Speaker placement for Joseph Audio rm25si

This has to be a joke question. All right, I'll bite. ARE YOU NUTS??? Will placing your $3500/pr. speakers in a big, glorified shoebox greatly affect the sound quality??? Oh, wait a minute. The box is made of solid cherry and it's only 5" off the floor -- gee that makes all the difference. ARE YOU NUTS??? The RM25 is capable of throwing of an impressively wide and deep 3D soundstage and disappearing in the process, and by sticking them in a cabinet and putting them flush with the fireplace it will all but completely squash some of the major strenghts of this speaker.

Quite frankly I'm shocked/disappointed that anyone who bought these speakers would even ask this question in the first place. Here's my recommendation -- sell the RM25s and buy some nice little unobtrusive Bose speakers since you seem to care much more about room aesthetics than sound anyway. With the remaining money you can buy all sorts of nice little expensive knick knacks to put on the mantlepiece, and the whole thing look just marvelous.

Sorry, but this post really offends the audiophile in me, especially since a pet peeve of mine is when people shove good audio equipment into their beloved wall units and other pretty, nice, and neat types of cabinetry so all their Martha Stewart wannabe friends will all be impressed. If this was a joke then I guess it's on me. I'm gonna go barf now.

There's no reason to be a nasty audiophile elitist. Just because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed doesn't mean you have the right to be completely insulting and denigrating. I obviously have no right to ask honest beginner type questions on this board. Sadly, your Mother never taught you that there are no bad questions except the ones that aren't asked, but even more regrettably, she obviously neglected to tell you that if you have nothing nice to say, keep your mouth shut.

Thanks for encouraging my participation in the hobby. I hope I can return the favor some day.

Bnrlaw
That would not be the best way to set up the rm25's. They are very nice speakers.
Tim

how about if i put them right in front of the cabinetry on the floor? if i did, could i put shelves in the cabinetry and place books on them directly behind the speakers or am i better off leaving the enclosre behind the speakers empty?
thanks for your help

That sounds like a better choice. If the speakers are in front of the cabinets,they should image quite well. Give it some time and move them around. Speaker setup makes for big changes in sound.
Most important!
Have fun.
Tim

Sorry Bnrlaw -- I didn't think you were being serious with your question, but obviously I was wrong and I did come off like and "audiophile elitist." My bad. I'll try to attone.

I agree with Tim that speaker placement is of utmost importance in the sound you will get out of your system. Many people blow big bucks on new equipment for better sound when they would have gotten much better results optimizing speaker placement in their room -- and it's free.

Also, as Tim said, I'd highly recommend playing around with a wide variety of placements and you'll start to get a feel feel for what the trade-offs are. My experience with Joseph Audio speakers is that they do like room to breathe and sound considerably better away from room boundaries(i.e. wider/deeper soundstage, better balanced, more realistic imaging, etc.). Also, since the RM25s do go fairly low you may find that the bass gets a little boomy if put too close to walls or other objects. Because of this I would think leaving the space behind the speakers open will yield better results with a more "open" sound, so you might want to try it both ways to see what works for you. I'd also highly encourage you to try pulling the speakers out a good 4 to 5 feet from the cabinets just to see how the soundstage and transparency changes when the RM25s are more far removed from any boundaries. You may not want to leave them there and it may look ridiculous(except to another audiophile), but it should prove very instructive in gauging the trade-offs in speaker placement with your speakers in your room.

Sorry again for the sarcasm, and best of luck.

The floor in front of the cabinets could work out quite well. If the cabinet is filled with books or, better, records, it can be a good acoustic treatment. It also encourages you to move the speakers into the room a bit so you can get to the books easily, and that is also a good thing. The RM25 is a good speaker and nice to look at too, so hopefully there is no issue with placing them out into the room by a couple of feet. The payoff compared to placement in the cabinet will be very substantial. By the way, you should also take the time to fill the enclosure with sand. Follow the instructions that came with the speaker very carefully, as you can damage the speaker if you spill sand, but the sonic effect is not subtle.