Full Range Speaker That Can Play Near Boundaries

I have the North Creek Eskas, which I like a lot: sweet and musical. They go very close to front wall. Have not heard the Big Kats which Face mentions, but they are said to go quite a bit deeper than the Eskas, and I expect they are very fine.

Yesterday I heard the Legacy Whispers, a large full range speaker with open baffle bass drivers that are said by designer Bill Dudleston to work near boundaries and in smaller rooms. They are impressive.

John

The older Merlin VSM SE was a little thin through the mid-bass when placed in free space. The octave to octave balance fleshed out a bit with hear wall placement and actually sounded a bit more natural to my ear. However, I also felt that the speaker's fantastic imaging ability is degraded just a bit when used this way. Some discreet treatment for first reflections and this can be a good solution for your problem. I had them in a slightly smaller space and was generally pleased with the results.

Good Luck

Marty

Check out the Guru speakers. They are specifically designed to be placed close to a wall.

The Opera Seconda is priced well short of $10,000 but is an excellent speaker.I have driven them with both a 50 WPC tube integrated and a 160 wpc Muse 160 mk.II with excellent results.They are a sealed box design and do well where I have had problems with other speakers(near the rear wall).

Thanks for your responses so far--some models mentioned here that I've never heard of so that is welcome. Kana--my current speakers are fabulous and I never thought I would part with them but we have put an offer in on a home where my listening room will shrink from the current open floor plan with a main listening area of 15 X 23 X 9 to a 13 X 17 X 8 closed in room. The DA-1.1's may end up being too large a presence in the smaller space which will have lots of furniture that will keep them pinned to the rear wall so I'm looking for options in case the deal goes forward. One speaker I am considering is the Vandersteen Quatro which has a powered sub that can be contoured to the room and is slightly smaller physically than my DA-1.1's. I'll do some investigating of the options mentioned here as well.