Summit Question

[Russb]

I just had a question in regards to the placement from the front wall ( the wall behind the summit's).
I wanted to see how far Summit owners are ending up from the front wall.
What is your distance?

I know that it depends on your room, and everyones will be different I am just curious.

Thanks
Russ

 

[Joey_V]

My Summit panel is about 2.5 feet from wall. This means the cabinet is a measly 1 foot away from the wall. I'm constrained and restricted for space.

Joey

 

[Gordon Gray]

Hi Russ,

Mine are 5' from the front of the panel to the back wall. My sense, based on owning three other ML speakers, is the more the merrier within the context of soundstage depth. And the nice thing about the Summits is you can adjust the two crossovers to tune the overall bass output (volume) and optimize the panel / woofer blend.

Also discovered that the depth was substantially improved (more palpable and uniform) with Jason's spikes. If you haven't tried those, you really should.

GG

 

[Craig]

After reading this I measured mine and they were 4' 6" from the front wall. I moved them another 6" to make it the full 5 feet. So far I like the 5' position better.

I read somewhere that 5 feet from the front wall is the optimum distance (or at least a good starting point) for electrostats. The reason was stated as being the correct distance for the delayed timing of the backwave coming from the rear of the panel to match up correctly with the front and reflecting sidewall waves. I'll see if can locate that article. I think it was in a magazine review of one of the ML ESL speakers.

Tip: If you like the current placement of your speakers then mark the position immediately behind the rear feet (so its not easily seen) with masking tape on the floor to use as a baseline or to able to easily go back to the original position. You then measure from the tape instead trying to go from the panel to the wall.

 

[Russb]

s

Thanks everyone for your input.

I had a question in regards to where the panel meassurement is being taken since the panel is not at a perfect 90.
Are you taking the measurement from the top front of the panel or in the middle,of even the bottom. Because of the tilting back of the els panel the distance will be different from top to bottom.

I measured my speakers and they are 4'.6'' from the wall behind the speakers to the top front edge of the els panel.

Thanks
Russ

 

[tonyc]

Mine are about 64" from the back wall to the top inside rear edge of the panel. About 30" from each sidewall to the front outside corner of each woofer cabinet. About 29" from sidewall to rear oustide corner of woofer cabinet. Mine are also on Jason's spikes on BDR pucks. No tilt. About 7 and a half feet apart, inside top corner of panel.

 

[edwinr]

My Summits are 4 feet from the rear wall and 4 foot 3 inches from the side walls. This measurement is taken from the very top of the panel. This placement gives me much better projection into the room and tighter bass response. I have adjusted the rear spikes for maximum tilt which has tightened up the imaging considerably.

 

[Craig]

I measure from the top front of the panel but the front of the cabinet might be a better spot to use for consitency since its less affected by forward tilt/slant.

 

[kcl]

Mine are almost 5 feet from the back wall, and about 3 feet from the side walls.

 

[Russb]

Thanks again for the responses.

It looks like all of us are pretty close to each othe in our measurements.

Russ

 

[babydoc]

Summits and rear wall distance

The Summit manual gives you a formula based on room dimensions for "best" placement from rear wall. I used that as a starting point and it worked out to about 56". I have played around with having the speakers farther and closer and found that the original distance worked as well as any. One thing to consider in rear wall distance is whether there is sound treatment behind the speakers or whether the wall is bare. I have a combination of echobuster panels and a windows with louvered shutters so there is a mix of absorption and reflection. In the end you will determine best placement by imaging, sound quality, and naturalness. So you should feel free to experiment.

 

[jjay]

This is not an original idea but I read somewhere that each added foot with speaker placement from the front wall adds $1000.00 dollars to your system. I understood the writer to mean that the soundstage and presence would seem as if you had better electronics in your system. Just a thought for speaker distance from the front wall.
Jim
PS my speakers are 4ft 3 inches from the front wall measured from the front of the panel.

 

[tonepub]

My room is 16 x 24 and I have the summits on the long wall.

The panel is 50" out from the rear wall and they are about 7 1/2
feet from the side walls, with my listening position about 9 feet
from the center of the speakers.

Having had a lot of panels over the years, I've found that getting
the speakers further away from the side walls has really helped
the overall sound a lot.

Another big help is if you can get a bit of acoustical treatment
going.... A little behind the speakers and on the side walls is a huge
help. If you can get some bass traps that is really good too, especially
if you have a sub!

Good luck on the quest!

 

[stereoman]

Ed Wolkow from Foundation Research came over to my place recently to try out his new power filter, the LC10. They worked fantastically with the Summits (by the way, my PS Audio P500 is now up for sale ). He also adjusted the positions of the speakers based on the Golden Ratio (http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=Room+Setup). My speakers are not where I would have intuitively placed them, but the results show that this method works well.