New house, new room - how to handle ESLs with corner placement

[temps]

I am moving to a new house soon and unfortunately, didn't quite have the budget to get a house with a huge bonus room like my current place. My MLs are about 5' off the back walls currently and sound absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, in my new place I will only be able to place them maybe a foot off the back wall if I'm lucky. While the room is better in other respects - good light control for a projector setup, darker colors, etc. the layout won't let me space everything out enough to get my MLs out into the room.

I am downsizing my screen to free up a little room but in all likelihood the speakers will end up approx. 1' from the back wall and less than 6" from the side wall. I don't believe the side wall reflections are that big of a deal but I did notice a huge difference with moving my MLs forward and backward into my current room. The further out they are, the better they sound. As they are, the imaging is so good I have never missed a center channel speaker for anything except the further left/right seating positions that are well out of the sweet spot.

So, if I am limited on how far out I can put the speakers, what are my options for trying to get some of that image back? Highly absorbent sound treatment, behind the speakers? Is this just to make it "less bad," or will absorbing the back wave make the speakers sound more like they did in my large room?

in case it is relevant - about 60% HT, with a sub and two rear speakers. 30% music and 10% critical listening as my MLs are one of my reference setups for 2.0 channel music I mix myself

 

[JonFo]

Hi, first, welcome to our little corner of the internet.

I've been working on understanding and addressing ESL placement and room treatment for a couple of decades, so hopefully I can help here.

Even in a room like mine, which was designed around my ML set, I still wound up seriously damping the front wall as well as the side walls.

In a situation like yours, you absolutely need to treat the wall just behind the speaker with one or two MiniTrap HF devices, as well as place one on the side wall between the speaker and the front wall.
Essentially the corner behind your speakers needs to be fully damped (well, as fully as a 4x2'x4" absorber can go). This will allow the front wave to propagate without the interference of the rear wave, and you might even find (as I have) that your soundstage might be better than in your prior room. It will definitely be more accurate.

 

[temps]

Is there any particular reason you'd recommend a MiniTrap over a MondoTrap? I would have room for MondoTraps down there.

edit: just read the data on the site - MiniTrap HFs are much more effective at high frequencies. Answered my own question.


The side wall treatment, would you place it directly next to the speaker or at the first reflection point between the speaker and the seating position?

Thanks for your help! I knew I'd end up here eventually... after I auditioned Martin Logans for the first time, I knew there was no going back.

 

[JonFo]

The side wall treatment, would you place it directly next to the speaker or at the first reflection point between the speaker and the seating position?

Thanks for your help! I knew I'd end up here eventually... after I auditioned Martin Logans for the first time, I knew there was no going back.

Actually, the sidewall treatment goes on the sidewall behind the speaker. So between the speaker and the front wall.

Why? you ask. Well, because even though a MiniTrap HF will kill a good bit of the rear wave, it doesn't kill all of it, so we want to dampen whatever reflects onto the side wall. We also want to dampen the side-to-side modes behind the speaker to ensure the front wave-launch is clean.

The side-wall 'first reflection' is not that big a deal in line-source ESLs, what actually might have an impact is the reflection from the wall *opposite* the speaker in question, depending on severity of toe-in. So if the left front is toed-in a lot, and the first reflection from the right side-wall will hit the listener, then that should also be damped.