All Merlin family members.

that will help dave as i am sure you have a lot of reflected energy conflicting with the direct radiated information. this will obscure the contrast potential.
none of my designs are nearfield monitors. they are too uniform for that and are designed with their power response rather than nearfield on axis.
hope it works.
bobby

Are there some front wall treatments that work better than others? ie....cloth wrapped insulation, heavy carpet, drapes etc. Does one really have to go to this extent?

I suppose ideally, if your wall is 13 ft. wide, you should cover the whole thing, right?

Capt,
You raise a big topic of its own in a few concise questions.
Indeed some treatments work better than others. It depends on what your room needs(e.g. relief from echo, bass absorption, etc.) In most cases, covering a whole wall is not a good idea.
I'd suggest reading up on basics of room acoustics on either the rives.com or realtraps.com websites. With a cheap radio shack sound meter and a Stereophile test CD you can get a useful(though not perfect) read that will help point you in the right direction; that is you'll have a better idea what ails your room. Then you can post more specific questions or read up here on how others have attacked their room issues.
FWIW, I've spent much effort recently treating a very challenging room, and the results exceeded most component upgrades. It's usually worth the trouble. Cheers,
Spencer

Bobby,

Is 8' width between the speakers too wide?

Ken

Thanks for the links, Spencer. I`ll do some research. On reflection of my question, I guess there isn`t one easy answer. Lots of variables involved. I`ll work at it.