speakers....away from a wall, thoughts

There are a lot of speakers that require to be well away from the wall to work at their best. This is quite typical of ported speakers.
In fact a lot of speakers get boomy when up too close to rear walls

The backs of my Totem Mani 2's for example are about 3 ft out and they are about 4 ft in from the side walls, where they sound best. NB's Neat's I'm sure are quite well out from the rear walls. All B& W's are "free space" as are a lot of the other non Naim speakers mentioned reqularly on the forum.

regards
GEOFF

I use a pair of Wilson Bensech Act2 speakers which are designed for free air use they sound superb - they are about 1 metre from the wall.

Prior to that I had a pair of Kef R107s similarly located.

THe praise for the wall hugging speakers on the forum is due to Naim speakers being wall huggers.

Derek

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thanks for the input, anybody tried naim speakers away from a wall,alleas or intros etc, thanks, Ben r

A friend ran Allaes a couple of feet out from the wall, to get the bass 'right'.

This is very room dependent of course. Boundary placement speakers are designed to sound 'right' back to a boundary wall; but it's not an absolute.

You may be happy with the frequency balance of a Naim speaker, away from the wall, depending on the acoustic signature of the room and personal taste.

You may not like the sound of speakers designed to operate in free space - they tend not to have the ultimate speed of Naim speakers.

As ever; it's - suck it and see.

hello my situation is 2 fold, first speakers against a back wall is a problem for me and second is well I simply prefer the sound and the image i get away from a wall. I usually find speakers against a wall to small and somewhat congested, I find the open and upfront sound more engaging to me. I find a small to medium size floor standing speaker sounds larger than it is away from a wall and I really like that. I remember i heard a very expensive system featuring linn isobariks and it sounded very good but my immediate thought was that the the sound was small and i felt that was a negative,,,I know this may be weird but it has always bothered me...my Ninkas are supposed to be near a wall and I have tried them there....same result maybe more bass....but that small sound....I move them away from the wall and I immediately prefer it, more open, larger sound and more engaging. can't figure it out is it me or do others feel the same way ?

quote:

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Originally posted by ben r:
hello my situation is 2 fold, first speakers against a back wall is a problem for me and second is well I simply prefer the sound and the image i get away from a wall. I usually find speakers against a wall to small and somewhat congested, I find the open and upfront sound more engaging to me. I find a small to medium size floor standing speaker sounds larger than it is away from a wall and I really like that. I remember i heard a very expensive system featuring linn isobariks and it sounded very good but my immediate thought was that the the sound was small and i felt that was a negative,,,I know this may be weird but it has always bothered me...my Ninkas are supposed to be near a wall and I have tried them there....same result maybe more bass....but that small sound....I move them away from the wall and I immediately prefer it, more open, larger sound and more engaging. can't figure it out is it me or do others feel the same way ?

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Hy ben r!
I would place each speaker where manufacturer
recommends.For example intro or old kan near
the wall,others like thiel or b&w far away from the wall. ithink ninka is a wallaway design.(also new kan)Imo imaging of wall near speakers is not worse to imaging of of wall design. As along time thiel owner
i always had fear to go for a wall near speaker,(concerning imaging)but with kans2 i noticed imaging was not worse,and i think it depends on frequency crossover construction where to put a speaker.and also on housing construction and the of axis characteristics.
Maybe the reason why kan 2 has a frame that is
centimeters in front of both chassis.
O.J.

BenBen

Your thoughts illustrate the fact that we have different priorities we want from a system.

Boundary placement does indeed restrict the soundstage, so I know what you're getting at.

If this aspect is important to you, I reckon you'd be happy with the PMC/Pro-Ac sound.

A friend struggled to get SBL's and Allaes 'right' for years. He now has Pro-Ac D15's (I think) and has attained musical nirvana.

Advice has its place, but it's your perception that's important.

J N thanks, you know I can only tell what I hear and what i like and dont like, never heard pro acs but have heard good things about them...concerning your friend trying to get speakers to sound right for years...shouldn't be that means they never sounded right to him probably right out of the gate. I am certainly going to give my naim gear time to run in before I come to a decision about speakers though, probably around 2 months, then if the allaes bloom with them great, if they dont they dont it will be that simple, I do wonder if the people who have only heard systems with speakers that go against a wall would say when they heard a really good system featuring speakers that fly away from the wall...I have heard both and def. prefer like I said away from the wall

Ninka's I suspect are like Keilidhs and Kabers; they sound better away from the wall