Distance from the wall

[max]

Hi All,
I'm going to buy a ML, the choice being between Vantage and Ascent (I already posted for that).
As they are my first electrostatic speakers, please help me in understanding the basics in term of differences with dynamic speakers (e.g. B&W 803D):
For eamples, due to the dipole emission, what are the considerations about:
- distance from the rear wall
- distance from the side walls

Thank you in advance,
Massimo

 

[robertawillisjr]

I don't have the exact information but ML makes suggestions in each of its manuals which are available on line. I have my Quests about 4 feet from the wall behind them. That seems to be the best for me.

 

[Jeff Zaret]

Massimo,
The place to start is about 3 feet/1 meter from the rear wall. We all do not have the luxury of having 3 feet/1 meter so do the best you can. For the side walls I would try for the same distance and again it is always a trade off. It is either you do not have the room to give up or the "significant other' doesn't like it.
Mine are about 3 feet/1meter from the rear wall but only 2 feet/.6 meters from the side walls.
Do what you can with placement and you will be happy I am sure. Just try not to put them up against the wall if you can help it. I have my Sequel II's up against the wall not by choice but by the only placement they could be and they sound find but they are only used as rear speakers in my HT setup.

Good Luck

Jeff

 

[Beat_Dominator]

I corner loaded my Sequels a few days ago. Bass improvement was awesome.... imaging went to hell

 

[MOON]

I have my Arieus i's 52 inches off the back wall and 2 1/2 feet from the side walls. Logans do require more room off the back wall to work there best. Take a little time and experiment with the placement.

The distance off the back wall could be a WAF issue in some instances.

This is my 1st post. Very imformative site.

 

[David Matz]

The more you can afford to bring them into the room, the better

The ideal position is as far away from the walls as you can get away with. My listening room is approx. 12 x 14 feet, and I keep my Ascents approx 4 feet away from the wall and approx. 38 inches from the side walls. I really like the results. When I tried moving the Ascents in just 6 inches in toward the wall, the bass would be almost non-existent, however the mids and highs were still excellent. (A good sub-woofer may solve that problem, however, but it's extra $$.) I have heard the Vantage is a bit more forgiving in terms of proximity to walls from sales people, but I am not sure whether this is the truth or sales pitch.

When you go audition, do move them in and out so you can hear for yourself.

 

[max]

Sorry guys ... but when you say 1 meter (3feet) away from the wall, do you mean from the rear of the speaker ? Taking into account that the speaker is 40cm deep, am I right to consider 1meter(3feet) = 60cm away from the wall + 40cm speaker's width?
Massimo

 

[jmschnur]

Vantage position

My panels (not box) are about i meter from the rear and the outer edge (edge nearest the wall) is 2 feet from the wall.

Tow in is critical. Tilt is imortant

Results are quite nice.

Joel

 

[Jeff Zaret]

Massimo,
I am sorry my fault here. I am referring to the panel. If you can go farther fine. I also agree with Joel here. Sorry, I guess just old age and.or a brain fart.

Jeff

 

[IWalker]

Yes, it's from the back of the panel, not the box. I believe the reason for this is that at that point, the time delay between the front propagating sound, and the rear wave is no longer considered one sound at that point? (they hit your ears far enough apart in time that you can distinguish between them) Therefore, there's no time smearing of the sound involved...

Correct me if I'm wrong...I think I read that somewhere though

 

[cruzr]

The panels on my Aeons are 30 inches off the back wall. Distance between speakers is 8 ft. Distance from side wall is 4 ft. I would use the 30 inches as the minimum distance off back wall.

 

[amey01]

The ML manual is great for this sort of stuff, but they do need space - they can't be placed right against a wall. In any event, play extensively with positioning and it will be rewarded.

 

[benleeys]

Front Walls

Hey Guys,

What do you think of the front wall consisting of lined-up empty cardboard boxes? Do you consider this a "soft" wall? I find myself in this situation out of necessity and can't make up my mind whether there's anything deficient about it.. It sounds fine to my ears, only that the image presented by my Summits seems rather short of normal human height.
Ben

 

[Joey_V]

Hey Guys,

What do you think of the front wall consisting of lined-up empty cardboard boxes? Do you consider this a "soft" wall? I find myself in this situation out of necessity and can't make up my mind whether there's anything deficient about it.. It sounds fine to my ears, only that the image presented by my Summits seems rather short of normal human height.
Ben

How short is it? Remember that the vocals come out of the guy's mouth and into the recording mike.... so in essence, it should be about 1foot or less than his/her height.

Joey

 

[Craig]

I corner loaded my Sequels a few days ago. Bass improvement was awesome.... imaging went to hell

I'm assuming you placed the speakers close to the corners when you say you "corner loaded". Without knowing the specific dimensions of your room and speaker location I'm going to make some assumptions here.

Corner loaded will increase the bass intensity but may not result in "tighter" bass. It may result in boomier bass. Corner loading can be an improvement but be sure to not to over do it. It's best not to place your speakers equidistant from the front wall in relation to the side walls. Doing so will cause or increase bass nodes within the room resulting in bass to skew more towards boominess or "one-note" bass. This also tends to reduce soundstaging and imaging.

Assuming you placed the speakers further back into the corners you in effect probably spread the speakers further apart. The further apart the speakers are the less they will image. You can compensate for this by increasing the toe-in. However, the more you toe-in the speakers the smaller the soundstage becomes.

Somewhere there is a happy medium somewhere that suits your preference the best with all these aspects in consideration. The ML manual has some good information on speaker setup. You can also find some good information in other speaker manuals but keep in mind that these are dipole speakers and produce nearly as much sound from the rear as they do from the front. This is why they usually need more room behind them then traditional "front only" firing (I know there is a word for this but it eludes me right now) speakers.

 

[benleeys]

How short is it? Remember that the vocals come out of the guy's mouth and into the recording mike.... so in essence, it should be about 1foot or less than his/her height.

Joey

Joey, how about like the guy is singing while on his haunches? Weird, don't you think? No matter how I tilt the speakers, it gets no better.