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Speakers with good off-axis response

Scampy4

pfm Member
I would like to share the enjoyment of my audio set up with other people, and have as wide a sweet spot as possible. Does anybody have a good experience of speakers with good off-axis response?
 
I tend to like speakers with a good off-axis response.

What really matters is the region up to about 10kHz, because boundaries are absorptive anyway beyond that (says Toole and I see no reason to disagree).
 
Amphions are an obvious choice here. Massive soundstage, get the room out of the way, and no sweet spots. They also seem to stay unnervingly clean as the volume goes up, and for me are speakers that should be cranked up, to enjoy the expansive sound these speakers create.
 
Amphions are an obvious choice here. Massive soundstage, get the room out of the way, and no sweet spots. They also seem to stay unnervingly clean as the volume goes up, and for me are speakers that should be cranked up, to enjoy the expansive sound these speakers create.
That's one of the selling points of Amphion, isn't it? They make the claim prominently on their website.
Do you sacrifice imaging in widening three sound stage, or do the two go hand-in hand?
 
OK, maybe not Bose 901s.

Amphion uses waveguides, which improves dispersion. So does anything that is horn-loaded. Big JBLs perhaps?
 
That's one of the selling points of Amphion, isn't it? They make the claim prominently on their website.
Do you sacrifice imaging in widening three sound stage, or do the two go hand-in hand?

They also image excellently, but it doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, for example those Bose 901 will give a huge wall of sound (literally), but not the placement that the Amphions will offer.
 
Kef Uni-Q designs maintain response consistency over a fairly wide area, lacking the peaks and nulls commonly encountered as you go off axis with multi-way designs.
Ditto some of the Andrew Jones designed Elac 'speakers such as the Unifi.
 
Shahinians have exceptional dispersion, albeit somewhat idiosyncratic. More conventional speakers with a midrange dome like ATC and Neumann also have better than average dispersion.
 
If you want 360 degree off axis perfection the obvious answer is pair of German Physiks. Top driver goes from about 200 Hz to over 20 kHz. The size of bass driver varies on the “lower” priced models from 8-12 inches. Set up well, you can sit way off to the side and a soloist is still in the centre of the soundstage. and no they aren’t as wide as the soundstage!
 
We should distinguish between 'ordinary' front firing speakers with good of axis response (Kef UniQ as an example, already mentioned) and omnidirectional ones (MBL and some others) * . They work rather different with a room.

What is the thread starter looking for?

* Bose 901 is neither, it's Bose 901. Fighting in a class with just one contender.
 
If you want 360 degree off axis perfection the obvious answer is pair of German Physiks. Top driver goes from about 200 Hz to over 20 kHz. The size of bass driver varies on the “lower” priced models from 8-12 inches. Set up well, you can sit way off to the side and a soloist is still in the centre of the soundstage. and no they aren’t as wide as the soundstage!
Quite astonishing speakers!
 
We should distinguish between 'ordinary' front firing speakers with good of axis response (Kef UniQ as an example, already mentioned) and omnidirectional ones (MBL and some others) * . They work rather different with a room.

What is the thread starter looking for?

* Bose 901 is neither, it's Bose 901. Fighting in a class with just one contender.
I'm looking for something that a couple of friends cannot enjoy sitting side by side facing the front wall.
 
I would like to share the enjoyment of my audio set up with other people, and have as wide a sweet spot as possible. Does anybody have a good experience of speakers with good off-axis response?
You’re always going to hear the speaker you’re sitting closer to. Something I discovered this year was setting up my Tannoy speakers in a cross position where the axis crosses in front of the sweet spot. Reduces side wall reflections and makes the experience for those sitting left and right of the sweetspot better.

This white paper explains:

http://www.gedlee.com/Papers/directivity.pdf
 
Budget?

Duevel Planets (£1050 in wood finish, cheaper in coloured cabinets) are the bargain among omnis; I used them with a DSPeaker Anti-mode 2.0 room correction device (~£700) and the combination was terrific in my smallish room for the large-scale music I like.

Even better are the Duevel Venus (£4249 in bubinga veneer) to which I upgraded after a couple of years. Still using the DSPeaker, which I would never part with.

Once you become accustomed to omnis, all other speakers become irrelevant.
 
A bit left field but any Bang and Olufsen speaker with an acoustic lens surrounding the tweeter. I have the Beolab 9s and they excel off axis.
 


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