ugly tweak

Come out from under the blanket my friend. I converted from a blanket to a simple absorptive panel covered in wife-friendly fabric (though she still does not approve - oh well, it looks much better than the blanket). The panel fits neatly in front of the screen blocking it out entirely. Sound is MUCH improved. I also have a 34" Sony CRT (GREAT TV BTW). Flat panel may help with WAF but it still presents a large flat rigid surface between the speakers. CRT looks better to my eyes than any flat panel anyway. Try a kitchen renovation to distract the wife from the blanket!

Flat panel on/near the wall doesn't completely eliminate the issue, but it helps. If your speakers are out past the plane of your large CRT or rear projection TV, putting a flat panel TV on the wall will now place your speakers about 2 feet out past the plane of the TV screen if you leave the speakers where they were located when you had the old TV. For some folks with WAF issues, this would even allow you to move the speakers back toward the wall a bit without having them behind the plane of the TV screen.

Another nice feature of a flat panel hanging on the wall is that you can make a simple hanging blanket or designer fabric "wall hanging", drape it over a dowel rod, and create an easy to use absorsion panel that hangs right over the top edge of the TV when the TV is not in use. You could easily make something that looked decent and many people might even think its art. Can't really say that about a blanket thrown over a big box TV.

Enjoy,

TIC

Well, I got my TV and equipment in an entertainment cabinet, and have pulled my speakers in front of the cabinet about 8 inches. And when I listen to my music, I close the doors in front of the TV, as the reflection off of the wood, is much better than reflection off of the glass. Granted I don't get quite the soundstaging depth that I would like, but other than that I get good imaging, height, and a reasonable soundstage depth (even though it's mostly forward of the speakers). Truth be told, most of us have to make some compromises in setting up our system. The trick is, is how to make compromises that we can live with.

my idea was to do like a movie theater, thick red velvet curtain that opens & closes like a big movie theater..maybe even with a remote open/close.. but thats only if i dont have room to put my TV in a different room.