More budget tower or nicer bookshelf?

[biffgeiser1]

I've been reading more about the golden ear tritons and they sound like room placement (ie- spacing them far from walls and corners) is a big factor to them sounding good. This makes me worried since my room is a bit small and doesn't lend itself to speakers sitting far out from the wall.

Anyone experience this? I'm going to try and listen to them today with one placed in a corner.

 

[slipperybidness]

I've been reading more about the golden ear tritons and they sound like room placement (ie- spacing them far from walls and corners) is a big factor to them sounding good. This makes me worried since my room is a bit small and doesn't lend itself to speakers sitting far out from the wall.

Anyone experience this? I'm going to try and listen to them today with one placed in a corner.

To be fair, pretty much any and all speakers need some breathing room and placing close to a wall isn't ideal by any means for any speaker.

Bipoles would be the worst to be placed near a wall.

The passive raidators in the Triton line also makes near-wall placement less than ideal.

I have about 12" to 18" on my T2 and it sounds great! I may be able to eek out a little better sound with better (farther from wall or something else too) placement, but I really don't have that option.

 

[agarwalro]

If you're constrained in placing them less than 18-24" away from the front wall, definitely don't get anything rear ported.

Also look into transmission line designs. Salk Sound Song Tower and Veracity series and Philharmonic Audio Slim Tower come to mind. Transmission line speakers couple with the room differently than ported/powered bass designs and therefore are much more forgiving, yet, give satisfying deep bass.

 

[riker1384]

If you're constrained in placing them less than 18-24" away from the front wall, definitely don't get anything rear ported.

Also look into transmission line designs. Salk Sound Song Tower and Veracity series and Philharmonic Audio Slim Tower come to mind. Transmission line speakers couple with the room differently than ported/powered bass designs and therefore are much more forgiving, yet, give satisfying deep bass.

I don't think you need more than a few inches clearance for a rear-ported speaker. Certainly not more than a foot.

 

[slipperybidness]

I don't think you need more than a few inches clearance for a rear-ported speaker. Certainly not more than a foot.

Ignore this poor advice!

 

[agarwalro]

I don't think you need more than a few inches clearance for a rear-ported speaker. Certainly not more than a foot.

I call BS. I'll make some leeway for small bookshelf speakers with 1" ports, but, absolutely not for towers or subwoofers.

If the port does not have enough room and air flow is congested, it is no different than intentionally plugging the port with foam plugs. The latter is a known way to change tuning characteristics of a bass enclosure and used in many towers and subwoofers.

The port also adds a high Q nature bandwidth peak at the tuning frequency. This coupled with room gain from extremely close placement to room boundary will create a bloated low end.

The two effects combined will wreck mid to low end FR. Perhaps, you've serendipitously arrived at your observation, but, the physics guides otherwise.

 

[biffgeiser1]

I've got about a foot of space between walls and speakers, give or take a couple inches.

Placed some triton fives in a similar configuration that I have at home and they still sounded good. A little extra bass due to a corner placement but no major "boominess."

Pulled the trigger yesterday. Triton 5's with a supersat 50 center. For my budget and what I'll be doing with them they're leaps and bounds above my current setup.

 

[slipperybidness]

I've got about a foot of space between walls and speakers, give or take a couple inches.

Placed some triton fives in a similar configuration that I have at home and they still sounded good. A little extra bass due to a corner placement but no major "boominess."

Pulled the trigger yesterday. Triton 5's with a supersat 50 center. For my budget and what I'll be doing with them they're leaps and bounds above my current setup.

The nice thing about the T5 is that you have the bass knob around back to help dial that in.