Speakers which always sound good

Honestly, I have never had a difficult time getting speakers to sound good. But the easiest I have ever had it is with my Salk Songtowers. Easy Peazy speaker to place. In fact, they are the first speaker I can put right up against the wall and not get overly booming bass. They just sound better quite a bit better away from the front and side walls.

I know there is a lot of talk about speaker placement.  But the best results, for me, were obtained from 'source placement'.  Place the source on the side wall.  Nothing between the speakers.  Thick rug...with speakers on rug...nothing else = great imaging! Not a reality for most people but you gotta at least try it once. 

The most problematic issue with speaker choice in the rooms of my own, my friends, and at shows, seems to be bass boom. This may be more a feature of Europe: we have smaller dwellings and hence smaller rooms on the whole than the USA. Even small 2-way stand mounters can boom away in some rooms.
There are 3 speakers which never seem to cause this problem.

1. The LS3/5A. This classic monitor always sounds great. It may need a subwoofer in some rooms but it sounds good wherever you put it in any room.

2. The B&W 804D - a floor standing speaker which sounds good in every room I’ve heard it in. It can stand against a wall or in free space, it doesn’t care. The smaller stand-mounted 805D seems less flexible, oddly. And the 803D and down can overwhelm small spaces. I own a pair of 804s in my second system and would never get rid as they’re so versatile.

3. Boenicke W8. These stunningly beautiful small floor-standers like a bit of space behind them to sound best but they always sound good in every single room I’ve heard them in. Small rooms, large ones, odd-shaped, even troublesome cuboid spaces...the lot. And it has a wide sound field so they work in busy rooms for all present.

The so called "open floor plans" are the bane of an audiophile's existence.  Got to love the clanking dishes and pots banging on the stove. Erik, I believe you live in CA, the open floor plan capital of the world. Try to find a house with an upstairs "bonus room".     

..had to go there....tap on that Alien egg marked 'audiophile' and go "Hello?"...  *L*  This little critter goes for your ears...

What spouse and self do for self-employ allows us to 'self-tour' subdivision homes just for grins and groans.  I employ the 'Audiophiles' Eye for the Sounds Style' and generally walk away, if not run.

In the majority, one would be better off using the master bedroom.
Will NOT 'fly' with the spouse....unless you'd prefer to sleep alone on a more or less permanent state.

A custom home would be an answer....but a pricey one.  That, and if the acoustics don't work....you bought it, and have to 'make it work'....yet again...*grumble*

OK.  No suggested speakers; a suggested tactic, my 'imho' personal approach....*s*  Omnis'.

Linkwitz said "Ignore the room."  Or just cope with it....we do that alot.

Closest analog in speakers to what I'm 'about' is 4 of his Plutos'; small footprint, easily moved, sub friendly, not watt hungry.  Not particularly pretty nor ignorable, but are (or can be) the same driver(s) of equal response and qualities.  Your basic 'surround' with/without sub.....

Create a 'field' that you're within, rather than facing.
DACable...to some extent.  You can treat the room, but that seems to be The Answer in most cases, anyway..

You can 'be' sitting 'with' the band...on demand.
Add discrete delay to the 'rears', with a tweak of the eq...viola', your hall awaits, FRC.

My biggest diversion to the above is DIYing my own omnis to my tastes and perversions, trying to make them visually less 'strange'...

And the Plutos' have the same basic detail of the current Ohms that bugs me....a dome tweet....Not 'omni' at all.  Ergo, perverse. *LOL*

But...I remain an anomaly in y'alls midst...and happily, I might add.

OK...throw your rocks...."Shields Up." ;)

Wierdly yours,J

Sonus faber sonetto line. Great off axis response even better than the buchardt s400. Very flexible in positioning as they front fire. Great value for money