I have a pair of vintage full range Kappa 8 speakers. I know with a surround setup, the front should be toed in a bit. I notice a big decrease in bass response when its angled in. Should they be facing forward?
The biggest advantage of "toeing in" the speakers is to reduce early side wall sound wave reflections which can smear the stereo image before it reaches your ears.
It all depends on the type and design of the speaker and the distance apart from each other. Most speakers will benefit from some toe in, the amount will vary. Electrostatic and planar magnetic speakers must be toed in to some degree as the sound they project is very directional. Cone speakers will vary greatly most still benefit from some toe in the amount is trial and error. Most tweeters you don't want to have directly pointed at you as they are much smoother off access. So generally slight toe in is usually optimal for most speakers. As far as getting less bass response, try leaving the center position of the speaker the same distance from the back wall ( when bass is optimum ) as bass response is dependent on distances from wall boundary's and very small changes in these distances can have huge effects in bass response.
You want to set the distance apart and from back walls first concentrating on bass response and getting the speakers as far apart as you can but still getting good mono content. You can further separate the speakers very little and toe them in slightly to get a nice wide soundstage and good center image. Speakers are to far apart if you do not have good mono center image and voices sound thin. Generally around 8 feet is good starting point unless your sitting close and in a small room.
Speaker placement and positioning takes time and patience as its both art and science and makes a huge difference in all aspects of good stereo reproduction