I have Salk SoundScapes. They can be used in an open baffle mode. I want to use them near the wall as I have a small condo. As many have said, open baffle speakers need to have plenty of air. I have spent a couple of months trying to maximize my speakers near the wall. As I understand it, the problem with being near a wall with open baffle speakers is that the wall reflects sounds directly back at the listener without much delay. The ear cannot distinguish the reflected sound from the main direct sound. Therefore the sound is heard as distortion and not ambiance. I took this as a challenge to make it work anyway.
My first efforts to make were to put a couch cushion and later a towel on the wall behind the speakers to absorb the first bounce off of the wall. That worked fine, but I thought it could be better. I was absorbing too much of the back wave. The speakers didn’t bloom as much as I thought they could. I finally put some glasses on the woofer module to diffuse some of the wave before I lost it in the absorber. I had complete success! The image has incredible width and depth. The music has a beautiful natural bloom. On some material, I can shut my eyes and it is almost impossible to tell that you are not there!
I also tried GIK D1 diffusers but they seem to directly reflect back about 30% of the direct wave back to the listener. I think that the Realtraps diffuser might work though. I gather that it absorbs what it doesn’t diffuse.
I am in a quandary. Do I get the Realtraps diffuser or do I get some tapestries to hang on my wall instead of the towel? Is there another solution?
Bob
