How far does Ascend speakers need to be from the wall?

[repun]

I'm trying to set up my Ascend speakers in a fairly difficult small room... how far does the Ascend 340s (and other Ascend speakers, if it's a general statement) from the wall? Has anybody mounted them to the wall? Any suggestions for wall mounts for the speakers?

Thank you.

[DougMac]

I think the rule of thumb for the rear ported 170's is four or more inches. In difficult situations, the 200's are nice since they are sealed.

[repun]

What about the 340s?

[choirbass]

Since it's a small room like you said, and the 340 is rear ported with a fairly wide dispersion too (walls could become an issue)..

The only thing I can think of offhand without room dimensions, or furniture placement and all, is to have room treatments, or something softer near the walls closest to the speaker(s) to reduce any reflections they might cause.

[scape]

I would recommend to keep the speakers minimum 1 ft from rear wall and 2.5 ft from side wall, perhaps toed in, but this can be with degraded performance-- especially if the wall is highly reflective.

i sometimes go with the ratio from cardas audio, assuming the room is rectangular, but this also assumes you have quite a bit of room to play with:
http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=Room+Setup
i feel it really does make a difference if you can pull off these positions for your speakers

I don't think wall-mounting 340s would be a good idea, but i think someone ceiling-mounted sierra's, which probably isn't a great idea either.
i tried wall-mounting my 340 center and it was half a foot out from the drywall. I ended up not liking it and now it sits out in the middle of the living room in front of the tv like a piece of furniture haha

[S_rangeBrew]

I'm trying to set up my Ascend speakers in a fairly difficult small room... how far does the Ascend 340s (and other Ascend speakers, if it's a general statement) from the wall? Has anybody mounted them to the wall? Any suggestions for wall mounts for the speakers?

Thank you.

As a counterpoint to the last poster:

I have done exactly what you are suggesting. It works perfectly. One thing to consider is that if you are using a crossover (80hz in my case) and a subwoofer, not much is coming out of that port. However, even running full range at high volumes, I've not noticed any problem with the port only about 5 inches from the wall.

I am using the Pinpoint AM40 wall mount to hold my 340SEs. Works perfectly. I'm using 3 90-lb drywall anchors (you can find at the hardware store) to hold them up. They are not attached to wall studs. I have hung off these, and I weigh 200lbs. No worries about holding a bookshelf speaker.

Here is a picture of one mounted by my projector screen, you can see it is very close to the wall:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/334804325_4da43df549_b.jpg

Another benefit of this setup is that there are no speakers or speaker stands in toddler range. :)

[scape]

Another benefit of this setup is that there are no speakers or speaker stands in toddler range. :)

now that's a good point, haha

[scape]

while rear port distance from the wall behind it is one aspect to consider, it's not necessarily the only one. another factor, which may or may not be that big of a deal, is how the front of the speaker interacts with the wall behind it (and ofcourse the walls to its sides.) eventually the soundwave is less directional enough to wrap around the speaker cabinet itself and interact with the wall behind the speaker-- at what point in the spectrum and to what degree is to be determined by the speaker design and the distance from the wall (and its sound absorption rate.) what is reflected off of that wall behind the speaker will play with both reinforcing sound waves and destroying them; introducing possibly more peaks and dips in perceived sound at the listener position.
flush mounting the speaker mostly removes this factor, but the wall should still be made of some sort of sound absorption material.
moving the speaker way out from the walls also does, but that's much less likely to be an option.
to be honest this may not even be a problem, or is perhaps the only option for your room, but still it may be something you want to consider :)
another thing to note is to not place the speaker equal distances from its rear and side walls.

[davef]

One thing to consider is that if you are using a crossover (80hz in my case) and a subwoofer, not much is coming out of that port. However, even running full range at high volumes, I've not noticed any problem with the port only about 5 inches from the wall.

This is a key point. When using a subwoofer and setting a crossover, the rear port is really not a factor...