On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 10:35:16 GMT, Joseph Oberlander
wrote:



wrote:

I have heard a lot of sub/satellite systems and some are quite good, I
think, but the mid-to-low bass never seems to be as realistic (the
lowest bass registers are fine) in terms of where the instruments
'appear' to be located. I guess in the Holt vocabulary this is part of
"soundstage". On a lot of material it doesn't matter, but on those
relatively few stereo discs where you had true stereo room recording
and instruments in physical space together, the sub/sat systems present
the material with as much or more detail but without the audible image
in that register.

Correct. This is because the room is large enough to where the
lower frequency sounds coming from the subwoofer are still directional.
The only way to get around this is to lower the sub's crossover point
and get speakers with 6-8 inch woofers in it that can at least go
down to 40-50hz. In a small room, 50-80hz is likely where the sound
stops being directional, so satellite systems manage to get by
a bit better.

Joseph, was it you who was talking about mounting Maggies on the wall?
If so, wouldn't this reduce the "airiness" of the speakers, since you
are virtually removing the dipole characteristics of the speaker? I
guess I understand the utility of doing that in an environment that
could be dangerous to the speaker, but if I had to sacrifice one of
the big design points of the speaker, I think I'd have to choose a
different design. Now, I would think that mounting small Maggies
perpendicular to the side walls as satellites would be cool, since
dipoles seem to work well as satellites. Of course, it would look a
little weird, plus you might have to tinker with the angle and not
have them 90 degrees from the wall.