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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: Room placement and constraint questions regarding GR speakers (namely A/V and Paradox 1s and 1+s) posted by massappeal85 on January 4, 2002 at 16:27:33:
> 1). What will making these speakers lay flat ways do to the performance/imaging/everything? I ask this because I do have the option of putting these on bookshelves at head level, instead of taking up some more space using stands.I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this... I assume that you mean pointing the speakers straight out from the wall while in the corners. While the tweeters have a pretty wide dispersion, you will more likely than not miss most of the high frequency information in BOTH axes. Furthermore, the bass will be all messed up due to the rear ports - the speaker uses the backwave to reinforce the bass, and putting the speaker flush against the wall or near the wall will probably screw bass response.
A bookshelf speaker should really be called a standmount - that is just about the only way you should use them, since they are tested and tweaked that way in the first place. There are ways of recreating a realistic life-size image if they are on ceilings, but I've never had very good success on my own, especially in corners. Plus the speakers are not small, and angling such bulky things requires a good deal of rigging.
I currently really like the Audio Physic style of placement, which is to put speakers out in the middle of the room at the room's elliptical nodes (there are variations of this) while you sit on the long wall. There are many details in the archives if you are interested. The drawback of this method is that if you are in a small room, you need speakers that perform well in nearfield. I think the GR's do well in this regard, though I am not sure. Another innovative method is to face a corner of the room while you listen. I just finished setting up my parents' home this way - the placement is awesome for home theater if you have a big TV, because it is best to place the TV way behind the plane of the speakers. In a corner, this setup follows naturally and the speakers jutting out do not take away room space because they are along the walls. The bass port is not directly facing a wall, which is good. Furthermore, first reflections are well-avoided since the walls expand out from the corner.
> 2). I hear alot about how the A/V or Paradox 1s are good choices for small rooms, as if the 1+s would somehow suffer in the same room. Do they simply mean that it won't reach its full potentiol in a small room or that the room constraints will actually make it perform/sound worse then the 1s in the same room?
I personally did not like the A/V-1+ so much... I felt the extra bass was good, but not as natural-sounding as the A/V-1, and it detracted somewhat from the luscious midrange of the two-driver speakers. I did not hear the Paradox 1+, so I cannot comment on that. I suspect the floorstanders may be much improved over the small MTM box. The increased sensitivity (not a trivial amount) may be a consideration, as you will be able to play the "+" models much louder with the same electronics. I did not get to hear the A/V-1+ long, though, so someone else who has had more experience with these may answer this question better.
> If it really doesn't make too much of a difference, I feel much more comfortable springing for the 1+s as I'd like to be content with this system I'm making for as long as I can to the point where I can take it with me when I graduate and into an apartment.
It's hard to satisfy this requirement. Personally, if I bought the Paradox 1's now, I would never sell them. Keep in mind that once you graduate, you will probably have money to afford much larger speakers. Remember that the Paradox 1's sound is quite competitive with any loudspeaker under $2.5K. They make a great bedroom or surround speaker, and if you purchase them in kit form, you will remember the hours of love and labor you put into them and never want to part with them.
I found that with solid electronics behind the Paradox 1's, they easily filled a very large room (as well as a pair of big NHT 2.5i's do!). The bass is good and natural, so they would be hard-pressed to overload a small room, and they hold their own in medium listening rooms. Only if you moved to a mansion or something would you need something much bigger.
-Chris
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- Re: Room placement and constraint questions regarding GR speakers (namely A/V and Paradox 1s and 1+s - csown 09:16:41 01/05/02 (0)
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