The easiest way to precisely set toe-in is using the LEDR tests (available on Nordost’s System Solution set up disc) in conjunction with a strip of graduated tape stuck across the back of the listening seat. The tape, marked with a centre line and 1cm increments makes both symmetrical set up and small, repeatable adjustments incredibly easy. But in a situation where the speaker has only three feet/spikes, it also demonstrates just how dramatically a shift in rake angle or azimuth can alter toe-in. Which of the key alignment parameters are interlinked will depend on the arrangement of the feet. In the case of the Trio (with its ‘lateral’ disposition) it is rake angle and azimuth. With a more usual one front/two rear arrangement (or vice versa), it will be azimuth and toe-in. Either way, it’s far from ideal.
“But” I hear you say, “in the case of the Trio you just need to adjust the inner/middle spike to bring the toe-in back to its proper setting.” Except that, the speaker that doesn’t require precise adjustment of rake-ankle, azimuth AND toe-in is a rare beast indeed; as rare as the speaker that achieves optimum performance from a dead level attitude. As soon as you tie two seoparate alignment parameters together, you are in a world of hurt… It’s a little like the conundrum of adjusting overhang for a pick-up cartridge. In most cases, you can’t adjust overhang without altering VTF and altering VTF will in turn affect overhang. Slide the cartridge back in the head-shell slightly to get the stylus spot on the protractor’s zero point and then check tracking force. It will have reduced. Re-set the tracking force and now the stylus no longer sits on the zero-point. The difference between that and the situation with speaker set up is that, at least in the case of the cartridge, you do have a zero point! With speakers, unless you provide the necessary reference points (eg. that tape across the back of the sofa) you are pretty much firing blind, with nothing to show you when a parameter you thought was set has drifted off… The bigger and taller the speaker, the bigger the potential error induced by even a small adjustment of its spikes.
Using a more conventional, four-spike arrangement effectively isolates each parameter so that they can be adjusted independently or at least, with minimum mutual interference. That’s a big step forward when it comes to making the task easier, and that in turn makes superior results and musical performance easier to achieve.
In a world where the vast majority of audio systems are under-performing – and in the vast majority of cases that’s down to poor speaker set up, this is a far from trivial concern. The fact that so few audiophiles, dealers or even manufacturers are unaware of loudspeaker azimuth as a set up parameter or performance issue, tells its own story. It does not for instance, appear anywhere in the Wilson WASP set up procedure, which is one of the more developed and widely used speaker set up approaches.
If the manufacturer uses three adjustable feet or spikes to support a loudspeaker, it not only makes achieving precise set up (and therefore, optimum performance) a significantly more challenging proposition, they risk introducing ‘unconscious’ error into the procedure – and it’s difficult to fix a problem you might not even realise that you’ve created. Yes, you can set up a speaker with three feet. It just requires a different approach and an awareness of different error mechanisms in the process itself: that and a whole lot of additional patience. All of which makes me wonder, why even go there?
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