narrow and wide baffles and imaging


According to all the "professional" audio reviews that I've read over the last several years, narrow baffles are crucial to creating that so-desired pin-point imaging.

However, over the last few weeks, I've had the opportunity to audition Harbeth 40.2, Spendor Classic 100, Audio Note AN-E, and Devore O/93.  None of these had deficient imaging; indeed I would go so far as to say that it was good to very good.

So, what gives?  I'm forced to conclude that modern designs, 95% of which espouse the narrow baffle, are driven by aesthetic/cosmetic considerations, rather than acoustical ones, and the baffle~imaging canard is just an ex post facto justification.

I can understand the desire to build speakers that fit into small rooms, are relatively unobtrusive, and might pass the SAF test, but it seems a bit much to add on the idea that they're essentially the only ones that will do imaging correctly.



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Showing 2 responses by wolf_garcia

I've had a pair of very skinny (about 5.5 inches wide) Silverline Prelude speakers for years and they image amazingly well, in fact much better than various other tower speakers I've owned. However, they were retired to make way for a pair of Klipsch Heresy IIIs that image even better, with an amazingly well defined soundstage...and although they sit on the floor pointed up at what seems to be the exact angle my ears require, the image doesn't seem to originate from the floor and the image height seems like it's coming from a speaker at ear level. About 9 feet from my head, and 6 feet apart with some toe in seems to work best. These have horn mids and tweets which I imagine blow right by the baffle, and the 12" bass speaker covers most of the width of the cabinet so it's its own baffle...the whole thing baffles me, but I like it. It's good.