Toe In, what is it?

[J*E*Cole]

Would someone explain to me what toe in is? My Beta 50's have those metal adjustable spiked feet and right now they are all set at 1/2 inch below the speaker floor. Can adjustments within the 1.25 inch adjustment range on these feet really make much of a difference.

Thanks...

[JohnMichael]

I hope this information helps. Toe-in is the angle the speakers are turned toward the listening area. Some speakers sound good with the sound crossing in front of the listener and others sound better with less toe-in and the sound crossing behind the listener. The adjustable spikes you mention are good at aiming the tweeter. A majority of speakers are designed to be listened to with the tweeter at the height of your ears. If you are above the tweeter axis you can set the spikes tall in front and lower in the rear and the tweeter will be angled to your ears. If your ears are at the height of the tweeter set the spikes to be the same height. One of the biggest improvement you can make to sound is getting your speakers set up properly.

[Resident Loser]

...height adjustment is a by-product(actually meant more for leveling on uneven surfaces), spikes are specifically meant to couple your loudspeakers to the floor, especially if they are sitting on carpeting...

A word of caution: If you do tilt your speakers to, in effect, "aim" your tweeters, be sure it does not upset the loudspeaker's center of gravity...tall, relatively thin towers can easily topple.

Also, I don't believe tweeters should really "beam" to the point where minor height discrepancies vis a vis the listeners ears becomes all that much of a problem. Dispersion characteristics would seem to be questionable if that is required IMO. "Toe-in" while similar in nature, is used more often to help focus the image and re-direct the high frequencies away from sound absorbing materials.

jimHJJ(...at least in my experience...)

[J*E*Cole]

Thanks for the useful information that was most helpful and appreciated.