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Do any speakers image/sound-stage close to walls?

I'm about to spend a huge amount of $$ on full-range speakers, but realise from all the published acoustical data and conventional wisdom, that the laws of physics are absolute. So, in a 17 X 23 X 15ft ceilinged room, when I have to place the speakers no more than 12" from the front (short) wall, 2 ft from the side walls (for WAF and furniture and structural reasons - dont ask,) am I blowing my money? The source, preamp, amps are all superb - but what do I do about finding speakers to match? Sure, I could buy a superb $19K SP Tech Revelation or Zu Definition or Coincident Total Reference, but what about the sound-staging and imaging? Surely I'm not the only person with this dilemma, yet there are so few posts on A'gon regarding this issue, that I wonder whether the problem is exaggerated in my mind or is it just that most A'goners are smarter than I and designed their wives' furniture choices better?:) Room treatments dont help much, or do they? Is there any solution, other than moving the whole sytem to a wifeless room? Please dont ask why these space restrictions apply - believe me, they do, and the interior decorating details are not relevant here.
System: EMM CDSD, DCC2, Sota Cosmos IV, Ear 324 Phono Preamp, Atma-Sphere MP-1, Atma-Sphere MA 2.2, PAD Dominus S/C, etc.
springbok10
bjesien
1,255 posts
 
Why don't you get out to listen to some speakers while taking some classes on becoming less afraid of your wife?
team212
248 posts
 
Yoh,

The only speakers in my recollection that do as you ask are the Venerable Snell AIII 's if you can find a pair buy them!

Best

Des

PS if you are Yarpie--I am a Kiwi as long as Aust doesn't win the Super 14 I don't care !
springbok10 OP
711 posts
 
Bjesien, how would getting out to listen to some speakers in a dealer's showroom or a warehouse let me know how they will sound in my room? Are you dyslexic or is my English too poor for you to follow? I guess your profession is a marriage counselor? Stick to audio. If you don't have anything positive to contribute to a thread, are you so bored that you feel compelled to be a smartass just to be heard?
springbok10 OP
711 posts
 
Hey Des, Good suggestion. Crusaders by a mile. Sharks second. Aussies nowhere. Where in NZ?
Cheers.
audiokinesis
2,724 posts
 
Springbok10, thanks. Good question - I wasn't very specific, and where we measure from makes a difference when the speaker is 21 inches deep! I'd guess that if you can get the front of the speaker 3 feet out from the wall when toed in, that would be great. If you have to live with less, then live with less (and perhaps you can slowly sneak 'em out inch by inch and maybe she won't notice). Okay so that won't be ideal positioning (five or six feet out probably would be), but my analogy would be a grand piano vs a little upright: Sure the grand piano won't reach its full potential unless you put it in a good recital hall, but even in a modest living room it'll still sound better than the upright.

I really like SP Tech speakers. If I wasn't doing my own variation on the theme, I'd be a dealer for them.

Team211, excellent call! It's been over twenty-five years since I heard the Snell Type A, but yup it had genuine depth of soundstage with its back up against the wall. I haven't heard its equal in that regard before or since.

Duke
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