In my room, my C2s are 7’4" apart tweeter to tweeter, and I sit 9’ away from the front plane of the speaker baffles. The tweeters are 24" away from the side walls, and the front baffles are 4’ off the back wall.
I would like them in a bigger room, mostly because I think they would open up a lot more for large scale orchestra music, but I don’t feel like they overwhelm the room at all. The 300DR has amazing grip and control and the addition of a stereo pair of subs helps a lot with soundstage.
I would like to try them in my 14’ x 22’ living room, but there might be a downside. One side is all outside wall (plaster on brick) while the other side has two large arched entryways into the dining room and front hall that cannot be closed off. OTOH, my smaller listening room has just the door and I can close that if I want to.
Good to know. I sit 8’ away from the speakers and my speakers (Marten Duke 2 and Graham LS5/9) are around 6’ apart tweeter to tweeter, toed-in slightly.
In my experience, the system will sound “splashy” in a much larger living room due to the added space and reflection from walls or hard surfaces. The difference in presentation between the dedicated room and living room can be very different even with the same speakers and components. I’ve tried it before in my old house. The dedicated room I had has treatment on all walls so it’s a controlled listening environment. FWIW I actually prefer the sound from the current system in the untreated living room compared to my old system(different speakers and components) in the treated room of my old house.
I don’t treat my room. It has carpets, and furniture, and a wall of record shelves behind the speakers. I have heard – perhaps overly – treated rooms. They might have been “accurate” but sounded overly dead and lifeless to me. I like a bit more lively presentation. I have left my room as is and am happy with how it sounds.
Same here. I prefer the “sound” of the untreated room provided one gets it right. I have a thick rug on the floor, fabric curtains behind, fabric sofa and equipment rack on the side walls. The presentation of an untreated room might be not very orderly or accurate but I prefer this “live” presentation. Room furnishing can still make a positive difference if appropriately implemented in the room. In my previous dedicated room that is fully treated, the system sounds rather dead. Perhaps I used too much absorption although I did incorporate some diffusion at certain areas in the room.
This is how my room is. It sounds naturally lively, but has great soundstage and is very revealing. I don’t feel like I have issues with reflections in the room.
Nice. I noticed the left speaker is closer to the side wall than the right speaker as the equipment rack is further down the room. In my system, I can’t push the left speaker closer to the side wall as the equipment rack is just beside the speaker. I’ll try to find a way to see if I can reposition the rack so that the speakers can be placed wider apart. It’s a little tricky for me since I don’t have much space to play with as the side wall is already full with furniture.
No, that’s just an illusion of the photo. Both speakers are exactly 24" from wall to middle of tweeter. The optimal seating position is exactly middle of room, and that’s where the left chair is positioned. Dynaudio recommends siting speakers at least 1/2m off the side and back walls. If I had the room, I would leave a full meter between speaker and side walls.
The speakers are toed in slightly. I tuned that by ear using some orchestral music for stage, and solo marimba to fine tune the center stage. The subs are pointed to the opposite corners to load the room. I might still get a second pair of subs, even for this room.
I can’t really get a sense of scale for your room, since your shots are too narrow angle, but I can say C2 will want to be further off the wall than you have those Focus. All Dyns like space around them, but especially ones like C2s, or the bass won’t be right. And then it looks like you’d be sitting really close to them.
Offhand, I think you need more space if you want Confidence speakers, even with C1s. I think how I have mine is probably about a minimum for the C2s.
Doesn’t sound like a good candidate for C2s. They really need more space. When that close to a wall, they may end up boomy sounding, even with foam plugs in the ports. The back side of my C2s are 0.9m from the front of my record shelves standing behind them. That’s about a minimum. They were a bit closer at one time and didn’t sound as good, and the soundstage wasn’t great.
