Hanging 340s--is this a stupid idea?

[curtis]

Another consideration is the port on the back of the 340's. The 340's need a fair amount of distance behind them or there is a risk of sounding boomy.

-curtis

[loraan]

How much room are we talking here?

[curtis]

It is going to vary from room to room. In my room, I found that at least 14 inches, right now I have 20 inches.

-curtis

[ClutchBrake]

When I asked David about putting the rears on a 12" deep shelf this was his reply:

"Don't stress out about it.. a 12" deep shelf is perfectly fine. You will orient the speaker so that it hangs over the shelf by 1". This will give you 2.5" clearance behind the speaker, which is plenty of space. Also, if you can angle the speaker downwards by 5 degs or so (use rubber feet in the back of the speaker), because of the rear angle, this would virtually eliminate almost all of the possible rear port problems.

Piece of cake....

Hope this helps!"

Perhaps port problems and boominess are two different things. I don't think David would recommend it if it wasn't going to sound good though.

[loraan]

Just FYI, I did a little test where I put two tie-down straps around my 340-c and tied a short (18-inch or so) run of the "invisible hanging wire" between them. This stuff is amazingly strong. I literally bounced the speaker up and down and could detect no flex or give in the wire (which would indicate that it might be about to break). I feel absolutely confident that if I run four of these to a speaker, they will hold--<u>no problem</u>. I'm more worried about the swag bolts ripping out of the ceiling than I am about the line breaking.

I tried to find a URL for this stuff, but I can't find it anywhere. The manufacturer is "Ook" and it's called "invisible hanging wire" or something like that.

[curtis]

Maybe the boominess is my room....

loraan...would love to see some pictures if you "hang" them.

-curtis

[loraan]

I'll see what I can do about pictures. Got to get them hung first! :-)

[Gregisme]

What about the whole issue of vibration? If you hang them from wire, with the speaker essentially floating around freely, there wouldn't be any place for the speakers internal vibration to dissipate too.

I thought that having speakers on decent stands of some kind is important for this reason, for vibration dissipation? Is it only a minor improvement with regards to an Ascend speaker as compared to the norm? In other words, is it more forgiving than the average speaker?

If that were true, let's say, speaker stands w/ Ascends would improve sound by only 5-10% and you can live with that level of compromise, then the ceiling mounts would be an exciting alternative. If invisible wire is indeed invisible, that is.[8D]

[Gregisme]

oh, and then there's the whole issue of speaker wire, and how to hide it. Have you given any thought to that, loraan?

*realizing that I'm probably becoming a thorn in your side with these sticky questions* [}]

[loraan]

Speaker wire is actually the easiest part. If I hang near the ceiling, the room is pre-wired for surround, so no problem there. Another solution that I'm considering is leaving the front left/right on the stands and hanging the center so that it hangs about 2 to 6 inches over the top of the TV. Then I get good center placement without putting any weight on the TV. If I do that, then I can just run wire up from the receiver like normal. it will show slightly in the space between the receiver and the TV, but I can live with that.