Rleff - just curious as to why you would move back to box speakers when you retire? I have Martin Logan Summits and love the open sound stage. Based on a post on this forum I recently moved the Summits about 8.5-9 feet apart with very interesting results. I thought i might end up with a hole in the middle of the stage where the left and right channel didn't quite come together. That did not happen the sound stage got bigger but did not lose any focus and the base was much stronger.
How many 'listen outside of the box' design?
Whether I owned electrostats or open baffle designs the majority of my audio life I've owned boxless speakers. My choices were made in part due to a logic of removing a 'box' from the equation of having to interact with a room. The more I thought about it it seemed a very logical choice. Why enter a speaker into a box and then have to deal with the resonation of the speaker interacting with the box and the room? I'm not saying successful box designs haven't been built, what I'm suggesting is box designs seem a more complicated way to achieve true room integration. I've discovered, dollar for dollar, I've exceeded most box designs. How many think as I do, or have experienced similar results based upon experimentation?