Revel Salons in an enclosure?


In an attempt to hide my large Revel Salons, I am considering placing them behind cabinets. How much will this compromise it's sound? I know the Salons have a rear port and rear firing tweeter.
lktanx

Showing 9 responses by lktanx

Ellery911, thanks for the suggestion, I will try them out. My 901 comment was tongue in cheek as well. Audigon deleted my grin in parenthesis. It's weird what it chooses to censor.
I thought I was listening? Hence the question, what are my alternatives besides the Salons which can be cabinet mounted or wall mounted?

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09-12-04: Prpixel
Listen to what Leftistelf said above and fire your interior designer and hire an acoustic engineer
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I know it is sacrilege is it not? However, what are your the technical reasons for not doing so? In what way will the sound be impaired? I am thinking that is sound radiates from the front drivers are not effected, the only sound effected are reflections of the rear wall with the rear port and tweeter. How bad is this?
Thanks for the opinions. It is a serious question as it involves incorporating the Salons in a HT setting. The room will be re-done by a designer and cabinet maker, I can place the Salons in Front of the Cabinets and lose some room or I can have them inside cabinets, save some space make the decor look better, also ruining its sound. An alternate is to design the cabinetry for inwalls, and place the Salons in front of then, that way if I sell the house, I just remove the Salons and re-fit the cabinets with in-walls. I have heard that it is a bad idea to place them inside cabinets but I just wanted to get the technical reason for it. I feel I owe it to the project to look further that it being a "sacrilege". I might also need to look into speakers with smaller depth. The Salons are 26" deep. I heard the Wilson WP7s are only 18" deep.
Should I go with the Bose 901s, I heard they are the best .

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09-12-04: Ellery911
"And this I presume are done by the pros (?)"
just because someone gets paid for what they are doing doesn't mean they are good at it IMO
just go Bose
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Another HT store in Montclair, CA had them this way as well. They were not functioning when I visited. The store owner said it made little difference. I am more concerned about the audio aspects.

From reading the Revel Salon manual, they said that if you got very close to one speaker, the frequency response would be the best. So in a way the frequency response might not depend on the rear tweeter if you sat at the proper location. If I allow the rear port to breath thru the rear of the cabinetry, maybe it would not effect the bass sound staging as much.

Does anyone have any technical studies or publication with measurements on this topic?

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The will not sound good, and I have heard them used as you describe. Century Stereo (in San Jose, CA) had a pair of Salons in large receases/enclosures in the wall, which had a fabric covered door. They used them in their premium home theater room. While they worked okay for HT; for music, they really did not work. The soundstaging and imaging was completely gone. The frequency response was ruined as well, as the enclosure rolled off both the treble and the bass.
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Nighthawk, thanks for an informative answer. To follow up on this, can anyone recommend in-cabinet or in-wall speakers which sound as good as the Salons or WP7s? Thanks.
Jon_p, how large is your room? Mine is 17'x22'. The 17' is the length of the room i.e. it is where the screen is placed. I cannot place it on the longer side of the room due to many windows along the wall. Another problem is that the room may be a bit too small for the Salon being out of the cabinets. I may have to use smaller speakers, maybe the Studios.

Everyone,

Thanks very much for your input. I have to admit that I am aware that most/all the high end setups do not place their speakers in enclosures. I have seen one case and heard of another case. Two example cases are: I saw with Salons in enclosures at the HT store in Montclair and a mention of one by Century Stereo in San Jose. So there are cases of this occuring. And this I presume are done by the pros (?)

BTW, it's really not the cabinet makers fault, he is doing his job the best he can as a cabinet maker. Isn't all this part of the learning process?

So if the Salons or WP7s cannot be placed in an enclosure, what speaker can? I presume some speakers must be designed to perform in this manner? Any suggestions? I would like them to be as good as the Salons.