Choosing speakers for room w/ obstructing sofas

Zu Druids are tall, and will basically have the driver/tweeter above the arm of you sofa. I had this arrangement at our previous house with great results.

Heyy,

Caal me an alien but I have similar problems in my own room and added .... a Rel sub !! This move gave more dimension to the overall soundscape and somehow gave me the illusion of wider and more accurate space, diminishing the negative effect of our couch ....

BTW, am using Avalon Eidolon.

some speakers are better near wall than others, make sure that if you do choose a speaker for near wall to ask around, like for example dont get a pair with a rear bass port.

You guys really know how to cheer somebody up! I know, I know, laws of physics. If the speakers are pulled as far back from sofas (against wall) what effect would that have, if any? Good? Bad?

I have Ohm's latest effort in a horrible, misshaped & obstructed room, and they're doing very well. I still have time left on the in home trial, but they're most likely staying. I don't know what - short of MBL 101s (@ $20-48K) - would do better in this room.

I hate to sound pessimistic but I don't think that the type of speaker will make a difference. The laws of physics are going to get in the way. When the speaker radiates sound, whether it is floorstanding or whether it is stand mounted, the sound waves will bounce off the sofa, or at least some of them will. (Highs will be absorbed.) You will now have the same frequencies coming to your ears from the speaker and the sofa. This will cause a certain aural confusion, for lack of a better term, and will affect soundstaging and imaging. you will not be getting the performance your speakers are capable of. You either live with it, or you rearrange your furniture and/or speaker placement.

Mirage is similar also

Maybe one of the omni-directional speakers would be a good fit. They supposedly fill a room with sound and are not supposed to be room dependant. Many of them seem to have an upward firing woofer/mid-woofer.

I saw an ad today for the Morel Chorus and it was kind of interesting. Supposedly you can place it anywhere and still get a good stereo image. I think some of the Ohms were designed like this and the Decware Radials work this way too.

Enjoy,

TIC

you could get some maggies or martin logans that throw huge mid/treble from a panel so that aiming isnt as critical.