Revel Salons in an enclosure?

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.

Mistake #1: You hired an interior designer, not a room acoustics engineer. Hire the engineer first, and then let the interior design deal with the structure created.

Mistake #2: Seriously listening to an interior designer stupidly suggesting that you enclose your Salons. Dude, you laid-out a lot of money for a pair of the best speakers made (or at least in the top 5%). Name one store you've visited while shopping for Salons that enclosed any speakers? Don't you think there's a reason for this?

Mistake #3: Not firing your interior designer, as the interior designer clearly knows nothing about HT design or room accoustics. This person is going to lead your far, far astray. If you enclose these speakers, you're going to lose: the impact of your rear firing tweater, the amazing tuned bass the salons produce, magical three dimensionality of the Salon music reproduction, clarity of
the specially designed midridge driver.

Mistake #4 (and this is common): You really should study-up on room acoustics. Owning a pair of Salons or building a HT without understanding room acoustics is going to cost you really dearly. Don't you want the world-class performance you paid so much for? Imagine how much better you could make them sound with a little acoustic treatment.

Answer:
You simply must stop listening to whatever noise is emitting from your designer's mouth. As good as your HT might look, it is going to sound like crap. You should Rives Audio a call, read some of the acoustics forums, or get some books on the subject.

I own a pair of Studios (my rooms have been too small for Salons, which I prefer). I paid a lot of money for them. I love them. Because I love their sound and I love music in general, I have worked hard on room acoustics. I have flirted with other speakers, and I've even recently listed my Studios. Even if I sell these (because I'm definitely not a motivated seller, as the low ballers have found), I'd only get the same, the Salons, or a pair of Kharmas.

I will never, ever dream of enclosing any of these in a box, and I will never, ever take the advice of an interior designer without the guidance of an acoustic engineer.

Lktanx...I admit that your stuff is way out of my league, but check out the pic's in the Virtual Systems all out assault category for "Meridian Digital Theatre", "Doctor's RX-Wilson X-2,ARC,Meitner,Runco","Linn & B & W" and check the systems in the Home Theater category that are of your caliber also...one thing that I notice in the pictures of these systems is that there are no cabinets. They also use projection systems rather than big rptv's so that there is no huge box in the middle destroying the soundstage. If it were my system and was also confined to room size constraints, I wouldn't want to lose square footage to any cabinets. I would also wonder what kind of noise a bunch of cabinets would create in a listening environment...all those hollow spaces. Besides...if you bailed on the cabinets, you could spend the $'s elsewhere in the system or room.

just my 2c...sorry if I pissed off the cabinet maker

Ellery

ok I now concur with the "just go purchased some cheap speakers at best buy" from above. Rule 1 speakers cannot be placed inside a cabinets if you expect good sound

Everyone,

Thanks very much for your input. I have to admit that I am aware that most/all the high end setups do not place their speakers in enclosures. I have seen one case and heard of another case. Two example cases are: I saw with Salons in enclosures at the HT store in Montclair and a mention of one by Century Stereo in San Jose. So there are cases of this occuring. And this I presume are done by the pros (?)

BTW, it's really not the cabinet makers fault, he is doing his job the best he can as a cabinet maker. Isn't all this part of the learning process?

So if the Salons or WP7s cannot be placed in an enclosure, what speaker can? I presume some speakers must be designed to perform in this manner? Any suggestions? I would like them to be as good as the Salons.