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Dipole Asymmetry

I am considering purchase of a pair of Martin Logan Summit X speakers. In my room, I am somewhat constrained for speaker placement. I could place the speakers about 3-4 feet off the front wall. My main concern is my audio rack would be placed directly behind the left speaker, while there would be nothing placed behind the right speaker. How detrimental would this asymmetry be on sound quality?
imgoodwithtools
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

Do you use grand-daddy literally or figuratively, cleeds? Magnepan has probably done more to popularize planar speakers than any other company, but the original Magneplanar Tympani T-I was not introduced until 1971, long after the original Quad ESL in 1957.

The Quad has absorptive pads on it's rear, installed by Peter Walker to make it more room friendly for the relatively small lounges of British houses. Maggies benefit greatly from space behind them (the more the better), but can be placed quite close to side walls with no sonic penalty.

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cleeds
2,065 posts
 
bdp24

Do you use grand-daddy literally or figuratively, cleeds? Magnepan has probably done more to popularize planar speakers than any other company, but the original Magneplanar Tympani T-I was not introduced until 1971, long after the original Quad ESL in 1957.

I meant it figuratively. I agree with you - Magnepan has surely promoted the dipole/planar speaker better than anyone else, but Quad was on the market long before them.
leotis
151 posts
 
Per Martin Logan 2+ feet off front wall is acceptable. In my set up absorption on front wall flattened the sound stage. Diffusion however maintained sound stage depth but gave more solid imaging. Untreated the sound was very enveloping but seemed sort of disembodied. My room is only 12 x 15 so I can’t get too far off front wall. After a bit of trial and error I am pretty happy with 35". I built a pair of skyline diffusers 18" x36".
Box speakers near walls have their own problems. The MLs work pretty well in a small room because their directionality minimizes side wall and ceiling reflections. I would second the idea of balancing your front wall topography with some kind of diffusion.
leotis
151 posts
 
Would add that box speakers won't really solve the problem.
Unless you can adjust each speaker individually for "boundary effect"
(as in Revel speakers) you will still have an asymmetry problem.
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