Planar close to a rear wall? Quad for example?

MrTennis,

Come to think of it, the original Quads have a felt pad that absorbs the tweeter's backwave. Hmmm... I hadn't taken that into consideration, but that would probably give them them a much better chance of working close to the wall than other dipoles.

As for designing an electrostat to compete against the SoundLabs, well thanks for the vote of confidence but that's out of my league!

Duke

FWIW, re backwave, in my initial frustration setting up Quad 63's I put heavy felt on the back of the speakers. As far as I was concerned all of the supposed benefits of using dipoles disappeared with the 'unmanagable' backwave.

The speakers didn't begin to sound good (open up and sound clear) until I got them out 4 1/2 ft from the wall behind them and using diffusing materiels was still very beneficial. In my experience the down side of the close placement to the wall wasn't just the loss of depth that was the problem so much as loss of clarity. But then I like to sit about dead center in an orchestral hall usually in rows D E or F where clarity is very evident.

Interesting how we all value the same things so differently.

hi newbee:

i too owned quad 63's. having owned stacked quad 57's for 7 years, i would say, the 63's are more inaccurate, timbrally speaking. my experience with quad 57s placed close to the wall does not confirm your experience with the 63's reagrding loss of clarity. when i owned the 63s, they were placed 5 feet from the rear wall. i can't say that clarity was a salient aspect of its performance. i liked the speakers for their absence of brightness, boxlessness and listenability, not because of transparency.

then again, you and i probably used different amp, pre and digital components.

Mr T my point was not to differentiate the 63's from the 57's, although not often spoken about, one of the huge differences between them, which is obviously not important to you, is the point source imaging nature of the 63's which is markedly absent in the 57's. The 63's were in fact one of the earliest electrostats or planar speakers to do this little trick. This exact feature may coinside with your 'rear of the hall' sonic preference because the 57's will always have a more blended sonic presentation than the 63's or later speakers as well as cone or horn designs.

What I was referring to was nothing more than what Duke has been talking about. The back wave needs greater seperation from the front wave than close wall placement will give it if you are seeking clarity. And, this clarity is what gives it a greater sense of 'depth of image'. I think it goes without saying, but I will anyway, if you like rear hall sound, clarity and its byproducts cannot be a big issue for you. I've never been in an orchestral hall where in the rear lower or upper sections I heard any direct sounds that were not greatly changed or influenced by hall size including reflections, reverberations, acoustic treatments, and the size of the audience.

Courses for horses. Or is it horses for courses. :-)

Having played with a pair of Quad 989’s for over a year now, I would have to say you will be losing a lot of what makes a Quad, a Quad.

In my room, which is 23x21, with a sloping ceiling going from 9 feet to 16 feet and one side of the room open 16 feet ( from a foyer ), I have had to place the 989’s 5 – 6 feet off the back wall, and 5 feet off the side walls. Placing them so close to the wall will waste your money. This would hold true for any dipole speaker as well. There are plenty of good speakers out there that might be OK up against a wall. As a general rule of thumb, almost any speaker sounds better if kept off the back and side walls. Results and effect will vary with each brand and model of speaker.

You may very well find a different brand or type of speaker that will sound better that the Quads in your set up, even though they might not sound as good as the Quads if both were set up in open spaces.

Remember, a great top dog speaker sounds great because it is set up correctly, and yes there is a correct and incorrect way to set up and speaker. A great speaker that is set up incorrectly, may sound worse, that a lesser speaker that is set up as intended. Example. In my room I really wanted to place the Quads on the long wall. That wall has a wonderful view to the outside, with two large ( 7 foot x 7 foot ) casement windows, and a fireplace in the middle of the wall ( total of 23 feet ), the opposite wall is open 16 feet. Tried as I wanted, and the Quads just sounded to bright and brittle when placed this way. By the way this position was the best for furniture setups as well. We are now looking for custom drapes that we can use on those two windows. My thought is that I might be able to get away with placing the speakers in the position I want, and use the drapes as a sound control item. Open for casual listening, and close for serious listing. This would probably limit the serious listing to the dark hours, since closing the drapes during the day makes the room way to dark.

Recently I walked into one of the national audio chain stores, but not a big box store. I noticed they had a room with a small pair of Martin Logan’s and a Krell amp. I asked if I could hear the set up. I had a few CDs with me that I knew well. The set up was awful. Based on that set up ( close to the wall, and only six feet apart ), I would never, ever, considered buying those speakers. A few weeks later I was in another store ( in the same town ), who come to find out, had the whole Martin Logan line up. I sort of joked with the manger how I had already heard the small ML’s in another store. He laughed. He said that I had not heard them set up correctly. I was game, and had the same selections of CD’s with me. Boy was I blow away. It was a night a day change. Based on hearing them correctly set up, I recommended them to a friend. I them when into their big home theater room and listened to the ML Summit’s, and again was floored. Based on being able to hear the speakers set up correctly, I am thinking about maybe buying the Summits and selling the Quads, ( yes I miss the visceral bass about 50 % of the time )

Give us an idea of your room size and why only one foot off the wall ??