Listening distance to speaker at 2m is possibly reasonable, but siting them so close to the wall is not optimal, and makes them sound boomy. Dynaudio speakers are designed for open space, not up against walls. There are other speaker brands designed to work well against or close to walls. Maybe that should be your focus.
Personally, I wouldn’t purchase C2s for that room unless I can hear them there first. I suppose you can always buy them and resell if they don’t work out, but keep in mind the transport weight (assuming you have the wooden crates they come in) is about 175 lbs, each!.
Aren’t those Dynaudios reflex models, for which they supply port plugs to tailor the bass if the speaker has to be placed closer to the wall?
As for nearfield listening, it is often good even with big speakers - when I assessed my own room with my old PMC EB1i speakers the best sounding position in my room was about 2.3m from plane of centre of speaker baffles and that is in a room about 7m by 7.5m (overall).
Yes, although with the Confidence C2 the foam plugs aren’t included. They are an option available on request. But using them is still just a kludge to keep the bass from getting too boomy. They don’t correct not placing the speakers for how they are designed. You can do it, but it won’t sound right because they aren’t designed for that position.
Seriously, if you don’t have the space for C2s don’t get them. Dyns really need to be off the walls and in open space. I guess it’s akin to putting Linn Isobariks or Naim DBLs off the wall into open space. They’re designed to be up against the back wall, right? (I once had SARA Isobariks and they hugged the back wall).
Based on my experience with medium-sized bookshelves that are designed for open space (Harbeth SHL5+, Graham LS5/9 and Marten Duke 2), they require a minimum of 0.7m clear space from the front wall (rear of speaker cabinet to wall) and it is fortunate I could give them the space. Anything less they don’t sound good - lumpy and uneven bass response, reduced soundstage etc. The further away from the wall the better. Hence I am not surprised that the larger and more imposing Dynaudio Confidence C2 requires at least 0.9m from the front wall in your room. The only way to reduce the negatives of close placement to wall boundaries is to listen at low volume levels but it’s a massive waste to do so with a high calibre speaker.
From the photo the OP provides above, it appears that the Dynaudio Focus 260 has about 0.3m from the front wall which is rather scant. If the Confidence C2 goes in there, similarly I don’t think it will work and the sound quality will likely be worse.
Perhaps a nice painting on that blank wall instead Mr OP . (an expensive audiophile acoustic one of course).
My Dyns are about 500mm clear off the front wall, but I concur with others that this was barely enough. It works better now with a couple of 25mm layers of acoustic treatment + air gaps in the areas behind the ports, plus some soft stuff under the speaker feet (which I’m still experimenting with while avoiding the cost of Gaia’s). Like JosquinDesPrez_, I didn’t like what foam bungs brought to the sound.
I can’t speak for the Confidence speakers but can confirm that for the big Contours I use over 1.5m of spacing to the wall and plenty of clearance to the sides. All of the bigger Dynaudios seem to need plenty of space, especially at the back. They also like speaker separation of at least 2m. The foam bungs I find to be not much use - there is a reduction in performance when they are in so have always avoided.
I also avoid using toe-in. The Contours seem to like straight shooting.
Intersting. I have always had some toe-in with my Dyns. Contour S1.4, Contour S3.4, and now C2 Platinum. All have needed it or I get holes in the middle, on orchestral music for example. OTOH, the Dyn manuals for these speakers even suggested toe-in is needed. Depends on the room too though.
Definitely better I find, without the toe-in. The dispersion is fairly wide and I find that with toe-in some soundstage is lost. The dealer recommended no toe-in as well, although Dynaudio do suggest it, based on room.
Wide dispersion results in more reflection from side walls, which toeing in reduces. On the one hand early reflections have a muddying effect, on the other hand they widen the soundstage. Meanwhile toeing in with most non-planar speakers maximises direct HF energy at thr listening position, not toeing in reduces it. Depending on room and positioning one effect will be more beneficial/negative than another - and different people have different preferences.
. (an expensive audiophile acoustic one of course).