless, you have simply chosen the lesser of two evils.

Hi Again, GDHAL,

Thanks for your detailed reply. You are correct - I did not see your amended post. I understand your detailed comments and I agree with your analysis of the effects of varied speaker placement and orientation. Respectfully, I would add that there are additional factors in play in each situation.

Using my situation as an example: I have the choice of listening in 2-channel Pure Direct Audio mode, 2.2 channel Pure Direct Audio mode, 9.2 all channel stereo mode, or any of a number of multi-channel surround sound emulation modes. To cite just one comparison - if I listen in 2.2 channel Pure Direct Audio mode, with just the Triton Ones and all subs in play, the sound is very different with a specific speaker orientation, as compared to listening to 9.2 channel all stereo with all speakers in play and the same Triton One orientation.

In addition, I would suspect that the type of music has a significant impact, as does the room configuration, amount of furniture, and loudness level.

Hence, my desire to experiment with the options available to me.

Best,

Art