I have a pair of Linn Isobariks, sitting close to a back wall. I have never tried them away from the wall, but I think that your analysis is probably correct. I understand, from elsewhere on the forum, that speaker manufacturers go to great lengths to ātuneā their spreakers and to recommend placement accordingly. In addition, I am not at all convinced that the advice given by Linn was simply marketing. Indeed, my Isobariks are so old that the concept of āmarketingā barely existed!
Can I suggest that you avoid using phrases such as āThat really is complete and utter nonsense.ā? That approach doesnāt endear you to anyone and only serves to take attention away from the validity of the points you are trying to make.
I found them disappointing, hence I sold them to my brother in law Alex. They were decent enough to begin with.
They are not terrible, but they didnāt perform to a satisfactory standard during longer ownership.
The real decider to get rid of them was the purchase of the LP12. It certainly didnāt sound anywhere near as good as it should have through them.
Enjoying better sound through the TV these days. Hooked up an HDMI into the back of my Nova and wondering why itās taken me so long long to get around to it
I vaguely remember seeing a photo some years back of Dmitry Medvedev at home in the Presidential palace with his HiFi system, which included some Naim Amps.
Probably not the best ā celebrity endorsementā for the brand these days!
Well I expect heās reduced to recapping them himself these days. Probably the best he can scrounge up for the job is some old jam jars filled with potatoes and vinegar with a couple nails in them.
Not at all. It will cause a bass lift, and that will apply in every case. As you point out, the magnitude of the effect may well vary according to wall material. But in every case a boundary design should be used as intended, ie. close to the wall, to achieve correct performance.
If anyone is interested I have taken the decision to try @anon55098131ās suggestion (instruction).
It hasnāt made any immediate impact on the sound, but it has neatened up the room a bitā¦
Thanks for the reminder Richard, I think we can all be guilty of at least some of those on a semi regular basis. And apologies if we make your life more difficult in the process!
Thinking back to Danās thread where he moved the racks onto the L side-wall I wonder if this might be an option? This would create more space at the speaker end of the room and get the racks out from between the speakers. It may be that the room is too narrow to faciliate this I guess but thought the suggestion worth airingā¦
Many thanks for your reply. This will be predominantly for TV use but the Piegas deserve something significantly better than an āaverageā AV receiver or ābudgetā amplifier, though the latter are no doubt better than they used to be. The K3 appears to offer a lot for the money though the model does seem to get mixed reviews: either glowing or ho-hum.
Ref your Linn speakers and their positioning, I donāt want to tread on anyoneās toes but I think the whole room and system must be taken into consideration. I donāt doubt that Linn designed the speakers to be used close to the front wall - indeed they now use Space Optimisation (their proprietary room correction system) to facilitate close-to-wall positioning for a whole range of different speakers. However, in your instance, by moving them back you also appear to be positioning them closer to the side walls (clearly by necessity) which introduces another range of issues with reflected higher frequencies.
Personally, given the ability/power of your upstream equipment I would favour a further away from the front wall approach, have a greater distance from the side walls and use the REL to ācompensateā for any bass that you may have lost due to positioning further into the room. I did just that with my Tannoy Revolution speakers - the bass, midrange and treble clarity + tone and sound staging all improved massively with positioning the rear of the speakers over 70cm from the front wall. Any loss of bass level/impact was more than compensated for by two sealed-BK active subwoofers. We all like different sound but personally I like stage depth, natural tone and smoothness and positioning speakers away from walls/reflective surfaces has always helped with thisš.
Look a bit tight in those corners to me. If you were happy where they were then Iād move them back. The Keilidhs like a bit of breathing space and major on the mid range. Youāve mitigated the lack of bass with your sub. I think you can trust yourself to know what sounds best in your own cabin.
Not wanting to pour oil on the fire, but my concern is that the speakers are now too close to the side walls and youāll be getting lots of reflections, which can really mess things up. Given that being closer to the back wall will increase bass, you can compensate for the bass reduction in your previous position by using your subwoofer. Iād be inclined to put them back again.
Hi, I donāt look at this thread very much so forgive me if this has been asked before. Have you ever tried your speakers on either long wall?
I ask because in my experience, positioning speakers close to side walls generally just produces muddle. I accept that your Linn speakers could be an exception but itās a serious question.
Your considered moderation and the usually courteous tone of this forum are features which keep many engaged. I am a member of another forum, elsewhere, which is much less civil in tone and this I find very off-putting - to the point that I now never contribute to it, for fear of over-robust responses.
Your use of the word āagreeableā is very apposite. The post, or posts which started this conversation may not have been āknee-jerk reactionsā, but they certainly werenāt āagreeableā!
In order that this thread can get back to its extremely interesting subject, I will not be continuing this conversation, should others be moved to respond.