Small change, Big difference

[bikeman]

As I posted when I bought my 340's, the speakers they replaced (Mission 761's) just couldn't image properly with the massive Entertainment Center between them. The 340's solved that problem and are now the mainstays of my HT.
I moved the Mission's to my study with a small (20") TV between them. It worked fine and I didn't give it another thought until this weekend. I needed to do some work on the window behind the TV so I moved it to a different spot in the room. This left nothing between the speakers. WOW! I'd forgotten how good these little guys were. Guess they just don't want anything in between them.
I'm sure Dave F. knows why the 340's can do what they do while some other quality speakers are so highly placement dependent but I can't explain it. I'm just glad I moved that TV.

David

[Kurt C.]

I've heard that speakers with a good on-axis frequency response but poor off-axis frequency response require a great deal of trial and error with placement before they sound their best.

Speakers with good on- and off-axis FR, in contrast, sound pretty good anywhere you put them.

I've never seen far off-axis response curves of the 340s.

[curtis]

Ascend posts the 15deg off-axis response:
http://ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cmt340m/cmt340mmeas.html

[Kurt C.]

Interesting. Clearly the 340s are quite good at +/- 15 deg. vertical and horizontal.

It occurs to me that it is extremely rare to see off-axis responses of more than +/- 60 degress. That may be unfortunate as the effect Bikeman heard is most likely due to reflections or interference with off-axis responses closer to 90 degrees.

I recently saw an article by Floyd Toole where he recommends measuring the FR of speakers at something like 80 locations around the speaker. From his work, the conclusion can be drawn that speakers that are likely to sound good the majority of people in the majority of rooms have: a) an extremely flat frequency response AND b) smooth and flat off-axis responses in all directions.

[Quinn]

Have you listened to the 340s without the entertainment center between them?

[curtis]

Have you listened to the 340s without the entertainment center between them?
I have...and it does make a nice difference, but not enough to make me get rid of the TV. :)

[bikeman]

Have you listened to the 340s without the entertainment center between them?
I haven't yet but I plan to experiment once I get a sound system set-up in the spare bedroom which will be my workout room for the winter. I'll report back with the results.

David