Is it possible to have Good Imaging close to wall

Here is the easy recipe for very good sound for veritually no cost for many to hear recordings sans room acoustics and reflections. Its pretty good! If you don't need room acoustics to get the sound you want, this may be all most people would ever need.

1) RIP a few tracks from CD to .wav using any good quality ripping software. Windows MEdia player set to store lossless .wav does nicely.

2) upload tracks to amazon cloud player website. You can do up to a few hundred tracks for free. Only tracks in Amazons music catalog will upload though, so some will not.

3) Grab a pair of good quality earbuds or earphones, plug it into a good quality newer PC. Nothing fancy needed, just avoid junk. I find Klipsch S4 earbuds at well less than $100 do very well. OR use an Ipad, iphone, android device or any device with decent sound quality and a browser to access Amazon Cloud player website.

4) You should get pretty decent sound quality, sans room acoustics. Makes for a decent reference for constrast and comparison. You'll need a decent home system set up right (not easy in comparison) to get better results most likely. Of course, earbuds and speakers in a room are two totally different beasts, but both can be very satisfying these days.

Does not have to cost much to get in the game with this approach though. I'd be willing to bet that the average intelligent youth these days weans better sound quality out of a setup like this than many audiophiles who have labored for years and spent many $$$Ss trying to just get decent sound that might hold their interest over time.

Bodotes, I am coming in a bit late to this conversation, not that I will have much to add to it really, other than to comment on the Larsens you mentioned. I have lived with the smallest of the line, the Model 4, and as you put it, it is one fantastic speaker, one of very few wall boundary types of speakers that seems capable of doing depth and eliminating the typical 2-D cardboard cutout effects that most seem to have. These speakers are indeed very good! Good to see them finally getting some press and appearances at some of the shows.

I alternate speakers every now and then, and my other "reference" for what it is worth, is a pair of Shahinian Obelisk 2's which I have owned for a year now. I also have owned Ohm Walsh in various types, never the real Ohm Walsh however. I do tend to enjoy the omni/semi-omni presentation in general more so than any other speaker that I have owned.

The Obelisk has gotten to be quite expensive over the last few years, well worth it in my opinion, yet I find the Larsen maybe a bit more cost effective, and as it stands, I dare say the small Larsen Model 4 gives up little in comparison. Yes the Obelisk to my ears is better, but in general, either one does the job for me.

And probably, if I wasn't fortunate enough to own these two, Ohms would be what I would own, again a serious contender for reasonable prices. I would also give the nod to the Ohms for their sheer dynamic ability over either of the two speakers that I own. Especially when you are in the 4000/5000 series of Ohm, a very good speaker indeed.

I would love to someday hear Dukes creations as well, a very well thought out and interesting design. I try to not get too worked up over design and theory, but allow my ears to tell me what is good for me. Many ways to skin the cat so to speak.

I am glad that the Larsen was brought up though. I have tried to maybe temper my thoughts at times on these, some may think I am too Fanboy about them! At any rate, good discussion here! Enjoy guys. Tim

Tim,

Your timing was good. I just bought a pair of Larsen 6s and am in (audio) love. My living room never sounded so good. Almost as importantly, my wife loves the way that they look in the room, especially that they are right up against the wall. She still hasn't gotten over my Maggie addiction from years before.

Your mention of the Ohm Walsh speakers is also interesting. I had a pair of original Ohm Walsh Fs, and later a pair of the newer Ohm Walsh 5000s. Although some might disagree, I found the 5000s to be much better than the original models. And based on my dubious audio memory, I think that the Larsens are much better. Thee acoustic image is more clear and defined, and the bass response is also much better. I would have gone for the 8s except that, for the price, the 6s are absolute giant killers.

I make no apologies for being a fan. Thanks

Quite a stimulating discussion.

Back to the recommendation:
http://www.larsenhifi.com/en/historien.htm
Larsen 8 is made to be placed against the wall.

http://www.teenageengineering.com/od-11 (don't know if these are available)

I had looked at these researching omni speakers.

P.s no affiliation to either!

Hope it helps?

Well somehow my last post must have gotten lost in cyberspace....

Bedotes, congrats on the Larsen purchase, I hope that these will continue to make great music for you for many years to come! I would love to get a listen to the 6 and 8's, someday I am sure.

I would love to know more about your electronics that you are using with your Larsen as well, and also maybe a bit of detail on your room and how the Larsens are spaced with relation to your listening position.

I find with my Model 4's, they can be spaced fairly far apart, mine are about 11' center of each speaker, and my listening position is about 7-8' from the front plane of the speakers, although the nice part is, there isn't a real sweet spot with them, and that is what I like.

I have never gotten a chance to listen to the "real" Ohm Walsh, the A or F, my experiences with the Walsh line have all been mainly the CLS versions and a few of their box speakers as well. I did have some comparisons with the Ohm 3000 and my Larsens, I would have to say they are very similar overall, more so than not, but I felt as if the Larsen was a more detailed speaker and had more clarity in the upper mids and treble region. Probably would say the Ohm went a bit deeper in the bass end, but not by much.

The Ohm Walsh 4000/5000 I would think would be a great comparison to make with the Larsen Model 8, and price wise, a fairly close match. Would be interesting indeed! I certainly would like to see how these two would compare bass-wise to each other.

While the current Walsh series can be sited fairly close to the wall, this is one thing I find very nice about the Larsen, it gets tucked right up to the wall as close as you can get it, and on you go. Nice to have a bit of floor space back and still retain very good depth of image etc. Just not a lot of fuss with regards to setup in general.

Again, good to see some comments around omni-types of speakers here, and while Ohm has a good deal of information in the infamous MWT thread, good to see the Larsen making an appearance too. I hope that it continues to get some good exposure as they are very good transducers! Tim