[RDavidson]

I wonder if I can make a small panel of a material that might be a slight diffuser, cover it in an attractive material, or at least one that blends in with the wall......and be able to move the speakers closer to the wall and mitigate some of these issues. I wouldn't want it to be full absorptive I would think, and I cannot make the panel something like 3 or 4 inches thick....as it would aesthetically be a problem.  Wonder if I could cover something like an acoustic tile in a cloth and go that way.

They really are a nice speaker.



Regards
Mister Pig

That should work. Absorptive panels essentially help simulate a larger space, not unlike anechoic chambers. Yes, depending on how absorptive the panels are (and their distance from your speakers) you can simulate more or less free space behind your speakers by controlling the amount of reflected sound you want. I think GIK makes some nice panels that work exactly as you want. I think their prices are quite reasonable too.

[Mister Pig]

Rather than trying absorb the backwave, you could mount a "V" shaped beam splitter directly behind the drivers to redirect the rearward sound sideways.  This would allow you to place the speakers directly against the back wall.   I use a beam splitter behind my electrostat panels and it works very well.  See my beam splitter ESL here: http://jazzman-esl-page.blogspot.com/

Gorgeous speakers you have there, BTW
   

Now that is worth considering. I wonder if I could just angle the diffuser to one side, say the outside boundary of each speaker. So I just have a single panel acting as a gate behind the speaker.

Certainly worth looking into. Thanks.

Regards
Mister Pig

[-Richard-]

Hi Mister Pig ~

A simple experiment, while you have your OB panels close to the wall, could be to toe them in, perhaps a little more than you normally would. The toed-in angle would give the back-wave space to throw the sound into the room. I have on occasion placed my OB panels very close to a wall and the sound was still quite wonderful.

If your center speaker is a co-ax as you have explained, you could try removing the upper 'modular' panel which I assume is a second bass driver. The reinforcement of the bass in having your panels closer to the wall could at least partially make up for the loss of the top second bass driver, and help to keep the sound relaxed. The smaller dimensions of your living/sound space would benefit from this relaxed sound perspective. When you move to larger spaces you could simply replace the top driver again.

I am using one 15" driver for bass duties on the bottom of each panel on my OB's and it is quite sufficient for my 20'x30' sound room. Using the one bass driver, if you could conveniently give it a bass boost at around 40Hz (perhaps a little experimentation here) that might be all of the 'bass' you need.

I love the look of your OB's mister pig. Quite lovely and I can see why it is hard to give them up. Boxed speakers can do some things really nicely, but saturating the room with that sense of a palpable alive 'presence' does not seem to be what they are best at.

With Warmest Friendship ~ Richard