AudioCircle
Industry Circles => GR Research => Topic started by: Striker071 on 8 May 2020, 04:38 am
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If you don't have the 3ft of space from the wall are open baffle speakers still a good choice?
I am leaning towards a AV2 build if the answer to question 1 is NO GO .....lol
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My answer is no. That’s why I have open baffle speakers in my man cave where I can place them far enough into the room (3-4 ft. In this case) and N3 transmission line towers in my living room where I can only get 18” off the wall without tripping over the speakers.
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My experience with OB designs is that image and sound stage resolution and dimensionality improves linearly as distance between speaker and front wall is increased...with a noticeable "jump" in performance when that distance becomes more than 3'. I heard Magnepans at a friend's house that were kept about 2.5' from the front wall and it was still a great sounding system with better than decent image and sound stage resolution, but there wasn't much depth to it and resolution was blurred some. Locating an OB speaker closer than 3' from the front wall is akin to taking a sports car on a race track with all-season passenger car tires....at or a little more than 3' with high performance street tires...and significantly greater than 3' with a race compound track tire. You can get around the track with the all-season tire, but make no mistake you'll be leaving a lot of performance on the table. Keep in mind also that if moving the speakers 3' or more into the room necessitates a listening spot location that's near the rear wall, you'll need to do something to kill the reflection coming at you from that vector.
Michael
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Which is the case in my man cave. To get the OB speakers into the room far enough, my chair almost touches the back wall. To kill those reflections, I put 4” absorption panels on the back wall. It works well.
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I would say, "probably yes, but it depends."
First, buy the best speaker for your money. If you think an OB speaker will sound better, buy it, regardless of whether you can optimize its sonic performance with placement.
We say that OB sounds better farther into the room, but that's also true for most box speakers.
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If you can't get the recommended min 3', I'd look at the AV3 TL's or the N3TL's if you can find a some deep cups for the rear of the Neo3's. You can actually reverse the entire TL internally and have them front vented if space between them and front wall is a problem.
OTOH, you could keep the OB speakers on some sliders or something, pull them out for critical listening sessions......
jay
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(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=208591)
I built my OB for a large room.
Then made a move into a different home,with a much smaller room..
It is difficult to get the right sound, it requires some cracked windows, and sound deadening materials probably not required in a much larger room..
I like the big sound of big drivers.
At least OB speakers have some versatility..
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Alternatively, the NX-Studios are a semi-OB speaker that can be kept near a wall, and might be your best option. Tho, going by Danny and SonicJoy they will definitely reward you the further you pull them out into the room.
And with my current bedroom/desk setup, that's going to be my best option for near-field. But will be something I can continue to use once I have more room to work with.
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NX-Studios... may be my best bet. But I feel like if you aren't in the know there is no data available to look at.
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NX-Studios... may be my best bet. But I feel like if you aren't in the know there is no data available to look at.
Here is the design and build thread: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=160647.0
A review: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=167137.0
And recent customer build: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=168181.0