2. speakers
  3. 1206832608

Do any speakers image/sound-stage close to walls?

I'm about to spend a huge amount of $$ on full-range speakers, but realise from all the published acoustical data and conventional wisdom, that the laws of physics are absolute. So, in a 17 X 23 X 15ft ceilinged room, when I have to place the speakers no more than 12" from the front (short) wall, 2 ft from the side walls (for WAF and furniture and structural reasons - dont ask,) am I blowing my money? The source, preamp, amps are all superb - but what do I do about finding speakers to match? Sure, I could buy a superb $19K SP Tech Revelation or Zu Definition or Coincident Total Reference, but what about the sound-staging and imaging? Surely I'm not the only person with this dilemma, yet there are so few posts on A'gon regarding this issue, that I wonder whether the problem is exaggerated in my mind or is it just that most A'goners are smarter than I and designed their wives' furniture choices better?:) Room treatments dont help much, or do they? Is there any solution, other than moving the whole sytem to a wifeless room? Please dont ask why these space restrictions apply - believe me, they do, and the interior decorating details are not relevant here.
System: EMM CDSD, DCC2, Sota Cosmos IV, Ear 324 Phono Preamp, Atma-Sphere MP-1, Atma-Sphere MA 2.2, PAD Dominus S/C, etc.
springbok10

Showing 3 responses by audiokinesis

audiokinesis
2,711 posts
 
Toed in sufficiently, the controlled radiation pattern of the SP Techs will avoid significant interference from the sidewalls, so I think they'll give you good soundstage width.

In my experience, good soundstage depth requires the speakers to have at least two or three feet between them and the wall behind them. Absorption and/or diffusion of the first reflection zones on that front wall would probably help. Imagine placing a mirror on the front wall such that, from the listening position, you could see the reflection of the inner edge of the front baffle, at tweeter height. I'd treat the area where that mirror would be. There would be one such area for each speaker.

My compliments on your fine taste in amplification! ;o)

Duke
dealer/manufacturer
audiokinesis
2,711 posts
 
Springbok10, thanks. Good question - I wasn't very specific, and where we measure from makes a difference when the speaker is 21 inches deep! I'd guess that if you can get the front of the speaker 3 feet out from the wall when toed in, that would be great. If you have to live with less, then live with less (and perhaps you can slowly sneak 'em out inch by inch and maybe she won't notice). Okay so that won't be ideal positioning (five or six feet out probably would be), but my analogy would be a grand piano vs a little upright: Sure the grand piano won't reach its full potential unless you put it in a good recital hall, but even in a modest living room it'll still sound better than the upright.

I really like SP Tech speakers. If I wasn't doing my own variation on the theme, I'd be a dealer for them.

Team211, excellent call! It's been over twenty-five years since I heard the Snell Type A, but yup it had genuine depth of soundstage with its back up against the wall. I haven't heard its equal in that regard before or since.

Duke
audiokinesis
2,711 posts
 
Springbok10, there are tradeoffs both ways but overall a dipole would not be my choice for your speaker placement. You'd have a strong early-arriving reflection off the wall behind the speaker, and that tends to be detrimental to clarity (as well as to imaging and timbre). These detrimental effects are psychoacoustic functions of how our ear/brain system processes sound, so they aren't really affected by speaker quality. I'd be willing to bet those dipole Tetras would sound significantly better pulled out into the room several feet farther, to a more psychoacoustically-friendly location for a dipole.

If a dipole has to be placed close to the front wall, I recommend either diffusing or absorbing the backwave (which works best depends on the room's acoustics).

Duke
More to discover