Speakers For Close wall Use

[Roksan Fan]

Moving house shortly assuming contracts exchange OK and moving from a room to have my system in that now 17 feet long & pretty deep to a smaller room about 14 x 10. The speakers I have at the moment are MA Silver RX 2’s which I have dragged well out from the wall maybe 3 feet, & they really need this breathing space but partly because I have deep alcoves. I'm thinking these speakers aren’t really going to suit my new room, frankly far to big (advantage is it will be more or less my room only) so need smaller speakers & ones that will suit being as close as possible to the rear wall (a foot maybe) - I like the Silvers but they border on being OTT even in my lounge now so sure they will overwhelm my new room.

However due to cost constraints imposed on me by my other half to do with moving & the purchase of such things as furnishings etc my budget will be a paltry £300 or so. Next year cash flow will improve & I should be able to upgrade but this may be a while, however the last thing I want are boomy speakers which I really can’t deal with so less bass is fine & would be prepared to buy used. Amp is Kandy K2 Amp/Kandy CD & streaming FLAC through Arcam DAC - Stands I have are Custom Design FS104 Signature which are pretty decent. Sorry for rambling & hello to everyone. I appreciate budget is small but that’s life & any & all advice will be appreciated.

 

[plastic penguin]

Moving house shortly assuming contracts exchange OK and moving from a room to have my system in that now 17 feet long & pretty deep to a smaller room about 14 x 10. The speakers I have at the moment are MA Silver RX 2’s which I have dragged well out from the wall maybe 3 feet, & they really need this breathing space but partly because I have deep alcoves. I'm thinking these speakers aren’t really going to suit my new room, frankly far to big (advantage is it will be more or less my room only) so need smaller speakers & ones that will suit being as close as possible to the rear wall (a foot maybe) - I like the Silvers but they border on being OTT even in my lounge now so sure they will overwhelm my new room.

However due to cost constraints imposed on me by my other half to do with moving & the purchase of such things as furnishings etc my budget will be a paltry £300 or so. Next year cash flow will improve & I should be able to upgrade but this may be a while, however the last thing I want are boomy speakers which I really can’t deal with so less bass is fine & would be prepared to buy used. Amp is Kandy K2 Amp/Kandy CD & streaming FLAC through Arcam DAC - Stands I have are Custom Design FS104 Signature which are pretty decent. Sorry for rambling & hello to everyone. I appreciate budget is small but that’s life & any & all advice will be appreciated.

Tricky on that budget. Usually I'd say infinite baffle speakers such as ATC or Spendor SA-1, they will surpass your budget.

Q acoustics should be fine as will any front ported speaker like Focal 'V' series.

Or perhaps Quad speakers. They should be fine close to a wall. And these come with a 14 day returns policy.

 

[Roksan Fan]

I was thinking of the small Spendors for the future actually. A friend has the floor standing MA Bronze 6's & they are pretty close to a wall & don't produce much bass or boom so I wonder what the front ported new MA Bronze 2 stand mounts are like close to a wall? The smaller Bronze 1 is rear ported though. I appreciate it's a backward step from the RX's but its not forever - Quads worth investigation!

 

[plastic penguin]

I used to own RS6s floorstanders. They were only about 18" from the back wall. Never experienced any LF nasties, but I think some of this comes down to room acoustics.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Look out for a wee pair of pmc db1 or 1i s/h on a certain auction site .should suit your needs.might be a but more than £300 but well worth it.

 

[lpv]

Dali Zensor 3. Work well close to back wall.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Wait until youve moved and then see how your old speakers sound before changing?
They might sound good

 

[Andrewjvt]

Wait until youve moved and then see how your old speakers sound before changing?
They might sound good

 

[Coll]

I have floorstanders 3 inches from the rear wall with no problem but they are front ported.

I reckon any small front ported or sealed speaker would be ok close to the wall.

You could try blocking the ports on the RX2s with some dense material and try them close to the wall and see what they are like before selling them.

 

[Roksan Fan]

Thanks for the tips - Might wait & at least try the RX's, but if they are unsuitable now got some ideas as alternatives, been out of the hi-fi loop lately so bit out of touch - Thanks all !

 

[davedotco]

Speakers designed to work close to a wall will be balanced differently to those designed for free space, all to do with energy response at different frequencies.

The most predictable way of dealing with this is to use speakers specifically designed to go really tight to the wall, rather than 'quite close' which can be really hit or miss.

Such speakers used to be quite common, but are less so now, for various reasons, and the best and most affordable model of this type is the Neat Iota.

This speaker will go tight to a wall, even on a shelf but is around twice your budget new. If this is too much, then the Zensor 1 is probably a better bet than the Zensor 3 in this application.

 

[Leeps]

A bit of a leftfield suggestion, but if you like the treble of your RX2's, the MA Apex A10's could do the trick. They share the same excellent Gold tweeter as your RX's and squeeze in a 5.5" driver just above the front-firing port.

Of all the MA speakers I've owned, the cabinets of the Apexes are the most inaudible, allowing the drivers to fully speak for themselves. They can be wall-mounted so are very much designed to be very close to a wall.

Ideally they've be partnered with a sub, but don't underestimate these little gems on their own.

Their RRP for a pair is usually £600 but if you hunt around used or ex-demo you can pick up a pair for around the £400-450mark. The only warning is that the stands (if you can't wall-mount) are expensive, but again if you're patient, you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP. It may not suit, but they are very room friendly.

 

[David Parkes]

I have kef r100 due to the same issue as you. They are very close to the wall, no boom at all. I was concerned about no tone controls on the arcam a19 I paired with them. No issues at all, deep and very expansive sound. Deliberately auditioned a few sets of speakers close to the wall, these impressed me the most. £600 though!

