Difficult Speaker Positioning Question

Posted by: Greg Beatty on 03 April 2003

All -

Speaker positioning is difficult in the Beatty household due to having a LARGE TV bewteen the speakers. The TV is a 55" Mistubishi projection measuring about 4 1/2 feet across and 2 1/2 feet deep.

Any speakers of the quite a few that I have tried of late develop a very "boxy" sound when they are positioned anywhere in the alcoves created by the TV. The speakers are surrounded on three sides (side wall - back wall - side of TV) and sound like they are playing in a tunnel - probably because they are.

I would like to position the speakers at least somewhat in the alcoves due to space constraints, understanding that the sound may be somewhat colored and imaging would suffer.

Does anyone have a setup like this and what can I do to minimize the negative effects? This is more pressing now as I'm considering Allaes.

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here
Posted on: 03 April 2003 by bec143
Greg,

What happeed to the Kestrel II's? yesterday I listened to neat Elites, Audio Physic Spark, and Meadowlark Ospreys. but I'm probably heading towards allaes also.

Bruce
Posted on: 03 April 2003 by Greg Beatty
The K2's are awesome. The white ash ours came in turned out to be too light for our room. The dealer agreed to order a pair in a different finish, but the premium finish would raise the price. The dealer had a demo pair of Shearwaters in the finish we wanted and offered at discount. My wife heard how clean the Shearwaters were and approved. She had an issue with the scratchy treble of the K2s.

In the shop, the Shearwaters sounded better than the K2s in all respects. At home though, we miss the K2s. The K2s are more engaging.

I wrote Pat McGinty about it and he replied that the tweeter on the K2s is scratchy but that this goes away with 100-200 hours of hard playing. Our pair was not this far along on the run-in cycle. He also said that the Meadowlard staff debate which is the better speaker - quite a testament to the half-the-price K2s.

My wife also saw the Allaes in the shop and they look great. We think of it as adding furnature funds to the speaker funds to justify the total price of the Allaes. We started looking for speakers costing 2K USD or less.

I'm just worried that the Allaes may *need* to be further in the alcoves than the other speakers I've had in the house of late and that the colorations due to the positioning may overwhelm what the speakers do well. I will try some absorptive material in the alcoves and see if it helps.

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here
Posted on: 03 April 2003 by Greg Beatty
"but I'm probably heading towards allaes also"

Have your heard the Allaes? If so, what did you like about them compared to the other speakers?

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here