Floorstand speakers.

SillyMonkey

Whats the deal with keeping them a certain distance from the wall. Is this true for all floorstands? Or is it different for every speaker? I only ask because I am looking to buy a pair at the moment and someone mentioned to me to be aware of it.

Any help would be appreciated.:)

Slaphead07

SillyMonkey wrote: »

Whats the deal with keeping them a certain distance from the wall. Is this true for all floorstands? Or is it different for every speaker? I only ask because I am looking to buy a pair at the moment and someone mentioned to me to be aware of it.

Any help would be appreciated.:)

It's only relevant if the speakers are rear ported - simply that they have a port at the back to allow air escape with the movement of the woofers. there are no rules really as while speakers differ rooms differ even more. Generally speaking a rear ported speaker shouldn't be too close to a hard wall as the bass can get boomy but you might be able to 'bung' the port and tame the bass anyway. Many speakers have ports to the front so there's no issue and others are a 'sealed box' design where there's no porting at all. Sealed boxes generally give less bass.
It's not just floorstanders btw, stand mount speakers can be the exact same.

The Ritz

Slaphead,

Just out of curiosity, would you think that speakers (stand mount or floor standers) would get a boundary effect from being placed with their back to a wall or in a corner, regardless of whether they're front or rear ported ? I've seen advice regarding absorbtion on screen walls where classically you would expect to find speakers either directly close to the wall or behind a perf screen. I would have thought that speaker placement in a two-channel system would need some tweaking with regard to placement ? I appreciate that this is far more your area than mine !


Ritz.

Slaphead07

The Ritz wrote: »

Slaphead,

Just out of curiosity, would you think that speakers (stand mount or floor standers) would get a boundary effect from being placed with their back to a wall or in a corner, regardless of whether they're front or rear ported ? I've seen advice regarding absorbtion on screen walls where classically you would expect to find speakers either directly close to the wall or behind a perf screen. I would have thought that speaker placement in a two-channel system would need some tweaking with regard to placement ? I appreciate that this is far more your area than mine !


Ritz.

Generally, and everything I say here is "generally", if a speqker isn't rear-poted then it won't matter much how close it is to a back wall. Side reflections off a boundary wall are dependant on what sound, if any, is being fired sideways toward that wall. That wideness of sound can come from an amp or CD player (soundstage) so may have little or nothing to do with the specific speaker. Front ported speakers are much less fussy.
Where a speaker is rear ported you can safely assume it won't like being too close to a wall but by moving it about (essentially tuning it to the room) you'll find a level of bass that suits you. Of course turing a speaker so that's toed-in or toed-out can eliminate bass boom too while also focussing the stereo image. It's really trial and error rather than science as rooms vary so much.