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Long wall vs, short wall

I am contemplating buying a pair of Dunlavy SC IVa speakers. My room is rather long (26 ft.) and narrow (12 ft.) and the ceiling is stepped (font half 7 ft. 3 in.. second half 8 ft. 2in.) the door is on one side wall towards the rear. There are two small windows in the rear half of the room on the other side. For all practical purposes, it would be impossible to have the speakers on the long wall. How well would these DSL speakers work firing down the length of the room? All other factors being otherwise equal would Thiel CS 6s work better in this room. Thanks.
pbb
9 responses Add your response
mejames
986 posts
 
with your short wall only 12 feet you need to use the long wall setup for the Dunlavy speakers. Now if the 12 feet were 20 feet it would work great, 12 feet places speakers a couple feet closer to the side walls than they should be.
qualsound
8 posts
 
I have the SC-IV's and the long wall is the way to go. Follow John Dunlavys' set up procedure and you'll be in for a real treat.
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drubin
3,274 posts
 
I'm a long wall fan myself and my understanding is that it is definitely the way to go with Dunlavys. theonly note of caution I would sound is that, with 12 feet total, you will have to place the speakers very close to the wall benind them (and you very close to the wall in front) in order to get enough distance between listener and speaker (8' is probably minimum).
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Pbb, I happen to like both these speakers and especially the Dunlavy's. I think both speakers would prefer the long wall but the Thiels might be more forgiving of the short wall. Are you sure you can't get the Dunlavy's along the long wall?
ttathompaolcom
41 posts
 
long wall
piezo
304 posts
 
Long wall placement is the only way to go. Tried mine both ways and the openness the Dunlavy's achieve so well just doesn't come across on the short wall (unless it's huge) i would say you need at least 3 to 4 ft between the wall and the speakers and 8 to 10 feet between speakers to get them to work like they were designed. They still sounded good on the short wall but much more boxy. once you hear a good placement with adequate room all around the speaker you could never crowd them.
jfrech's avatar
jfrech
1,816 posts
 
I could be wrong on this...but my dealer used to stock the SC-IV's. He said Dunlavy's prefer the long wall. Placement is critical with any speaker of this caliber. You might short change yourself...maybe find a better speaker/room match. Those SC-IVa's a good though...
sean
6,231 posts
 
My experience with Dunlavy's and speakers of similar design are that they do indeed "require" a wider room. Due to their limited vertical dispersion and increased horizontal dispersion due to the MTM design, sidewall reflections become far more pronounced. On top of this, the taller vertical array would also work best in a room where you could sit slightly further back from them. If you can't give the speakers this type of installation, you will end up missing much of the "magic" that they are capable of. Sean
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twl
3,251 posts
 
I may be in the minority, on this, but I have always liked to put the speakers on the short wall, firing down the length of the room. That is the way my system is now, and I like it very much. If you control the first reflection zones, I see nothing wrong with it at all, and alot right with it. I don't have Dunlavy's or Thiel's, but I see no reason that they wouldn't sound good that way.
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