Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions How close can you get?? ...speaker to wall that is

I'm thinking about putting the VP180 and EP800 behind an acoustically transparent screen. This would result in the VP180 about 2" from the wall and the EP800 with almost no room behind it. Two inches is a lot closer then I'd normally consider for the a speaker with a back port. It might be ok... bet a lot of vp180 are running it that way. The EP800 is probably ok up against the wall (no port) but I kind of wonder if it's an limitation which I might regret acoustically.

Axiom has port plugs you can use which i am sure you would need. Shame they dont port it to the front as an option.The 160 is front ported but may be too close to the screen.

you can get the bookcase version which is ported to the front

I just own the straight up one ...

I'll go measure tomorrow but IIRC my VP180 is pretty close to the wall. The M60s are a bit further away to give consistent speaker-to-ear distance.

Hi rriev,

Whether a speaker is front- or back-ported isn't all that relevant. What matters is how much bass output that speaker is handling. It's the amount of radiated bass that counts, and the closer you put any speaker to room surfaces (floor, back wall, side wall), the greater the bass output. However, that enhanced bass output may be uneven or boomy, the closer the speaker is to the surface in question. If you are running the vp180 on "Large" setting, then it will increase the amount of bass; if set to small, then there will be little or no increased bass enhancement.

The subwoofer is the one that will be affected by too-close placement to a back wall or side wall. Exaggerated bass will be the likely result, which you may like-- or not.

Regards,
Alan

The other problem seems to be speaker distance to the screen ... depending on manufacture minimum speaker distance looks like it's between 6 to 12 inches. I'm also coming to the conclusion that I should reconsider putting an EP800 behind it. Can you image the screen bulging/rippling as the explosions go off ...

Anyway I'm abandoning this idea ... too many trade offs. This last one being that I would need about 3 feet screen to back wall. That would make the main viewing distance closer then Ideal (and I like it closer then most).

Thanks Alan,

Any idea how far from the wall would you'd place a VP180 set to large?
Would any of the other VP180 configurations be better (bookcase, etc)?
How about an EP800?

Rich

Hello Rich,
For the VP180, I'd keep it out about 10 inches or more. You can listen to male speaking voices (dialog), and if the male voice is at all "full" or "plummy", or too rich sounding, then you are getting some bass boost or emphasis from the adjacent wall. So move it out a bit until that fullness is reduced or eliminated.

The location of the subwoofer in the room should be where the deep bass is the smoothest and non-boomy from your listening position. As you may realize, the subwoofer bass is non- directional, so you won't "hear" the location of the subwoofer so long as you set the crossover to 80 Hz or lower. Although you may think bass is directional, the directional qualities are supplied by higher frequencies from the main speakers and center channel, not the subwoofer with a low crossover setting.
Putting the sub behind the screen is not a good idea, as it limits your choice of the where the subwoofer should go in the room for best performance.

Regards,
Alan