Revel Salons in an enclosure?

Lktanx, here is a technical explanation for you. Large free-standing speakers like the Salons and WP7s are designed to be placed far away from any room boundaries for best sound. The reason for this is only the higher frequencies radiate from the front of the speaker. Lower frequencies radiate from all sides, not just the front. If you wrap another box around the existing box, such as putting it in a cabinet, you will re-direct some of the energy from the back of the speaker toward the front of the speaker, making it sound very boomy. Treble dispersion will also be affected, which will cause imaging to suffer.

An inwall speaker is designed to be placed close to a room boundary. It intentionally has limited bass response and relies on the boundary re-inforcement to get its tonal balance right.

So, rather than trying to use a free-standing speaker in a way it was not designed to be used, why don't you use the type designed specifically for your application? The inwall type will actually sound better than the Salons built into a cabinet. Alternately, some bookshelf speakers are designed for mounting directly against a wall and would sound OK. In either case you would want to get the tweeter of the speaker as close to the front of the cabinet as possible for best dispersion.

Jeez...In my opinion you have but 2 options:

1. Fire the "Designer" and do what sounds best- after all, what good is a home theater w/Salons if they're not at their best?

2. Screw the Salons and sell them to me- cheap :)

Nighthawk, thanks for an informative answer. To follow up on this, can anyone recommend in-cabinet or in-wall speakers which sound as good as the Salons or WP7s? Thanks.

I have Salons set up in my theater...when the room plans were being developed the designer had recommended not only to place my salon in an enclosure BUT also to raise them 10" to sit on a platform...Needless to say I didn't take his suggestions. I still built my theater & my Salons are in the room not behind the screenwall. If you plan on listening to music in your theater I suggest you leave them in the room.

Jon_p, how large is your room? Mine is 17'x22'. The 17' is the length of the room i.e. it is where the screen is placed. I cannot place it on the longer side of the room due to many windows along the wall. Another problem is that the room may be a bit too small for the Salon being out of the cabinets. I may have to use smaller speakers, maybe the Studios.