Speakers to put against a wall?

[Ziradog]

So we are re-arranging the living room, and now my speakers need to be set more or less against the wall but away from the corners. The room is 12 X 17 feet, 8 foot ceiling, hardwood floor. I usually listen to acoustic old-time, folk, and jazz at moderate levels. I rotate amps, so ideally the speakers need to be reasonably efficient. Amps will mainly bee in the 20 to 45 watt/channel range. I did have Vandersteen 2C's, and am temporarily using Allison CD-7's. The Allison's sound good & fit the space, but the imaging is not great & they have a different permanent home. I can try Dynaco A-25XL, KLH-17, Spica TC-50 that I already own, but none of them worked well against the wall in other rooms. I prefer vintage, preferably something not to large but not necessarily a bookshelf size either. Any suggestions of reasonably common, low cost (<$300 used) speakers to try? Would Advents or KLH 6's be worth trying?

 

[fredcohiba]

I have used Klipsch Kg4, and Boston Acoustics A70 and A150 against walls with good results, but Klipsch we're number one.

 

[tonyk]

Boston A200 or better yet, the A400, but finding A400's for your budget might be a bit tough.

 

[Porkloin]

I'll second Fred's Boston Acoustics shout out. The key to easy speaker placement is wide baffles, which goes against the more common belief in narrow baffles. ADS had a sweet idea with the L-1230/1530/2030 by putting the tweeters and mids on an inward tilted narrow baffle while leaving the woofers in the wide baffle area. They actually sound pretty good jammed in a corner, which I can't so for my dipoles.

 

[tubed]

Allison Onezies and Twozies.
Right up against the wall, at the floor or on the ceiling.

 

[Old Guy8]

I was going to say Boston Accousics A100. Above posts beat me to it. A100 I have are 10" two ways. A think they are about 89db spl, so maybe only average efficiency. I use a Pioneer SA7500ii amp, 45 wpc in about a 22 x 26 room. Has enough to drive but not real loud without possible clipping. I like the A100 better than my single pair of NL Advents, without stacked double pairs.

 

[darkblue94]

A200's or A400's will fill that room with big enjoyable music without filling that room with big obtrusive speakers.

 

[dyche01]

Epicure 20+ speakers are designed to be placed against the wall.

 

[62sunbeam]

My Bozak Urban 302A's sound great against a wall.

I suspect that my Snell Type A's will as well when they're done.

Good luck with your search.

Eric

 

[kkd]

As mentioned above, Allison One's and Two's were made to go right up against a wall

 

[ericj]

The boston recommendations are good but i am gonna throw out DCM Time Frames, which are pretty good if you re-cap the crossovers.

 

[Kev_rat]

The Wall sounds great with AR-9s

 

[audiomagnate]

IIRC, certain Snell models were designed to placed "up against the wall."

 

[Ziradog]

Interesting suggestions. I love Allisons, but I have CD-8's in another room that I am keeping. The only first generation ones I think my wife would accept in this room is the 4.

The bigger Boston Acoustics and the ADS models listed above also got the thumbs down for visual. Probably the Time Frames too, but worth askking. My experience on the KG-4's has been that they really need space around them or else the bass is overwhelming, although that was in a smaller room. The EPI, Snell (which models?), Epicure and Bozaks will require more research.

 

[WaynerN]

Almost any "bookshelf" speaker will work, provided they have front ports (if not acoustic suspension) and they don't need much toe-in angle. I have 4 sets of them against the wall in my modest sized vinyl room (Dynaco A25XL, Focal Chorus 706, AR-4X and Paradigm Atom v.3.

Wayner

 

[darkblue94]

The boston recommendations are good but i am gonna throw out DCM Time Frames, which are pretty good if you re-cap the crossovers.

Interesting suggestions. I love Allisons, but I have CD-8's in another room that I am keeping. The only first generation ones I think my wife would accept in this room is the 4.

The bigger Boston Acoustics and the ADS models listed above also got the thumbs down for visual. Probably the Time Frames too, but worth askking. My experience on the KG-4's has been that they really need space around them or else the bass is overwhelming, although that was in a smaller room. The EPI, Snell (which models?), Epicure and Bozaks will require more research.

Why don't you just let the boss pick out her own speakers?

 

[Mbradford]

I have a set of acoustic research phantom series that I have on a wall. They sound very good but being only 4 inches thick and sealed leave them needing to have a subwoofer to supplement the low end. I paid 130 for a entire 5.1 set, but I have seen them locally and on eBay for 250-350 for the larger front towers. The illusions drivers are very nice

 

[Old Guy8]

One company that has tried to address the WAF issues is Linn. On thier website, they show different optional color and pattern speaker cloth for thier speakers. I just mention this as a option to recover grills of larger speakers to be more WAF pleasing. The Bostons, with thier large grill area might be good candidate to help them blend in.

 

[Chrisxo55441]

Ohm C2's for vintage Kef Q300's for new ($349)

 

[Old Guy8]

+1 Chris for the Ohm C2's. I run mine near a wall in bedroom system. They are a good speaker, off the radar. Front ported.