Dipole Asymmetry

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.

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.

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.