[J. Royce Baron]

Maggies do have a slight tilt looks worse on photo - once treatment is complete I'm
rearranging everyting in the room racks, listening chair, Maggies tilt, out with the old in with the new.     

[Brown]

It certainly is a preference. 

On most speakers, I'd agree, no diffusion behind.  On a full range dipole like a Maggie or any electrostat, fully 1/2 of the output of the speaker is from the rear wave and we don't want to lose that output.  It's part of what gives a panel speaker it's unique sound.  Also, absorbing behind a full range dipole can minimize the natural bass cancellations to the side of the speaker.

I do generally recommend absorption in between the speakers on the front wall. 

Bryan

Bryan they just do not get it.
As a Maggie owner for over 15 years my personal experience with them is AGAIN they like diffussion behind them. A dead wall behind the listener. don't forget tweeters on the outside Geeez.

[Nils]

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vevol&1188229613


Coming late to this party... That's my front wall.  I experimented with lots of configurations (pure absorption, pure diffusion) and found that a blend of them works best.  Note the painted, mass-loaded D1 diffusion panels and GIK tri-traps.  They work splendidly in my application.

-- Nils

[Nyal Mellor]

I use a similar setup to Nils with my dipoles (Linkwitz Orions) - absorption in the corners, diffusion at first reflection point on front wall moving to absorption directly between the speakers. My setup was arrived at through experimentation.

[ctviggen]

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vevol&1188229613


Coming late to this party... That's my front wall.  I experimented with lots of configurations (pure absorption, pure diffusion) and found that a blend of them works best.  Note the painted, mass-loaded D1 diffusion panels and GIK tri-traps.  They work splendidly in my application.

-- Nils

Now, that's a wall of sound.  Are those speakers biamped?

[Nils]

I affectionately (and on Audiogon) call it The Altar.  They're actually triamped -- I ripped out the internal crossovers and use 4 x Quicksilver V4s (two are tucked away behind the speakers) and 2 x Bryston 7B-SSTs.

-- Nils

[bmckenney]

I use a similar setup to Nils with my dipoles (Linkwitz Orions) - absorption in the corners, diffusion at first reflection point on front wall moving to absorption directly between the speakers. My setup was arrived at through experimentation.

Nyal,

I'm assuming the Orions are not planar so they must have a wide dispersion out the back and not as direct as planar drivers.  Just curious where the diffusion panels ended up related to the speakers position.  By that I mean, if your speakers are toed in and really line up back to the corners of the wall, where is the diffusion on the wall?  Is it more towards the corners, or more to the inside, middle of the wall?  And if you did try different locations for the diffusion, ranging anywhere from near the room corners, to directly behind the speakers, right to more in the middle of the wall, did you notice some big or subtle differences in the sound for the different diffuser locations?

Bryan

[Duke]

You don't absorb the back wave of a dipole... The dipoles need to be out "at least" 5' from the wall (at least 10 milliseconds of rear wave delay needed at your ears), and an untreated wall, or some small amount of diffusion if you must (usually when you can't get the 5' needed).

I agree with flintstone.

Intellectually I understand the theory that anything the room adds to the sound is detrimental because it wasn't on the original recording, but my ears prefer a spectrally correct, well-energized, diffuse, relatively late-arriving, slowly-decaying reverberant field... and dipoles set up properly in a suitable room do a very good job with this. 

I have customers using my speakers in recording studios, and those speakers are controlled-pattern monopoles.  That's the correct pattern for that application, in my opinion. 

During the course of product development I conducted blind comparisons of bipolar and monopolar examples of essentially the same speaker, and listener preference correlated with distance out from the wall.  At less than 3.5 feet (measured from center of the back of the speaker to the wall), the monopolar was preferred.  At greater distances, the bipolar was preferred.   

My suggestion for Maggie setup would include diffusion of the wall-bounce if the speakers are more than 3.5 feet out from the wall, and maybe absorption of the wall-bounce if less than 3.5 feet out from the wall.  Ideally, I'd recommend positioning the speakers 6 to 8 feet out from the wall.  Diffusion of the first sidewall reflection is also beneficial in my experience, especially if the speakers are fairly close to the sidewalls.

[J. Royce Baron]

  It only took eight months to get back.                              

 Long journey from first post - Thank you all - suggestions were very helpful.

[Housteau]

Intellectually I understand the theory that anything the room adds to the sound is detrimental because it wasn't on the original recording, but my ears prefer a spectrally correct, well-energized, diffuse, relatively late-arriving, slowly-decaying reverberant field... and dipoles set up properly in a suitable room do a very good job with this. 

I also understand that theory and the reasoning behind it, but do not always agree with it.  I am going to paraphase an earlier post I had made on the Bryston circle to explain.  To start with I think we can mostly agree that the listening room is a major, if not the most major component in ones system.  Some believe that the room component should be a neutral one, not adding or taking away, as many believe cables should be, just passing the information unaltered.  However, others feel that certain components should be used to shape their sound, different tubes, cables, etc. to dial things in, as always trying to remain 100% neutral doesn't always work.

I fall into that second catagory with how I deal with my room, speaker listener interface.  I strongly believe in room treatments, especially for bass issues, but I also believe in using the room to work for me.  My room has good dimensions that are inches away from one of the 'ideal' ratios.  Yet it still has many issues that adds its own character to my overall sound, but I like that.  I have always favored dipoles in my room as they seem to interact with it in what I consider a positive way.  I am not so sure the benchmark should be for prerecorded music to sound exactly the same in all systems and in every room.  Most of it was created in an artificial environment and studio manipulated in one way or another anyway. 

As far as well recorded live music goes, this is how I feel about that:  If musicians were playing live in my room it would sound a certain way due to the venue, just as it would sound different in somebody elses room, and as it would between different recording locations.  That does't make either of those performances wrong, just different from each other.  To me the venue a performace is recorded in is a part of that performance, as is the room it is being played back in.  We each can have a unique listening experience that is ours alone and I don't believe that automatically makes one of them wrong.  If you go to a movie you can see the vision of the director, but read the book instead you can have your own.  Very often these listening differences are qute small anyway and not so different from just moving seats and/or rows at a live venue.  So, I believe in working with the natural acoustics of my room to create what I consider to be a realistic presentation.