Speakers Distance from Wall

Phil - The system relocation was associated with a basement refresh that did have me concerned. Went from full berber carpet on thick pad flooring and acoustic tile ceiling to engineered hardwood floor and drywall ceiling. YUP there were echoes! However, several large area rugs with padding now cover probably 3/4 of the floor. But the biggest help was from GIK Acoustics. Called them and sent a schematic of the listening area. The panels they recommended made a dramatic difference - much improved resolution without any hint of harshness. No problem with echoes now. I would definitely recommend checking out their website. Things sound way better than they did in the old space. Good luck to you.

@ghosthouse. Will check out Gik. Thanks for the suggestion

You have a lot of space to fill for $3K, but an interesting solution occurred to me--Axiom Audio. They're an internet-direct company with design and manufacturing in Canada, with offices in the US. They have some serious talent there including Andrew Welker, former designer with Mirage who had designed that company's Omnipolar and Omniguide lines of omnidirectional speakers.

I think omni, bipolar, and dipole speakers are a good fit for your situation because their designs can bring your room acoustics into the mix in a good way, helping to reflect the sound to fill the space.

Axiom offers three omnidirectional speaker models designed by Andrew Welker. They include DSP and a rear-channel amp that modifies the rear channel signal to provide a room-filling soundstage and at the same time provide sharper imaging than is customary with omnis.

Their top two omnis are priced above your stated budget, but the LFR 660 comes in at $2960 with free shipping. Even this one is pretty good-sized, with twin woofers and front- and back-firing mids and tweets.

If you go with a conventional front-firing model, you can get their flagship M100 V4 starting at $2790. However, for a more furniture-grade solution, you could go with the M80 v4 and trick it out with real wood veneer and outriggers and still come in at budget.

There are plenty of reviews linked from the website to get a more complete picture of how these speakers sound and what they're good at. As mentioned, shipping to you is free, you get a 30-day eval period, and if you return them, the return shipping is far less than you would spend on your own.

I have no affiliation with Axiom, but I am a fan and owner of several Andrew-Welker designed speakers. I love their tonal balance and the uniform way they energize a room.

@Johnnyb53 thank you for your thoughtful reply. I've been thinking that possibly over the long run I'd end up with two pairs of speakers, one set directional and the other non directional as you've described. I've had DefTechs in the past which I enjoyhed (7001SC, then I had to move into a small apartment and sold them) and thought about buying another pair when I got into this house, but thought I would also get suggestions on this forum. How do you feel Axiom, or even Mirage, compare to Definitives?

05-29-14: Philtangerine
... How do you feel Axiom, or even Mirage, compare to Definitives?

As I mentioned, I have owned and still own several Mirage speakers. Last fall I was on a speaker quest and so listened to quite a few, including MartinLogan Motion 40, Sonus Fabere Venere 2.5, GoldenEar Triton Seven, Magneplanar 1.7 (which I bought), and Phase Technology bipolar towers. Of those speakers (and of the Mirages I already had at home), the Phase Techs--while sounding pleasant on their own--did not have anywhere near the resolution of the other speakers mentioned.

Their bipolars never impressed me the same way the Mirages did--and still do--as my 1998 M5si's anchor my HT rig which gets used every day.