Thoughts on swivel tweeters.

[nova]

So,...I'm kicked back tonight, relaxing after a couple of pretty good NFL games, listening to some Ricardo Silveira "Storyteller". Surf'n the net,...and it dawns on me,... I have never really given any thought to swivel tweeters. Now I'm sure most of you are thinking "Yeah,...so what?" Well, the system I listen to most for music happens to have swivel tweeters. So naturally I had to play with them. For the life of me, I can't hear any difference,.... pointed at my ears, pointed straight out, pointed away from me. Wonder if it is because I basically listen to them from only 2-3 feet away. Does not matter how the tweeter is oriented,... it still sounds best if I get my ears up to the level of the tweeters. Not far,... maybe 1 ft.

Curious if anyone has had a different experience with "aimable" speakers.
For those of you who have not seen this system:
As you can see,... not an ideal set-up, as the speakers are about 1' above my ears, but I thought that was the idea behind a swivel tweeter?

[Sonnie]

Never tried any swivel tweeters, but I can definitely tell a difference between forward firing and toeing in my mains.

That must be an old pic of your setup there... (old Shack logo)...

[thewire]

I have seen them on top of speakers before but not like this. I would also like to hear about this.

[salvasol]

nova wrote:

... Wonder if it is because I basically listen to them from only 2-3 feet away. Does not matter how the tweeter is oriented,... it still sounds best if I get my ears up to the level of the tweeters. Not far,... maybe 1 ft. ...

Why don't you try seating far from the speakers (8' - 10')??? ... then point them in your direction to see if you find any difference in the sound ...

I think if you're close to the speakers it will be hard to notice a difference ... but if you're far ...

[tonyvdb]

Hmmmm, swival speakers as you call them are not new. B&W has used that idea for years and the advantage to that is simply being able to keep the speakers square to the wall while towing in the mids and highs. Low frequencies are non directionable for the most part. The Highs and mids on the other hand because of the nature of sound waves traveling through a room will be lost in the furniture and curtains along the walls and thus should be pointed at the "main listening position".
The close proximity that you sit to the speakers and the speaker placement is defiantly why you don't hear any difference. The farther away you sit from a speaker as well as the farther apart they sit from each other the more noticeable this will be.