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Dipole Asymmetry

I am considering purchase of a pair of Martin Logan Summit X speakers. In my room, I am somewhat constrained for speaker placement. I could place the speakers about 3-4 feet off the front wall. My main concern is my audio rack would be placed directly behind the left speaker, while there would be nothing placed behind the right speaker. How detrimental would this asymmetry be on sound quality?
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Showing 2 responses by tomcy6

tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,636 posts
 

I think that many people get great sound from MLs placed 3 or 4 feet out from the front wall. Martin Logan recommends 2 to 3 feet. I don’t think having your rack behind one speaker would be that big a problem. You can experiment with diffusion on the other side, a cd rack or a diffusion panel or something else. You don’t need technically ideal conditions for the MLs to sound really good.

You can find the owner’s manual on their web site and see what they have to say about it, and you can probably call ML and talk to someone about it.


tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,636 posts
 

OP: "Thanks for all the feedback. I think, personally, I’ll take rearward firing energy out of the equation and go with a conventional speaker design."

Conventional speakers also have rearward firing energy as well as a lot more energy hitting the side walls, floor and ceiling.

OP: "I’ve learned that everything, EVERYTHING makes a difference. The only question is how significant, and how audible is it."

Unless you have a room that is particularly unsuited for electrostats, and you would have to try them to know for sure, electrostats should not be more of a problem than other speaker designs. As you know, all speakers come with their own issues.

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