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Speakers Up Against a Wall

JMiP

JMiP

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Can you recommend bookshelf speakers that have to be placed in a bookshelf? Meaning, wall on two sides and some books on another side.

Degree of difficulty: I can't spend more than $300 for them. Also, my receiver is a Harman-Kardon 330c. I also have a Marantz 2216, but I prefer the HK.

Presently, I have a pair of Celestion 3 bookshelf speakers and while they sound pretty good paired with a subwoofer, I'm not blown away by them. Am I asking too much with my situation? Am I ever going to find some bookshelf speakers that will blow me away while stuck in a bookshelf at my pricepoint? Should I break down and spend the $500 on the Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary speakers? Will even those sound degraded with my setup?
 
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The Boston Acoustics A-series is made to be placed against a wall. Got room for a pair of A-70s?
 
I'm gonna throw the cat amongst the pigeons now and recommend Minimus 7, with or without the well documented mods on here.
 
I would suggest EPI 100's. To quote the owners manual:

The EPI has a low frequency range extension beyond that of almost all other speakers, even
those in a much higher price range. The relative loudness of frequencies below 100 hz is strongly
affected by how close the speaker to the interior room surfaces. The strongest bass is achieved by
placing the speaker in a three sided corner, for example. on the floor in a corner. The weakest bass is
achieved by placing the speaker away from any wall, for example, on a table in the middle of the
room. The most linear response is achieved with the speaker in a two surface corner, for example, on
a bookshelf but in a corner, or on the floor against a wall, but not in a corner.
 
I'd find used ribbon speakers to keep from being boxy. Most book shelf speakers don't have a very good sound stage and they can sound tight and focused. Place them against a wall and your sound stage goes flat and behind them. Some ribbon book shelves will sound a little more open and wider.
 
Would help to know specifically what it is about the current speakers that does'nt impress.
Weak bass,lacking mids/highs,too laid back ~ too forward,too bright ~ not bright enough,that sorta description might help yeild better recommendations.

Also would help us a bunch to know approximately what size these need to be as well.

Honestly there are too many possibles to name them all: Just a few to consider...
JBL ~ L15/18ti/L20t
Klipsch ~ KSB 1.1/KSB 2.1/KSB 3.1/KG 1
Polk ~ RT3/S4/R15/T15
Optimus Pro X77/Pro Lx4

And seeing that you are using relatively low power recievers (16-20wpc),I would personally lean towards the speakers with higher sensitivity ratings (> 90db) like the Klipsch generally have,and I would stay away from low impedance speakers (< 8Ω) and stick to the smaller models of any given speaker line as you dont want under-power the speakers and push the low wpc reciever(s) into clipping.

And the obvious: if ported,you'll almost certainly want the ports in front for the stated location (hence why I left some specific models outta my suggestion list).
That -or- it'll need to be a sealed enclosure.

I'm sure you'll get a lot more possibles to scrutinize.

HTH

Bret P.
 
I like the Dynaco idea. A25's are 35wpc (XL version 50wpc), so they should be a good fit for the HK, I would think.

I have to also suggest the Wharfedale Dovedale 3, if you can handle the size. https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=8xb2lu9r6ZU

I have the Dentons, but I really haven't had a good opportunity to test those in a bookshelf setting. Just midde of the room. They seem good enough with my Fisher 800C, but the 6ohms-or-less impedance puts a bigger strain on the power section than my old Wharfies, so I want to get a solid-state amp in the range of 60-100wpc and see how that does. I need the Fisher for the W90's anyway. I don't like the idea of running two pairs of speakers through a tube-powered receiver.
 
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since you wont be seeing any cabinet and dont care if it is 70s vinyl, the smaller advent would be great.
 
xero-D-hero said:
Would help to know specifically what it is about the current speakers that does'nt impress.
Weak bass,lacking mids/highs,too laid back ~ too forward,too bright ~ not bright enough,that sorta description might help yeild better recommendations.

Also would help us a bunch to know approximately what size these need to be as well.
...
Click to expand...

What doesn't impress me? Mostly that the highs are lacking. I find myself having to crank up the treble on the receiver (both the Marantz and the Harman-Kardon) with minimal results. I'm thinking that this is due to the fact that the speakers are up against two walls. So, not bright enough.

As for the size, I can adjust the height between shelves to up to 24" or so.

Hope that helps and thanks for the suggestions so far. I actually find it kind of fun to research these types of things.
 
xero-D-hero said:
Honestly there are too many possibles to name them all: Just a few to consider...
JBL ~ 18ti.
Click to expand...

After doing some digging around the web based on your recs, the JBL 18ti seem to be the most tempting. Of course, there are none to be found for sale. Are there any trusted online markets that you know of that I am overlooking? I tried ebay, Craigslist and the market here. There is also a USA Audio Market, but A) they had nothing for sale and 2) I don't know anything about that site. Oh well, I'll keep looking around.
 
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