I am using the active 20's about 3 feet from the back wall and due to the room shape size and power outlets along the long wall which opens on the right hand side to the kitchen, and yes as luck would have it a bay window on the left :) This has always pulled female voice to the right, and has never allowed anything I have put into the room to image like my old Celestion SL-600's (Loved those speakers). Again due to the room being a more or less public place in our house, I keep the grills on. (kids/pets little fingers make me nervous with almost 9k in speaker sitting in the room) Side walls are well out of the way but of different depths and material to either side. I do like the idea of flush mounting the speakers and as we are shopping for a new house it may be something I can do. At present we are in a 124 year old house in the North East and I have limited options on what I can do. (Just updating and Re-wiring the place a couple years back was more then a new car :) It also looks like we are or will shortly be declared a historical building limiting my options even more.
The deffraction begone pads do what they say at least on the mini monitor front. I have not noticed a loss of detail but will be the first to say as I age my hearing is not what it used to be either. What I have noticed is the image is more locked in, stable and more enjoyable in the room that I use. Again room issues are the heart of the question here. Simply put like me I would think many cannot just throw up a bunch of room tunes, corner traps etc. At some point you run out of hiding places and start to effect the room itself as shared space with the family this was not an option for me, or more to the point I have gone as far with it as I can. As something that mounts on the speaker there was little debate I slipped them on and got a better overall image and balance from the 20's. Again at least in my room with my setup.
I do like the idea of reaching out to ATC, love there stuff and the time I got to spend with the Atcive 100's was perhaps the best I have ever spent. (I top out at around 5k for components, and might be able to stretch to 10 on a good year) but as yet have not been able to come up with the dollars for even a used pair of the 100s. So I do wonder what they might say about this, I have to think at least some of there customers have had issues and or modified the baffle on the speakers. The one issue I have always seen around the ATC speakers is imaging is not up to the rest of the speakers performance. For the most part I would tend to agree, but they do everything so well it seems to be a minor issue and overall I could not be happier with the 20's.
As the pads I have come on and off easy enough, for 50 bucks it seemed like a no brainier to try. I as really fairly surprised by the results. Many of the classic British monitors have some surround material, and the celestions had an etched baffle that I assume made up a good deal of there imaging prowess.
Overall it sounds like people have had some luck with these types of mods, maybe I will give them a try on the Talon's. A much larger speaker and not a mini monitor by any stretch. Hope I covered the questions to date and thanks for the response.
The deffraction begone pads do what they say at least on the mini monitor front. I have not noticed a loss of detail but will be the first to say as I age my hearing is not what it used to be either. What I have noticed is the image is more locked in, stable and more enjoyable in the room that I use. Again room issues are the heart of the question here. Simply put like me I would think many cannot just throw up a bunch of room tunes, corner traps etc. At some point you run out of hiding places and start to effect the room itself as shared space with the family this was not an option for me, or more to the point I have gone as far with it as I can. As something that mounts on the speaker there was little debate I slipped them on and got a better overall image and balance from the 20's. Again at least in my room with my setup.
I do like the idea of reaching out to ATC, love there stuff and the time I got to spend with the Atcive 100's was perhaps the best I have ever spent. (I top out at around 5k for components, and might be able to stretch to 10 on a good year) but as yet have not been able to come up with the dollars for even a used pair of the 100s. So I do wonder what they might say about this, I have to think at least some of there customers have had issues and or modified the baffle on the speakers. The one issue I have always seen around the ATC speakers is imaging is not up to the rest of the speakers performance. For the most part I would tend to agree, but they do everything so well it seems to be a minor issue and overall I could not be happier with the 20's.
As the pads I have come on and off easy enough, for 50 bucks it seemed like a no brainier to try. I as really fairly surprised by the results. Many of the classic British monitors have some surround material, and the celestions had an etched baffle that I assume made up a good deal of there imaging prowess.
Overall it sounds like people have had some luck with these types of mods, maybe I will give them a try on the Talon's. A much larger speaker and not a mini monitor by any stretch. Hope I covered the questions to date and thanks for the response.