A real anorakky question

I think there were two problems from having anything betwixt the 'speakers, that of large mass and diffraction effects from sharp edges.

Both can have an effect on soundstage and balance.

Personally, owing to restrictions on available space I have a TV (without speakers) and the main rack between my Kans.

Kans don't have wide dispersion so the effects may be less than with other 'speakers, but it sounds OK to me, although I'm sure it could be better if space allowed - that will have to wait until a major redecorate!

The diffraction effect should be negligible, since your speaker are in front of the fireplace edges, as for the mass, if it sounds OK it is!

With my system I can make far greater musical impact by changing other elements of the setup, the soundstage is not really an issue to me, I can hear what I want to hear, musically speaking.

Andy.

Andrew L. Weekes
alweekes@audiophile.com

Jonathan

My shoulder is strapped up until 5.00pm on 2nd May, good Lord, I am counting the days/hours.

I may try pulling the SBL's out another inch but they should, of course, be right up against the wall.

I am perfectly happy with the speakers, I justed wanted to know why a mass in between the speakers has an effect, especially if it's behind them.

Regards

Mick

First, placing an equipment rack placed between the speakers is likely to result in far more harmful vibration reaching the equipment than in other locations.

Secondly, it's not so much the mass of an object between the speakers that matters as what exactly the object is. There are three obvious factors involved: resonance of the object, reflection and diffraction into the room from the object, and standing waves between the speakers and the object.

For example, I have heard Kans sounding good with a massive brick buttress between them. The effect of the buttress was clearly audible, but it was not a big problem.

In my present listening room, placing a small chest of drawers [whose top was above the base of the Kans on Kan II stands] degraded the sound - among other things making the bass heavier and slower [clearly due to resonance of the chest], and harming the stereo image [due primarily to reflection from the flat surfaces]. However, it was listenable to. A low, flat-topped ottoman, of perhaps twice the volume of the chest of drawers harmed bass performance and stereo image in a less obvious way, but still degraded the sound significantly. Nevertheless, I lived with this set-up for over a year. However, a shallow bookcase, which did NOT project beyond the front of my speakers made the sound so bad that there was no point in listening to it.

--Jeremy

In my current setup I have a huge, almost-solid oak cabinet between the spearkers. The front baffles of the speakers are almost even or perhaps an inch or two in front of the cabinet. I've had many people tell me this should be bad, but anyone who's listen to the system has been astonished that it seems to have no impact. This includes experts who had naysayed it earlier. The soundstage is very good, tonal balance is great, the speakers disappear very nicely, and everything in the world is wonderful.

In my upcoming house, the speakers will have little or nothing between them, so we'll see if it's even bettter.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-
It's only 3 days to Moving May!!!

Mick,

the reason why objects between and even behind the speakers make such are difference are two-fold.

1. The science bit. Because the wavelength of bass (and ven mid/bass) sounds are so long (in metres) the sound waves for low frequencies effectively wrap around the speaker - back, front and sides - this is also the reason why putting speakers near to a wall re-inforces their bass - hence dispite the speaker facing forwards sound goes backwards and sideways too. Hence you get sounds bouncing off furniture etc.

2. Because this furniture has mass and is not rigid it takes some time to start 'rattling' and then only does so at certain frequncies. So the rattling is a little out-of-time and you get the furnitures own resonances butting in too.

So the overall effect is two fold. To blur the timing aspects of the sound and to alter the frequency aspects of the sound.

Hope this helps.

Mick,
I don't have an answer to your query but I think as Jeremy pointed out it depends on the system and there may also be other things that play a bigger role. A while back, I purchased a front TV projector and the only thing between my speakers(Kans on wall-mount shelves) was a screen right up against the wall. Finally I got fed up with the constant whirring noise from the fan in the projector(right above my head) and bought a Toshiba rear projector. I thought because the TV(a 50 inch screen) stuck out 24 inches, or 16 inches past the Kans, that imaging and maybe music would suffer. I was mistaken. My hi-fi now sounds better than ever. The reason; when I plugged in the new TV, I rearanged the order of how the mains plugs were inserted. This improvement was bigger than the "loss" I may have gotten from the Massive Object. BTW, the Toshiba also looks better than the SharpVision I had as well as having a built in tuner and no fan noise.

Ron The Mon