Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater speaker placement question

I bought a pair of M60's recently as the front speakers in my home theatre. They're a great pair of speakers. I really love the way they sound, especially after a little break-in.

Could you please suggest how far from the rear and side walls and from the listening position I should place them in a room with dimensions 12.5 by 17.5 feet and which is 10 feet high. Would the placement differ for home theatre and stereo listening?

Is there a suggested toe-in angle for the speakers or should I just point them at the listening position?

Finally, what are the frequency cutover points between the woofer/mid-range and mid-range/tweeter?

Thanks

Speaker placement from the walls is a very room dependent and listener positioning dependent thing. Placement of the speakers near the walls can add up to 6 db at frequencies below 200 Hz. Sometimes this is actually desirable depending on the room, and in the case of bookshelf speakers the speaker. I have my M80s about 5" from the wall and not toed in. This works great in my room but may not be best in yours. I would suggest starting with the position you find most aesthetically correct for your room and then start experimenting a bit from there. Unfortunately there are so many factors that come into play with speaker placement in the room that it can really only be determined with some experimenting. By the way if you rearrange the furniture or change the floor covering you will probably want to do the experimenting all over again. Fortunately the positioning is the same for music or home theatre. I would suggest doing the experimenting with music though because it will be easier to determine what sounds best.

Ian Colquhoun
President & Chief Engineer