For years, I worked as a sound engineer for comedy shows, jazz concerts, TED Talks, and ballet. You won’t believe how many times I’ve seen The Nutcracker.

One of my duties was setting up speakers. Everyone knows about the speakers for the audience, but we also set up speakers, known as stage monitors, that pointed directly toward the musicians or presenters. These helped them hear their own voices, the music they were playing, or what the other instruments were doing onstage.

During one TED Talk, I was sitting, as I did for most shows, at the audio desk directly in the middle of the audience. There were hundreds of people in front of me and hundreds behind me.

I had shown up hours early to set up the speakers for the audience and the presenter. The speaker placement was correct, but I accidentally left the microphone running a little too hot.

Right as the presenter began introducing themselves, there was a little feedback, like in the movies just before the main character says something brave and important. The presenter stopped, looked directly at me, and, from about 150 feet away, asked something along the lines of, “Everything going okay out there, Jasper? Need a little help?” Hundreds of people started looking at me, some beginning to crack up. All I could do was smile, laugh it off, and give a thumbs-up.

I made sure the rest of the TED Talk went well, and now it’s just a funny story.

Your stakes at home probably won’t be so high. You likely won’t have a microphone in the mix, and hundreds of people won’t turn around and laugh if your speaker angle is slightly off. What you stand to gain is much better sound from one easy adjustment.

First, imagine the shape of the sound

Use the “walk in a straight line” method

Sound coming out of a speaker creates a shape. It’s a pattern that fills an area, whether that area is a concert hall or a living room.

I find it helpful to imagine air particles being pushed forward by your speaker and carrying the sound in a shape that gets wider as it travels.

The direction matters because the sound has to go somewhere. If the speaker is pointed toward a wall, you’re going to hear some of it after it bounces off that wall. The audio won’t be as good as when it just came out of the speaker. It can sound echoey, music can lose some of its shape, and dialogue can be hard to hear.

It worked the same way when I was an audio engineer. Each musician might have their own speaker so they could hear themselves and the other instruments, even while fans were cheering and singing along. I had to point each speaker toward the person listening so they received the best part of that audio shape.

Here’s my trick: I would stand directly in front of the speaker and start walking forward in a straight line. Where did that line go? If it missed the musician, I changed the angle. Do the same thing at home.

Stand in front of your left speaker and imagine a straight line coming out from the front. Then do it with the right speaker. This shows you the direction each speaker is facing.

Your computer and TV speakers need different angles

Consider the space and who is joining you

Credit: Apple

At a computer, you probably have two speakers, one on the left and one on the right, and it is often just you, a single person sitting at your computer desk.

Since you’re usually setting them up for one person, turn them inward until those imaginary lines arrive where you sit. This inward turn is known as toe-in.

1. To test the angle, play a song with a lead vocal mixed in the center. Basically any pop song where the voice is the main star will work, because audio engineers usually put it front and center.
2. Face the speakers straight ahead and listen.
3. Now move the speakers in. Angle them both toward you in small increments and play the same part again. Can you hear the instruments more clearly? How do the drums sound in the different positions?
4. Now move the speakers out. Did you notice any differences in the music?

For me, one of the most noticeable differences is whether the mix feels wide or narrow. When two speakers are in the right position, the mix sounds really wide. You can almost feel where the different instruments are in the mix: strings toward the left side, a guitar solo on the right, and drums in the middle. When the angle is off, those parts don’t feel as connected.

The difference with a TV is that you’re sitting farther away, and there may be more than one of you. My partner and I like to sit on opposite ends of the couch, so neither of us is sitting in the center.

Angling the speakers inward might sound great in that center seat, but neither of us is there. I angle the speakers outward a little more so my partner gets some of the left speaker and I get some of the right. We’re in a small room, so we’re going to end up hearing everything.

If moving the speakers didn’t fix the dialogue for both of us, that’s when I’d try a soundbar. It isn’t necessarily better than two speakers that are positioned well. And if you’re using a soundbar with extra speakers, they should be part of a system designed to work together.

I still move the speakers and listen

There is no one correct answer

Once you start changing the speaker angles, you’ll realize what the different positions sound like. You might actually prefer one angle or another depending on what you’re doing.

If you come up with some crazy speaker angle that sounds great with your music, TV, or movies, keep it.

At the end of the day, it’s your audio equipment, and you’re the one who should enjoy how it sounds. It’s not that hard, although you may look silly walking imaginary lines around the living room. And I promise there won’t be hundreds of people turning around to look at you and laugh.