Need help with my office system

Nice office system. Listening chair is much too close to the desk, though... :o)

You would hear more detail in the music if the drivers were on a level with
your ears, of course. About the only way to do that with your Arros would be
to take out a shelf or two each side and mount them on the wall--either right
side up... or upside down. (What a cool setup--a pair of floorstanders
mounted upside down on the wall!)

Come to think of it, Arros do sound good with their backs to the wall.
However your chair is much too close to get the best of them that way, and
you can't really sit much further back. A less unreasonable alternative might
be to swap the Arros for smaller monitors. Again I would rather mount these
on the wall, instead of sitting them on a shelf.

Trouble is there are not a whole lot of monitors specifically designed for
positioning real close to the wall. (North Acoustics are one exception,
http://www.northacoustics.com/, check out the Spirit and Kitty Kat
monitors.) This includes front-ported and sealed-box designs, although
these are on the whole less likely to be boomy than rear-ported ones.

I wonder why you would want to give up your tube amp for solid-state
powered monitors, even good ones.

I've had reasonable success wall-mounting monitor speakers with the Smarter
Speaker Support, available on eBay and from UHF Magazine, just google
them. They keep the speaker backs (and the rear port if one is present) at
least 3 inches from the wall.

Now--do you really want to hear more of the music, or do you want to get
some work done? ;o)

I tried putting them on blocks which raise the speakers up about 1ft and I moved them closer to the wall and pointed them directly at my head.

(sort of like studio monitors, but they are further apart)

I get better detail but a shallow soundstage of course and some wierd bass (from bening up on a square wood block)

Maybe I should look at booshelves and just mount them on the wall at the correct level.

How about getting longer speaker cables and putting the speakers on the wall behind your chair? While it might take some getting used to, you're probably not getting much depth of soundstage now anyway, so it might be an improvement. It would certainly give you enough distance for the drivers to integrate.

Another option for this kind of severe nearfield listening would be single drivers. Those here who have used them (not I, yet) could give you some great recommendations, I'm sure.

David

Thats an interesting idea, only problem is that on the opposite wall I have a couch I want to be able to sit back on and listen to the speakers as well at times when I am not working.

Perhaps I should just add a pair of bookshelve speakers up on the bookshelves as "nead-fields" and keep the arro's for relaxed listening.

Either that or suck it up and live with a squashed soundstage while I work and enjoy it when I sit back.

My main problem is that I also want to be able to sit back on the couch not pictured on the opposite wall and sit and listen.

I tried elevating the speakers, it cleared up a bit but didnt change much.

I tried the opposite wall and it did get a nice driver integration between the two speakers and full sound with bass impact. It sounded good during instrumental but as soon as a voice came in it was too akward and I had to punt it.

I tried moving the speakers out a little wider to the corners of the room pointing in 45 degrees (im sure this is a cardinal sin but it gets bass impact going though probably not very accuratly(. This helps the soundstage more and I get an image though its like I am in the front rows.

At least this way I can move the speakers back in a foot or so and point them square from the wall to listen properly from the couch.

No great but the best I have come accross so far.

Looks like the big obstacle here is the room arrangement. That's certainly an elegant shelf system, but I wouldn't want to use it as a desk nor to be face-first against the wall like that. If there were a way to set up a work surface that allows you to look out across the room, you could use a single set of floor speakers, and tighten up the angle a bit so there's no sonic hole between them. A better room arrangement might get to the problem's root, more so than just spending on additional technology.

Shawnparslow, Why not purchase a small pair of Magneplanar panel speakers. You could get a floor standing model, about 4 1/2 ft high, or a pair of wall mounted speakers that swivel out from the wall. Either way, you could position them toward your desk or sit back on your couch and enjoy! The Maggies sound wonderful and are not tiring in the least, with nice 3-dimensionality, beautiful mid and upper ranges. They go down to 50 Hertz on the low end, so you might want to add a subwoofer at some point, perhaps a $700 ERA with an 8" woofer. Give a listen to them at a local dealer. You could pick up a pair on Audiogon for about $500 or even less. The floor standing model goes for $1100 new.

Have fun, waltcertain