Allison and Snell - Against the Wall

https://janszenaudio.com/

On the advice of David Janszen, my Valentina speakers are 7-8 inches from the front wall and sound spectacular.

Audio Note?

Larsen.

Audio Note, I believe, is basically remaking Snell designs, no?

@middlemass

I suppose the ultimate "against-the-wall" speaker is an in-wall speaker. There are many to choose from, including multiple options from Martin Logan.

@cleeds

Very good point, do we dismiss them when we should be embracing them?

Maybe they are inherently better speakers than floor standers?

John Dunlavy once told me his most coherent speaker was an in wall. Even though we were dealers I never saw or heard them. Best in walls I have ever heard were by James..aluminum cabinet that mounted to the studs in wall.
Had 3 different sales meetings with Peter Snell..every room has wall and floor boundaries several of his designs used these barriers to augment their performance or he created a speaker with it's own boundary the Snell 3a and a couple of others. Tom

The new Vivid S12 is sort like an in wall speaker with the wall mounting device that is coming out.

The Wilson TuneTots go against the wall.

The speaker I want from my downstairs living room has to go very close to the wall (half foot). I have been told the KEF Reference 1 will work and even the large Yamaha NS5000. I am not sold on that yet but I have a huge room there so that may make a difference.

My dad had Allison 2 speakers for about 20 years. I think he still has them lying around his basement, though not in use.

@theaudiotweak

The Snell A/III had a massive curved baffle under the cloth, but I thought it was still designed to be placed up to a wall.  Am I mistaken?

It did both..It had a rectangular but shallow bass cabinet with a downward facing weighted 10 in woofer slot loaded around 3 sides. The top enclosure contained the mid and tweet on a curved baffle..the tweeter was a dome but had a lens applied. The top and bottom mated up via pegs in the cabinet. Intended to place against the wall. Peter had a useful patent on cabinet designs to overcome boundary interference. Tom
 

Peter Snell US Patent 3964571 if anyone cares to look and ponder..Tom

Martin-Logan Mike’s several models designed to
moin on or fire in front of your walls. 

Mount on or in front of^^^

Klipschhorns, designed to go in corners--that's against two walls, I guess....

There are a few today, but mostly it is in the vintage speakers where you were required or suggested for close wall placement or corner placement because it increases efficiency and bass response, now it is all about detail and soundstage, and the music suffers because of it.

Klipsch Cornwalls.

Boston Acoustics a100, a150, a200...

The a100 series stipulates in the manuals it be placed up against a wall, 2 feet from any corner.

Never heard them, but quite keen on getting my hands on one - want to tear it down and see what they did on the inside. 

The Klipschhorns of course qualify!

I had Allison Ones in 1976.  You needed a room that was about 12 feet wide. You put the Allisons against the side walls 3 feet from the front wall with only one side of the Allisons facing the listening position. The other side faced the front wall which required a little absorption. Set up like this they would image very nicely. With the speakers facing you directly the image was a foggy mess. I never used them with subwoofers. None were around yet. 
K horns and the La Scala were designed specifically to be against a wall but back then that is what everyone did. They put the speakers against the wall usually in corners. Away from the wall positioning was born with the KLH 9 , Quads, Dahlquist DQ 10 and Maggies. My dad had Bozak B302A's up against the wall in corners. I am not a big fan of putting speakers in walls. The wall is nothing but a sound board with very unpredictable behavior. For theater systems sound quality comes second to last. It is more important to hide the speakers which you need for special effects. 

Didn't PMC do a wall panel speaker?

Vandersteen speakers that have the adjustable bass component, basically the Quatro and up, are all designed to be placed wherever in the room you need them to go. If you want them up against the wall then you can take the bass measurements there and make the appropriate adjustments. 

I think there’s a difference between speakers specifically designed to interface with the walls for broad band dispersion, and those who have limited or tunable bass.

In the former I put the Allisons, Larsens, Klipshhorns and Snell.

The Wilson Tune Tots and Vandersteens and my own LM-1s in the category of limited or tunable bass.

Von Schweikert VR22, VR33 and VR35 were designed to go right up against the wall.  I bought a pair of the VR33 and thought they sucked, big time. Didn’t realize at the time that Greg Weaver must have been shilling for VS. 

NHT made some large floorstanders back in the day that were so deep, you could have the back of them snug against the wall, and the front baffle would still be 3' out in front of it.

Wisdom Audio makes an extensive range of in or on wall speakers using line arrays, planar magnetic drivers, DSP integration. 

PMC wafers- remember being very impressed when I was in the entrance hall at The Stables by the sound coming from a panel on the wall. Apparently they're used by the BBC as well.