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Best Speakers Close to Walls

Question... What Hi-End speakers are either sufficiently forgiving, or made, to be placed close to walls. Speaker placement in my home is limited to within 1 foot of the back walls - a tough reality. Robert Harley writes in his book High-End Audio, 'that some speakers sound better close to walls than others'. Hi-Fi Choice magazine lists a speaker catagory as "Speakers that work best close to the walls". Would love to hear some opinions and/or experience on this.
Room: 13'W X 25'L X 9'H (speakers aimed length wise)
Speakers under consideration, but not limited to:
B&W 802N, Sonus Faber Cremona, Talon Raven or Khorus X, Kharma Ceramiques, Vienna Acoustics Beethoven's or - Merlin VSM-M.
I realize there is no perfect speaker for this situation, but gotta do the best I can. Thanks!
slhijb
Post removed 
vikkysingh
154 posts
 
Look at the Englsih speakers mentioned above and include Naim.
-Vik
audioman4
174 posts
 
I had a pair of the Vienna Beethovens...
they were fine sounding close to the wall..
I had them running with a Macintosh MC 2100
ss amp. The only thing is that they are very
picky regarding placement. It took a long time to
dial them in. They were aproximately 1 foot from
the rear wall... I found that moving them in and out
didnt affect the depth or soundstage that much...
Overall, build quality was very nice... drivers seemed
tight and the only downside is a single binding post..
although I believe Vienna doesnt recommend biamp or biwire.
Good luck
Happy listening,
Joe
Custom Audio LLC
jdombrow
371 posts
 
See the post "whatz up with hi-end speakers near walls? " below. Lots of good suggestions.
foreverhifi
229 posts
 
"musikat" is mistaken about his assumption that "speakers wiht ports in the front" will work better closer to walls! The usually difference in acoustic space is "NEGLIGABLE" and usually fairly insignifican't to the frequencies that are applicble! The wave lengths are so long in the bass that most traditional designs aren't going to put the port far enough away from the walls to make a difference in most cases! The result is still going to be boomy, thick, dominent, "one-notey", "peaky" and uneven bass response! fOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES, in smaller domestic rooms, the speakers will have to be designed to be closer to the wall, Be significantly "re-EQ'd", and you can forget about listening with a chair up agains a wall for sure!!!
So far, the Thiel Powerpoints are the best I've heard for "onwall" or "near wall" applications! (they use 45 degree angle on front baffel, and crossover manipulation I think). OTher than that, bass extension limited designs are going to be your best bet usually...leaving bass to the powered subwoofer.
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