21st Century IBLs - Do they exist?

Posted by: andrew jameson on 08 April 2016

Does anyone know of a compact (ish) speaker, ideally floorstanding that works well hard up against the wall. I have a mint pair of Naim refurbished IBL MK2s in my small listening room which work fabulously well (and i've used SL2's and SBLs in here too) but given that it's 2016 rather than 1989 i'm sure that things must have moved on!

I'm only really interested in designs which have specifically been designed to work up against the wall - i have no desire / option to have speakers even 20/30cm out into the room

Anyone got any bright ideas? Budget is very flexible

 

 

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by hungryhalibut

I don't know the answer, but I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. IBLs are wonderful things and take up so little space. Sadly, discretion in speaker design does not seem to be in vogue - huge great shiny things in the middle of the room seems to be where it's at. 

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by Christopher_M
andrew jameson posted:

......given that it's 2016 rather than 1989 i'm sure that things must have moved on [from my mint Mk2 IBLs driven by a 500 system with Sondek and HDX front ends]!

I'd be surprised. An all-time classic.

C.

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by Bruce Woodhouse
Hungryhalibut posted:

I don't know the answer, but I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. IBLs are wonderful things and take up so little space. Sadly, discretion in speaker design does not seem to be in vogue - huge great shiny things in the middle of the room seems to be where it's at. 

+1

Most designs I see look horrible and have to be stuck out half way into the room. Just not going to happen in our home.

I had been looking to move on from my SBLs with a close-to-the-wall design and came up with very few options amongst new designs after several conversations with dealers.

I was tempted to audition Shahinian as something totally different and position tolerant. Most ATC designs are closed box but I have no experience of them. I guess that they might tolerate being close to the wall.

Bruce

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by hungryhalibut

I'm just glad I got my SL2s last summer. Lovely things that sit by the wall out of the way. They take up a lot less space than the PMCs that preceded them, and when the room is only 3.6m wide, that's really helpful. In a big room it doesn't matter so much if the speakers need a metre behind them. 

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by Bruce Woodhouse

My Sl2s are still 'in the post'. It will happen!

Bruce

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by b_lund
andrew jameson posted:

 given that it's 2016 rather than 1989 i'm sure that things must have moved on!

 

 

Not on that front

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by TOBYJUG

Plenty of brands now putting out flat speakers that can be hung on a wall, some more doing custom installations into the wall. PMC do some flat wall as well as Totem .

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by ChrisSU
TOBYJUG posted:

Plenty of brands now putting out flat speakers that can be hung on a wall, some more doing custom installations into the wall. PMC do some flat wall as well as Totem .

Good point, whatever happened to Wat? He would have been straight in there with a Magnepan recommendation or two. 

Posted on: 08 April 2016 by cdboy

Totem. Tribe series, or even Tribe in-wall.