Akward Room Layout - Toe In vs. Toe Out

[shelbydz28]

This is my room layout (to scale, about 16x18). The problem is, while the horns have a wide degree of range, I can tell that they begin to cut off right around the RH corner of the couch (demonstrated by the orange lines). I would like more of a range (to the right of this room is the Kitchen) for parties, listening in the Kitchen etc. The FL RF-83 is toed in at about 3 degrees or so, the FR RF-83 is toed in about 1.5 degrees. Would it be bad to toe the FL speaker in even more and toe out the FR speaker slightly? What are the downsides to this?

Thanks, Doug

[Daddy Dee]

I don't see a problem. You're setting up for your particular room.

You can let your ears be the judge. If it sounds good, it's good.

[DrWho]

Is there enough room to put your TV at an angle in that front corner and then have the system fire out at an angle (so FR on the front wall and then the FL on the left wall). If you do this, you could try putting your subwoofer in the corner behind the TV and then sliding that couch back a bit.

[Guest srobak]

rotate the entire room layout 90 degrees counter-clockwise, leaving enough space behind the couch so you can walk from the "east" side of the room, behind the couch and exit the "north" side. Then you can center the tv and the center channel to the couch.

[Islander]

First, does your receiver have 7-Channel Stereo or something equivalent to that? That setting will output 2-channel music from all 7 (or 5, as the case may be) speakers and is intended for parties and background music. It would send more sound into the kitchen. I often use that setting when listening during the day, especially if I'm down the hall at the computer.

Toe-in and toe-out is relative to your listening position. If you sit at the "elbow" of the sofa and angle and balance the speakers accordingly, you may get the soundfield you're after, although you might have to move your left rear speaker over to a position between the sofa and the armchair. The listening position is where you say it is...

Is that a window on the left wall? If not, you could also try shifting the room 90 degrees, as srobak suggested. Dr Who's idea is a good one, too.

[shelbydz28]

Thanks for the room layout suggestions, but we've considered all of those. The side view reveals a bit more - two windows and a fireplace. Ideal layout would be to put the TV right in front of the fireplace. With our smaller TV and speakers we had it angled in the corner as suggested but that would look awkward with the size of everything now, plus it would cover the window. This is the only wife approved layout. The problem with shifting the listening position is that the ideal watching position for the TV is near the fireplace wall. Thanks, Doug

[mark1101]

You have a nice room, but if you are looking for "technically correct" speaker placement for best sound, it doens't seem possible in that room given the constraints. Do you have a basement? If sound is that important, you might onsider creating a listening room in the basement. Otherwise, I don't see a way in that room other than always sitting on the "west" side of the couch for 2 ch. listening. Given that you would like sound in the kitchen, you also may look at distributed systems and have some speakers placed at different points to cover the area.

[Guest srobak]

I'd still rotate it, and sac the fireplace. Or you could mount the tv above the fireplace like one of our other users did on here... watch your temps, that's all.

Otherwise, I have to agree - that room does not allow for anything remotely resembling proper layout.