Is the abaility to set the M5s/M6s in the horizontal configuration
designed only for use as a HT center channel or can they be set up
horizontally in a audio-only 2 channel system as well?

I have built in shelves with a max 11" high 9" deep 28" wide that I
would like to put quality speakers in for a stereo setup. Right now
I'm looking at NHT SB1's or a Gallo sub/sat (would like to avoid rear
ported). Any other models to consider?

In article ,
Mackie wrote:
I have built in shelves with a max 11" high 9" deep 28" wide that I
would like to put quality speakers in for a stereo setup. Right now
I'm looking at NHT SB1's or a Gallo sub/sat (would like to avoid rear
ported). Any other models to consider?

Having your speakers a couple feet away from any walls is good. 4-5 feet is
better. Putting most speakers into your shelving units is going to ruin their
sound, especially in the bass department where their baffle step compensation
is going to be incorrect.

A horn might work.


--
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Life is a terminal sexually transmitted disease.

(Mackie) wrote:

Is the abaility to set the M5s/M6s in the horizontal configuration
designed only for use as a HT center channel or can they be set up
horizontally in a audio-only 2 channel system as well?

Certainly.


I have built in shelves with a max 11" high 9" deep 28" wide that I
would like to put quality speakers in for a stereo setup. Right now
I'm looking at NHT SB1's or a Gallo sub/sat (would like to avoid rear
ported). Any other models to consider?

Avid any speaker that has no center-offset. There's a good reason, beside
slender faced cabinets, that nearly all loudspeakers have vertically arrayed
drivers tweeter over/under/between woofers vertically.

Two acoustic sources side by side cause in the region near the crossover
point. When the speakers are vertically arrayed directivity (off-axis lobing)
in minimized in the horizontal plane at the expense of worsening in the
vertical plane. IOW lobes a aimed up and down toward the floor/ceiling and not
laterally into the listening window.

Turning such a speaker on its side now takes the smoother horizontal response
and points it up/down and then radiates the vertical lobing into the listening
area. IOW it's a bad trade.

NHT does quite a good job of dealing with this problem with clever driver
location. Other companies like Paradigm and Infinity have models that can be
successfully deployed horizontally; all of them have an offset tweeter/midrange
layout so that when the speaker is placed horizontally the tweeter is still
physically "above" the mid/woofers.

You'll especially want to avoid what I call the "toppled D'Appolito" with an
MCM layout with the tweeter dead-center between two small woofers. Joe
D'Appolito first used this topology to further improve horizontal directivity
at even greater expense of vertical lobing. Even though few MCM speakers meet
the crossover/spacing requirements of a true D'Appolito both are a bad
compromise for horizontal deployment.