Cytocycle - I don't think there is a "typical planar quandry". But then again, SoundLabs are not your typical planar speaker.
There is much discussion about room size and compatibility with certain speakers, low-end coverage, etc. This was a concern for me with my 13x18x7.5 basement room but it worked mighty fine with the Magnepans. However nearfield listening did not work well at all with the Maggies. I think a speaker needs to be able to perform well at medium volume levels for the nearfield position to work. And there seems to be a consensus that Maggies work "best" if placed along the short wall with the listener 8-10 feet back. My room configuration does not allow me to place the speakers on either of the two long walls.
Before I heard the SoundLab, I had read many posts on A'gon, AudioAsylum and the SoundLab users group that these worked mighty fine in rooms in the 200 sq ft or so. And when I heard them in a room a couple feet longer than mine, they sounded so good I knew the room size would not be an issue.
It took me very little time to realize why these big speakers could work well in a smaller room. Unlike with the Maggies, you can shift your lateral seating position and still have an incredible "view" onto the stage. With the Maggies, that field width was quite narrow. I discovered this by accident just from walking around and noticing how coherent the soundfield was no matter what angle I stood from the speakers.
I like to sit 8-10 feet back from the speakers but a local audiophile buddy is a nearfield listener. And so I listen up close(4 feet or so) from time to time and it is really impressive .. a different perspective, and possible because of the phenomenol resolving power here.
My friend and I shuffled the A1s around using the Cardas positions relative to room size, but these are tweaked for planar speakers. I found that the distance from the back wall to be spot on (about 5 feet) but I did not find it necessary to bring the speakers so far away (2 feet) from the side walls. I ultimately put them back to about 9" from the side walls and toed them into the room about 30 degrees. This gives a much bigger spread with greater delineation of the musicians.
The only downside of the smaller room with the SoundLab is that they have low-end coverage that very few cone speakers can claim to have. And in my room, this creates severe bass peaks. All the shuffling of the speakers could only reduce the peaks a little but not enough to bring on tonal coherency. A front wall of ASC traps and the back wall treated as well brought on significant "cleanup" of the mids and lower trebles but not these bass peaks.
I ultimately corrected these bass peaks with a Rives PARC with excellent results. But with the PARC in the system, the dynamic contrasts were slightly diminished with the cables I was using at the time. Had it not been for the CAT amps, I might not have noticed this issue at all. Just goes to show nothing is free but the pros of the PARC easily outweighed the cons. I have since discovered new power cables that resolve this issue with the PARC. It's just unfortunate that I have to spend so much in cabling here but the PARC now is definitely a keeper until I can get into a bigger room some day.
As for the bass with the A1s, I'd put these (with the CAT JL-3 amps) up against any cone or horn speaker in the $20-30k price range.
John
