Just curious about the recommended distance for M80's.
My speakers are 5.5ft apart and I sit at a distance of 7.5ft from the left or right speaker when I sit in my center spot.
Does Axiom have a recommended minimum distance for how far back one should be for a given distance between the left and right speaker.
I'm also curious if at my given distance Axiom would recommend toeing the speakers in or are the M80's at the spread and distance I have, totally not necessary as they are forgiving enough. I did try them toed in and not toed in but really don't think I've heard much of a diff.
Generally, you want to form a triangle with your listening position. In other words, if you sit 7.5 feet from the left and from the right, you'll want the two speakers to be 7.5' from each other.
Daniel, as Mark mentions, the M80s should be well spread out, about the same as your distance from them. With that amount of spread, or slightly more, the speakers should be toed in so that the tweeters point at your ears.
What if I don't have the room to put them that far apart? I think I'm stuck at about 6ft and certainly can't move my couch closer. So in this case would you toe them in or leave them pointing straight out?
Not a critical factor with wide dispersion speakers like the M80s, so it would make very little difference with that spread to keep them pointing straight ahead.
I suggest try playing with the toe-in / out and see what that does for your front soundstage, keep some notes as to what each setting does to the sound and then go with the one you like the best.
Not that you don’t already have a lot of factors to consider I’ll add to the confusion by throwing in more. If able, you may also consider how far the speaker drivers are from the side and front walls. The timing of these reflections can have a significant impact on the sound field. So it may be that sacrificing some of the distance they are apart for better side wall placement could work better for you.
Another less often considered factor is speaker height. Most people don’t think of this in relation to tower speakers but raising them up on blocks can have a profound impact on the sound field especially in cases like mine where my seating is high and very sound absorbing. Raising my M80s so that the tweeters and midrange drivers are higher gets them better in line with my ears (the midrange drivers which having at ear level is more important than the tweeters in my experience) and above the furniture so the sound better reflects around the room creating more ambiance even with surround speakers running.
And as jakewash says keep notes otherwise you’ll quickly forget what placement changes lead to what sound changes.