Acoustic Panel Help

I have 1.7i's and have found in my room absorption on the front wall and diffusion on the back wall work well to maintain imaging while providing a sense of spaciousness. Maggie's radiate little to the sides, so I have found side wall reflections not to be a significant issue. YMMV.

@audiodidact:

I made the mistake of not looking at your Audiogon virtual system before suggesting the Vicoustic Multifusers. 3’ has long been considered the common wisdom for the minimum distance between planar loudspeakers and the wall behind them. Actually 5’ is much better, due to the speed of sound and the issue of the rear wave wall reflection arriving back at the planar panel and interacting with the panel’s front wave in a deleterious manner.

The rear wave should reach the listener’s ears at least 10ms (milliseconds) later than the front wave for those two sounds to be heard separately. Anything less, and the rear wave is instead perceived as a "smearing" of the front wave. Sound travels at approximately 1’ per ms, so a 5’ distance affords a 10ms delay between front and rear waves reaching the listener’s ears. 5ms from the rear wave to the wall, 5 more ms for the rear wave reflection to arrive back at the planar loudspeaker, thus a 10ms separation between the two at the listening position. Simple physics!

If at all possible, move your Maggies further away from the wall behind them. If you can, diffusion works great. If you can’t, perhaps absorption is the better choice.

Thanks All, for the helpful input, advice,etc.  The sound I am currently getting is very good, soundstage-wise, with good center imaging.  It's the wiring coming out of the wall I want to cover-up with the acoustic panels,  and because these are dipole speakers, I defaulted to diffusion vs absorption panels. But I will try testing absorption vs diffusion to check if I gain or lose in the proposition, and I will report the findings here.  As for the distance from the from wall, the Maggies are actually about 5ft,4" out.  Again, thanks!  You all are the best for taking the time to help out.

If you're talking about wanting a good sound stage for watching movies/TV, you need absorption on your front wall, not diffusion. You're just getting immediate reflections if you don't, which can really muddy things up. Absorption at first reflection points also helps. Diffusion is usually best utilized on the side and rear walls, as well as the ceiling.

I spoke with Wendell at Magneplanar. He told me that in 40+ years he has never (and Wendel emphasized "never" 3x!) heard absorption behind a Magnepan speaker sound right, regardless of many individual situations. Wendel was emphatic: Only diffusion or nothing behind Maggies. Absorption may be on back wall and good at sidewall first-reflection points.

Don't forget you have 2 first-reflec. points on each sidewall. 1 from right spkr and 2nd from left spkr, and Vice-versa. Good luck