Best near-wall towers

[snmhanson]

I am working on my DIY to do list for this spring/summer and one item is building new main speakers for my media room. The catch is that I have a ~12' wide x 22" deep alcove and the speakers will sit on each end of the alcove and in close proximity to the side walls of the alcove and the rear wall. I should be more specific in that the alcove walls come out about 12" and then the last 10" changes to a 45 degree angle which flares out and meets the main wall - which runs for another 6' or so on each side. The fronts of the speakers could project a couple inches or so beyond the edge of the alcove but any further and they would likely be damaged by my crazy kids or their friends. Right now I have Statement Monitors and though I really like them, I think they will be a better fit in another room or at my office where they have more room around them. So, what towers would you guys recommend for that location? I want speakers that go deep enough to enjoy movies and television without using a sub (though I will have a sub or two for serious viewing and listening). I was thinking the Kahnspires might be a good fit since they are not ported and don't have the transmission line like the Monitors. Maybe the big RS 3-ways but they may be a bit overkill. I realize that the layout probably isn't ideal for any speaker, but are there some towers that might work better in that situation than my Monitors?

Thanks,

Matt

[andy19191]

> The catch is that I have a ~12' wide x 22" deep alcove and the speakers will
> sit on each end of the alcove and in close proximity to the side walls of the
> alcove and the rear wall.

Catch? It would seem you can effectively soffit mount speakers without needing to build false walls and lose effective room volume. Or is this not an option?

[cjd]

The Khanspires (and friends) were designed for this type of space.

[snmhanson]

I looked up soffit mounting to see what you meant andy19191. I guess the alcove does provide for a kind of psuedo-soffit mounting for the speakers. I can't close it off though as all of the rest of my equipment including the tv/screen sits inside the alcove. It's hard to tell the exact effect it has and I haven't had time to move the speakers around and experiment much. I was afraid that with the open mids, the Monitors are sending too much energy into the alcove where it can bounce around and get trapped. Maybe I will try them in different locations and see how it changes them.

Thanks CJD for the clarification. It looked to me like the Kahns and other similar designs would be the best fit but I just wasn't sure. It's good to hear that they were actually designed for it. I think I am leaning towards the Kahns right now as they would be a great fit for my environment and they seem to be a well-liked speaker. And of course, I would need to build the Kahncenter as well, since I am not sure how mixing the all-Dayton Kahnspires with the Dayton-Tangband-Fountek-based 2RCC would sound. Wonder if it would be possible to build a new baffle and crossovers for the 2RCC so that it would work with the Dayton drivers? I already have some curved cabinet designs drawn up for the Kahns, now I just need to find time to get through the other items on my list so that I can get to building them. Do the new Dayton drivers allow for a ~20% cabinet reduction in the Kahns as they do for the Statements? I would guess that it does but just thought I'd get that confirmed.

Thanks,

Matt

[andy19191]

I looked up soffit mounting to see what you meant andy19191. I guess the alcove does provide for a kind of psuedo-soffit mounting for the speakers. I can't close it off though as all of the rest of my equipment including the tv/screen sits inside the alcove. It's hard to tell the exact effect it has and I haven't had time to move the speakers around and experiment much. I was afraid that with the open mids, the Monitors are sending too much energy into the alcove where it can bounce around and get trapped. Maybe I will try them in different locations and see how it changes them.

Properly soffit mounted speakers are generally better acoustically than free standing speakers placed out in the room although a firm statement would depend on the particular room acoustics. It is one of the reasons why professionals tend to soffit mount their main speakers. It is also neater and can enable the speakers to be hidden for high WAF.

Speakers designed to stand out in the room need to be modified for soffit mounting because the bass only radiates forward. It doesn't radiate backwards, reflect off the back wall and interfere with the direct radiation like most typical arrangements. The worst setup is generally to place a speaker close to a wall which is neither one thing or the other and maximises the adverse effect of the rear wall.