room size question.

I found a set up description in a Stereophile Review of a PBN Montana.

" When he sets his speakers up in a listening room, PBN’s Noerbaek begins by placing the speakers about 2’ from the back wall and about 7’ apart. He then toes them in, finding the proper angle by extending the horizontal plane of the front baffle to intersect the outside rear corner of the other speaker. (This is easy to do with a length of string and a couple of pieces of tape.) Once the speakers are so positioned, they can be moved a little at a time until the optimum imaging is found.

In my room, I was able to get the Montanas relatively close to the rear wall without inducing any boominess. I found that a horizontal separation of about 6.5’ between the inside front corners was optimum in my room, and 16" out from the back wall was fine. The heavy-duty spike feet are essential for getting the most out of the EPS, but shouldn’t be installed until the speakers are close to their permanent positions. Once the feet are on, each speaker can be moved by tipping it back so all its weight is on one spike, then pivoting it around that point. Toe-in is critical if you want to get the best imaging from these speakers. "

1 Measure from the front of the speaker enclosure ( the baffle ) to the wall behind the Speakers and on the centreline ( for the sake of uniformity ).

2 Switch off the Subwoofers and find out what the Mains ( L+R channels ) sound like without Subs.

Don’t hesitate to adjust the distance to the wall and between the Speakers as well as the distance for listening position.

You are adjusting for both power response and soundstage - the image should extend beyond ( outside the speaker positions ).

Note the difference between the initial setup and how the reviewer positions the

L+R channels.

@bshaw Yes the models are different but the example is applicable. Both models are dynamic driver / enclosure design.

The M2 is quite a nice choice as smallish two - way designs have come quite a long way.

My current ' stand mount ' mains are a two way design with rear ports which are placed near the ' front ' wall and perform in exemplary manner for imaging.

The example that I cited goes to demonstrate that a speaker - enclosure can be placed nearly against a wall and function well.

The 12' x 12' room ' constraint ' seems to be the immediate concern given:

" my question i guess is that can this same thing happen in a smaller room, say 12x12 or is one just limited to say center imaging due to room size ? ".

The lower the ceiling the greater a smaller space would be affected but a symmetric room is more predictable acoustically. Also note that a ' small room ' - acoustically - could be as much as 700 sqft as an example.

In general terms damping the room at one end and diffused at the opposite can work well. As with almost any rooms frequencies below 200 Hz will remain as difficult to treat in an easy way. 

None of these ' circumstance ' preclude good imaging though. 

Large playback systems like the examples used in the videos listed can deliver exceptionally high SPL levels in a large room. A different goal. 

Something to try would be to raise the speaker to a higher level so that the tweeter plane is at least at ear height.