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Speakers close to wall suggestions - largish room

Allaboutmusic said:
Hi, we are soon changing the arrangement in our lounge. The room is largish being 6×4m but with a large 4x1m bay window on the long side. Room is also 3.2m height.

My current arrangement has a pair of Harbeth SHL5+ either side of the fireplace on the 4m wall. They drive the room really nicely but they won't work as well when they are moved against the 6m wall, as they won't have as much space behind them. So I am looking for speakers which can fill the room and work relatively close to the wall - ideally 30ish cm out.

My amp is an exposure 3010s2d.

Here is the list so far:

Neat Xplorer
Neat Elite Classic
PMC 23 (not sure if these are large enough)
PMC 24
Totem twin Bisons (again, these may be too small)
B&W 704 s3

Any others folk would recommend? Looking to buy second hand but would spend the money on new speakers if they were the right option and worth the spend.

To note my very nice Harbeth with stands are available for sale in the classifieds but would consider swapping for something which would work in the room.

Many thanks
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All of those will sound very different from your Harbeths.
If that's not what you're looking for, maybe try DRC (digital room correction). I have my speakers very close to the rear wall and they shoud and measure better than they did when they baffle was some 3.5ft into the room.
I wrote about it here:

pinkfishmedia.net

Pushing the speakers back for flatter bass

I was experiencing a somewhat 'hollow-sounding' bass with my new speakers – there was a lot of sub-bass but a chunk of the mid- and upper-bass was missing (see blue curve below, dip between 80Hz and 200Hz) – and after reading about the effects of boundary inteference (SBIR) and how the...
pinkfishmedia.net pinkfishmedia.net
 
I have Neat Iota Alphas around 30cm from the wall and they’re fantastic. Detailed and holographic with the right amps, I can only imagine how good the Xplora’s are.
 
Mike Reed said:
I'd naturally go along with this. As one needs the seating position to be away from a wall (pref. 1.5' min.), that really reduces the space for a speaker to create a good soundstage. Another point i.m.o., is that spkrs away from walls ( and esp. front/rear ported ones) do that soundstaging/imaging thing far better. In a 6 x 4 m room (not large at all in my book but nicely rectangular with important bay) your seating position would ideally be in front of the bay, giving that rear space and isosceles triangle rather than equilateral, unless you like near field listening in which case try cans :D .
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That's exactly how the speakers will be positioned, on the solid long wall, with seating in front of the bay window.
 
I don’t think there is anything really wrong with having speakers close to rear wall other than that you will get a bass boost which will have to be dialled down a bit (unless they were specifically designed for such placement). The bass response will otherwise be more even as you avoid cancellation from rear wall reflections.
I think genelec have something about this in their literature.
 
Dynaudio Condidence C5s work well right against the wall.They have sealed isobaric loaded bass so bass never gets boomy.
 
If your amp has the current, try to track down some Elac Adante AS61 , extraordinary speakers designed by Andrew Jones.
Basically mini TADs , at insanely low cost.
But need top end powerful amp to make them work.
That's why they bombed, a £2.5K speaker that needed a £25K ( sort of) amp to drive them properly.

Had a pair of NS1000s here last week, fine speakers if upgraded.
To me, in their original 40 year old form, can be easily bettered, but with new crossovers etc, excellent (heard both).
 
Pure_Carbon said:
If your amp has the current, try to track down some Elac Adante AS61 , extraordinary speakers designed by Andrew Jones.
Basically mini TADs , at insanely low cost.
But need top end powerful amp to make them work.
That's why they bombed, a £2.5K speaker that needed a £25K ( sort of) amp to drive them properly.

Had a pair of NS1000s here last week, fine speakers if upgraded.
To me, in their original 40 year old form, can be easily bettered, but with new crossovers etc, excellent (heard both).
Click to expand...
Another angle on the ELAC AS61-https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/elac-adante-as-61-speaker-review.11507/

Had a pair of NS1000s here last week, fine speakers if upgraded.
Good in both formats to my ears...
 
Allaboutmusic said:
That's exactly how the speakers will be positioned, on the solid long wall, with seating in front of the bay window.
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Don't follow this, unless, unusually, you have your fireplace in a shorter wall and the bay on the longer ne. Firing down a rectangular room not only suits a wider range of speakers but simply sounds better. Think you have this arrangement at present, so why compromise?
 
Mike Reed said:
Don't follow this, unless, unusually, you have your fireplace in a shorter wall and the bay on the longer ne. Firing down a rectangular room not only suits a wider range of speakers but simply sounds better. Think you have this arrangement at present, so why compromise?
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Yeah I do, fire place is on the short wall and bay on the long wall. I previously had some speakers on the long wall and sounded better than on the short wall.
 
I’ve never experienced speakers driving rooms better when firing ‘across’ rather than ‘down’ the room. We’ve always had rectangular listening rooms (current room 3.5m x 5.5m) for that very reason alone.
 
marktr said:
I’ve never experienced speakers driving rooms better when firing ‘across’ rather than ‘down’ the room. We’ve always had rectangular listening rooms (current room 3.5m x 5.5m) for that very reason alone.
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The advantage I found of firing across is that the speakers could be in the traditional triangle relative to the listening position. I previously had some Neat Momentum sx3i before we renovated the room and they sounded great firing across but were lost firing down the room, only issue is that they looked odd pulled out from the wall to avoid boom.

So, I then got the Harbeths which fill the room really nicely but if you sit nearer them in the triangle, which the current seats don't allow, it is noticeably better in my view.

We are now changing our furniture and getting a large L shape so tv and speakers on the long 6m wall, fire place one end on 4m wall, short L as you come into the room and long L in front of the bay (hope that makes sense).

Lots of great suggestions on the thread.
 
marktr said:
I’ve never experienced speakers driving rooms better when firing ‘across’ rather than ‘down’ the room.
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Indeed. Of course, there are speakers and speakers, and a big surprise to me in the eighties was Isobariks in a small room firing across (one in a dealer's and one private). For most decent floor-standers, firing down simply makes sense. Otherwise it's the wrong speakers.. Stand-mounts similarly, but there ae more caveats here.
Allaboutmusic said:
The advantage I found of firing across is that the speakers could be in the traditional triangle relative to the listening position.
Click to expand...
There are triangles and triangles. An equilateral one is okay if you like a narrow reception area but an isosceles with two longer sides increases the sound-stage/imaging etc. considetrably.
 
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