Audio Note speakers are designed to be used close to the back wall and the corners of the room; AN-E model will probably fit the bill. The Gradient Revolution is another speaker that, because of its extremely flexible bass module, can be configured to be used close to the back wall as well as the corner of the room. The Cornwalls mentioned above are also very good near the back wall and corners. Speakers by Volti would work there as would several models from DeVore.
Recommendations for Speakers that can be used close to the rear wall.
I am looking to replace my Magnepan 1.6 speakers with smaller speakers that can be placed close to the rear wall. Due to a move to a new home my listening room does not allow me to place my speakers the recommended distance from the rear wall. I am limited to just a few inches at most and I do not want to move them back and forth as I now do with my Magnepans. My room is large (17’ x 26’x 9’) with more open space next to it. The speakers are placed along the 17’ wall. I use a solid state Belles 150a Hot Rod amp with Sonic Frontier tube preamp, Dac and phono. I would like to limit the cost to $3,000/pair. I want the speaker to be no more than 48” high. I listen to various types of music ( rock, jazz, classical) and don’t play my music loud. I do not need a lot of bass for my musical enjoyment. I like the sound of the 1.6’s especially the way they play jazz vocal music, but am open to considering other types of speakers. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
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You will lose nothing with Larsen speakers in your application. I'm not speculating like is typical of most comments on this forum; I owned a pair of 8.2s for a couple of years. It typically takes me hours to dial in the speaker/listening position in my rooms that allow it. With the Larsens, about 15 minutes. The living room/kitchen is my wife's realm, speakers must go against the wall. Best sound we've had in that room in the 40 years we've owned this home. Like one reviewer said, almost no one has experienced their speakers with much of the room acoustic issues out of the equation. With that said, any Larsen model will be an eye (ear) opener. |
I had the same problem with regards to placement and $3000 budget recently. I had narrowed my list to Ohm Walsh 2000, Klipsch Forte III, Totem Sky Towers. I was replacing the Totem Sky monitors (w. a sub) which sounded best in my room about 12" from the wall; the manual recommended 6"- 3'. I thought that was impressively close. Below is a link to Totem's manual with placement recommendations for their whole line. Extrapolate from that what you can. https://totemacoustic.com/pdf/manuals/Totem_UserManual.pdf I decided on the Forte III's. I am thrilled that about the same distance from the wall works best for these in my room. By comparison, my old B&W monitors had to be 2-3x the distance away from the walls in the same room. Looking at pictures of how most people have their speakers setup for good sound, It seems like really close to the wall is just not practical for almost all speakers. I just saw Totem has 15 day trial from the factory. I wish they had that back in August. I have only heard Maggies in a store. IMHO, nothing sounds like Maggies. But, I would say the Totem Sky monitors, to my ears, got closer than any other traditional speaker I listened to in terms of detail and size of soundstage. I was really impressed. Of course, every room is different - some people hate Totem (and Klispch) - so maybe I just got lucky. I haven't heard the Sky Towers but they are $2600. Their footprint is much smaller than the Forte. Given my positive experience with the Sky monitors, if the 15 day trial was available back in August, I probably would have tried the Sky Towers first. I love the Forte, but the two are completely different in terms of how they present the music. For some reason, I normally listen and enjoy the Forte at lower SPL than I did the Sky monitor with a sub. Not sure why, but I find I'm liking that. |
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