+1000 to everyone who mentioned synergy. I have a story for you from last week.
A friend owns a number of speakers. Focal Utopia Scala Evo, Dynaudio Confidence 60 and Dali Epicon 8. This story is about the Dali.
He is fortunate to have access to numerous components from many different manufactures. Every time a new piece arrives we have a listening session where we try all three speakers and compare against his reference.
In every case, the Dali was forward and the speakers never disappeared, regardless of placement. This changed last week when his new reference amp and preamp arrived.
Not only do the Dali disappear, but we preferred the result of this combination over the other speakers. They went from being my least favorite to us thinking the new Epikore 11 could be his new end game with this combo.
Synergy is everything. We have had many huge lessons at his place with the ability to have so much gear come and go, but this ranks possibly at the top in terms of a 180 from a single component change. I say single because it was the amp, his older preamp resulted in the same disappearing act.
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Not sure of your budget but another idea would be the MBL 126 I have not heard it but it does get incredible reviews and seems to have the traits you are looking for.
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Same theme in the responses here, Room treatments, Set-up, and Synergy.
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After you do all of the above, turn the lights off at night, poof…speakers disappear. I’m completely serious. After hours of placement experiments, some room treatment, center seat of sofa in just the right spot, well recorded track, lights off and my Klipsch disappear completely. The only thing you can see are a few LEDs and the beautiful glow of 845 output tubes. Spooky good!
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I had Focal Aria 906’s on the factory stands and could easily make mine disappear at the front of the room. Soundstage was nice and wide, and you could not pinpoint the exact location of the speakers. Phantom center channel was right where it should be. In my room that ended up being with slight toe-out (not in). What did you find with the 906 that you could not accomplish. As others have said a lot has to do with the room as well. I have since moved on to Aria 926 with similar results (but the 926 require toe-in and a slight tilt forward).
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Some do it better than others. ;-) Planars have been mentioned, Joseph Audio. ProAcs are well-known for "disappearing" and throwing a big, open, coherent sound stage. That's one of many things I like about my old Response 2's. I'm rarely, if ever, concious of them. Nesteroviches disappear amazingly well for an old-fashioned "box" speaker, but they're getting hard to come by and the drivers aren't replaceable.
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Think most will disappear if setup correctly
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KEF LS50’s image very well and are smaller. You can go up the chain as well, the Reference 1’s will do the trick too. I believe the coaxial tweeter/midrange design is a bit more forgiving in terms of placement and sitting position.
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Just got a new pair of PMC Twenty5.24i’s. Huge upgrade from the Buchardts I had previously. Soundstage and imaging very impressive. Nord 227wpc with upgraded op amp. QED Golden Anniversary XT cables. Music excellent disappearing act .Movies, you are there!
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+1 for yogiboy
i heard some smaller Harbeths set up at a dealer where the soundstage was feet behind the speakers. Total disappearing act.
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All speakers can “disappear “
Its almost always placement
and minimal room reflections
as been said above Minimize
room reflections and pick music that
doesn't have widely panned instruments and or vocals
and truly most speakers will disappear
Good luck Willy-T
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Long ago, I had a pair of diminutive ADS bookshelf speakers that “disappeared” and presented a wonderful soundstage. I do not remember the model number but they were wonderful … except for lacking substantial base Fast forward to the present, and my Fyne F-702 speakers come close to doing this. Superb lateral and fron to rear dispersion, excellent tonal qualities, and much better bass than the old ADS speakers. I said “almost” because they a fairly large, black obelisks, almost. But, they do “virtually disappear.”
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+1 for the Maggie 3.7i with a Rogue Cronus iii Dark and a pair of subs, but also agree they are tall and will never disappear visually unless you listen with your eyes closed. 🙈
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If your P3 doesn’t disappear then you should be lookin’ for other components. I’ve owned that speaker and it disappeared better than the larger Harbeths and other larger speakers that I have owned!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFIaiPT_kY
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In a way, size matters, too. The return of 70’s era wide baffle KLH, JBL, Wharfedale and Mission mid-fi speakers to popularity has as much to with the way they are engineered around the baffle step as it does with their nostalgic warmth and appearance IMO. My Wharefdale Lintons are not fatiguing and very musical for affordable money. As others have shared, it took a while to use a combination of positioning, hardware and settings to deliver a nice invisible soundstage, but they got there. I think a big part of “invisible” is in the midrange, if voices and the tones of acoustic instruments are clear and natural, the source sounds less obvious to my decidedly non-golden ears.
The Lintons dip down to just under 4 ohms and are rated at 6 ohms, so they like current but they are very natural up to a point just short of rattling our 1924 bungalow’s vintage window sashes LOL.
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For $1500 the KLH Model 3's do this disappearing act as well as anyone of my 15 pr. of different speakers....and they're a FUN speaker to listen to with beautiful looks.....no sub needed.
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Setup is critical and it will vary with the speaker. This includes room treatments. There needs to be space behind the speakers more than beside. Then the recording will be the next most important. Some recordings will never allow speakers to disappear. Many brands can accomplish your request.
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One of the speakers that will absolutely pull off a disappearing act most effectively and better than most all others are Joseph Audio speakers. Just pick the ones that fit your space and budget. Best of luck.
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Your local porch pirate should be able to help you with that. Or, you might consider a Magnepan dealer.
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Placement is key. Not all speakers can be placed in the same position. A KEF Reference speaker needs at least three feet from the front wall and the sidewalls, but a Wilson is totally different. Even though it’s rear ported, Sonus Farber says that they are best at about 8” from the front wall.
And of course, no to rooms are the same.
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Any QLN, Acora, Vivid, Vandy, and many planars.
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Agree with Maggie's 3.7i but they do need a high current amp and subs add a lot. . What sold me was listening to Back in the USSR. They do miss on the not to big mark however.
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Amazingly enough the amp used matters a lot as well.
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Along with room acoustics and the speaker the gear used can be important. I had Magnepan 1.7i's (they are dipoles) and they were a bit harsh and beaming initially (they come with resistors to tame the high end if needed). I upgraded to 3.7i's and they were better/ smoother/less beamy.
I upgraded the amp's, pre-amp, streamer and added 2 subs and that helped make them open up the soundstage and added more 3D effect. When I added noise control with high end switches with ground plane noise control and fiber and two CAD Ground Control boxes the speakers do a much better job of disappearing with most tracks.
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I think it's a combination of speaker placement, preamp and speaker also that lets the speakers disappear.
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+1 @rick_n
Every flat surface in the room becomes a transducer and effects the original sound wave.
Not known for the diminutive size or WAF but once you hear a proper open baffle set up correctly its hard to forget.
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Keep in mind that the room and how any speakers interact with the room acoustics matters almost as much as the actual speakers.
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