Hansen Emperor or MBL 101E or Avalon Isis

Hello Emigene,

For the sidewall, a distance of two meters (6.5 feet) would be nice but is not necessary if you treat the first sidewall reflection area. I prefer diffusion instead of absorption, but if your room is too bright then use absorption.

For the wall behind the speakers, I would like about the same distance, two meters or 6.5 feet. Even more would be better, if it is practical. This distance is more important than the sidewall distance, as it affects clarity more and also depth of soundstage more. You may want to use diffusion in the reflection zone even if you have sufficient distance.

This is my opinion based on owning wide-pattern fullrange electrostats and designing bipolar speakers, but I have not owned an omnidirectional speaker. Still, I think the MBLs will work fine as long as you can get the speakers out in front of the wall by about 2 meters or more. I would not worry as much about the sidewall distance - just treat the wall if you have to.

Best of luck to you,

Duke

Audiokinesis,
What speaker line are you a dealer for that is competetive with the mbl?

Dear Emigene: Like almost all the people posted: " you can't go wrong with either ".

Now, if I was you and if I have that kind of money for an audio system speaker's quality performance improvement first I ask what do not like me about my current audio system quality performance? and second what are my sound reproduction performance targets?. Maybe you already do it and you found/decided that changing your loudspeakers you could be " there " but maybe changing your speakers you could not be " there ". The speakers is a very important link in the audio system chain but ( other that the speaker own performance signature ) depend on the other links in that chain: sources, preamp, cables, amps, room interaction/treatment, etc, etc.

I'm talking about because I read this that you posted in other thread:

++++++ " and as the Eidolon is a little cool and lean, perhaps I need one amp that can compensate them. " +++++

IMHO if we need an amp ( or other audio item ) with a " signature " to COMPENSATE the speaker performance then I think that we are in trouble somewhere through the whole audio system. I could agree that Spectral sometimes is not the best match to Avalon but some times it is.

An audio system customer sound reproduction satisfaction is a very complex equation where not always a top rated ( $$$$ ) audio items combination achieve our targets.
Any of those top rated speakers could satisfied you if the other audio system links in the chain have a quality synergy ( not to compensate but a true synergy. IMHO compensate can/could means add wrong " distortions " to something that already are wrong. ): neutrality, tonal balance top tp bottom, dynamics, full range, etc, etc, we have to remember that the quality performance of any audio system will be at the same level of its " weak " link in the chain.

I know that you have the money to spend on that speakers or anything in your system and my advise is to be sure how can you be sure that with that change ( or any other ) you can achieve your music sound priorities.

Btw, IMHO and through my audio experience I think that a pair of good monitors plus a pair of subs in real stereo way could be better than a full range speakers. A satellite + subs configuration has many advantages over a full range passive speaker set up.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.