 

[David Parkes]

I have kef r100 due to the same issue as you. They are very close to the wall, no boom at all. I was concerned about no tone controls on the arcam a19 I paired with them. No issues at all, deep and very expansive sound. Deliberately auditioned a few sets of speakers close to the wall, these impressed me the most. £600 though!

 

[CnoEvil]

You could try looking at the Audio Note AX-1, which used to be around that price and is designed to go close to the wall.

Price lists are hard to come by, so you would need to ring a dealer (eg. Big Ears / Deco Audio)

 

[hg]

so need smaller speakers & ones that will suit being as close as possible to the rear wall (a foot maybe) - I like the Silvers but they border on being OTT even in my lounge now so sure they will overwhelm my new room.

There are no speakers that are designed to work in this location except possibly some omni-directional speakers looking to direct a lot of sound onto the wall. There are two problems: firstly, a speaker designed to have a balanced bass when pulled out into the room will have a raised level of bass when close to wall because the bass that was going rearwards is now going forwards. Plugging a bass port with a sock may help a bit with this although the response is almost certainly going to be a bit uneven. Equalisation can fix it properly. The second problem is the sound reflecting off the front wall and cancelling or reinforcing the direct sound at low frequencies with half wavelengths that are multiples of the distance to and from the wall. This effect gets stronger as you move closer to the wall. Equalisation cannot fix this for both the direct and indirect sound.

Speakers designed to work on walls is one option but there are few designed for high fidelity with most sacrificing performance in order to look nice and slim. If the wife won't let you have the second best option of pulling the speakers out into the room perhaps you should consider the first best option of flush mounting speakers into a false wall like the professionals in studios would do.

 

[CnoEvil]

There are no speakers that are designed to work in this location except possibly some omni-directional speakers looking to direct a lot of sound onto the wall.

Audio Note design their speakers to work better near walls/corners, but generally speakers that work in this position are few and far between.

 

[Coll]

so need smaller speakers & ones that will suit being as close as possible to the rear wall (a foot maybe) - I like the Silvers but they border on being OTT even in my lounge now so sure they will overwhelm my new room.

There are no speakers that are designed to work in this location except possibly some omni-directional speakers looking to direct a lot of sound onto the wall. There are two problems: firstly, a speaker designed to have a balanced bass when pulled out into the room will have a raised level of bass when close to wall because the bass that was going rearwards is now going forwards. Plugging a bass port with a sock may help a bit with this although the response is almost certainly going to be a bit uneven. Equalisation can fix it properly. The second problem is the sound reflecting off the front wall and cancelling or reinforcing the direct sound at low frequencies with half wavelengths that are multiples of the distance to and from the wall. This effect gets stronger as you move closer to the wall. Equalisation cannot fix this for both the direct and indirect sound.

Speakers designed to work on walls is one option but there are few designed for high fidelity with most sacrificing performance in order to look nice and slim. If the wife won't let you have the second best option of pulling the speakers out into the room perhaps you should consider the first best option of flush mounting speakers into a false wall like the professionals in studios would do.

We all understand this but he only has £300 to spend so this sort of in depth science does not help.

 

[hg]

We all understand this but he only has £300 to spend so this sort of in depth science does not help.

It may not help sell speakers but if the OP has even a passing interest in high fidelity sound then it would seem relevant to him.

 

[Coll]

We all understand this but he only has £300 to spend so this sort of in depth science does not help.

It may not help sell speakers but if the OP has even a passing interest in high fidelity sound then it would seem relevant to him.

[/quote

My idea of trying the existing speakers with the ports stuffed would not sell speakers either but its worth a try.

To me hi fidelity is getting a sound you are happy with not following purist ideals which are often not achievable.

 

[Al ears]

You might look at something like the Quad 11L, although these are rear ported they do work very well near a wall.

 

[Roksan Fan]

Thanks for the replies: I do realise that what I will get will be a compromise & it's quite possible that I may be able to have the speakers further out than I said on the first post which was probably a worst case scenario as I usually do get my way eventually I'm pretty sure the RX's will be too big as they are quite large & deep for stand mounts & they certainly do not need any wall reinforcement for bass as they have it in spades. There are some good ideas that have been posted & I appreciate it, as I've not read any mags for a while I'm a bit out of touch, but one way or another I'm sure I'll be able to get a half decent sound for the time being until all moving costs have been paid

Almost on the same subject I have a relative with the old circular JR149's which are infinite baffle & although have limitations in lack of deep bass, (that I can live with) power handling & low SPL (that I can’t) but do work rather well quite near a wall, & sound pretty good - it's always been a mystery to me who manufacturers don't provide at least one smallish sealed cabinet with highish power handling which is no longer a problem to provide in their range as half the people I know with ported speakers end up stuffing a port & a ported speaker with a blocked or partially blocked port does not really become a well designed infinite baffle speaker?

But that’s another subject entirely I think - BTW if you need a little more stress in your life sell your house & buy another it really does get your blood flowing esp. when the last house we were buying were due to exchange contracts the vendors pulled out on the day before with no explanation, hope this one goes ok

(Crossposted with Al Ears, that I will investigate, thanks)

 

[Coll]

I used to own the RXs and had them very close to the wall but I did block the rear ports.

The result was that the sound was similar to them being out in the room with open ports.

The reason I am pushing the idea is that if you go to a speaker with less bass you will miss it.

At one time I even had a 12inch sub with the RXs before moving to floorstanders without a sub.

 

[Roksan Fan]

@ Coll - point taken, thank you.

 

[grdunn123]

I'd take a listen to MA Radius R270 (you can pick them up 2nd hand for around £300) - they are slim, unobtruive and work really well close to walls. Bass is surprisingly good and never overblown.