Voted headless on the basis that with such a big and expensive cabinet they should manage smoother and less distorted bass response. The other flaws are unfortunate, but more a result of design philosophy rather than poor engineering.
Sure, if one has already invested in a brand and a "sound", they can stay with that.
I suspect that much of that "Thiel step response" sound colouration goes away once you apply a capable DRC doing both FR and phase/timing optimisation, such as DIRAC or one of the other DRC paths...
... That is only good for those who believe in DRC, of course, there are still plenty of people who see DRC as "unnecessary distortion in the signal path that prevents them from hearing the music the way that the artist and engineer had intended".
Nothing wrong with wanting or needing a horizontal center speaker, but from a performance perspective it's like looking for the best inexpensive amphibious car.You pay through the nose but you end up with a booger. Too bad. It looks nice, though, in a grandpa-hifi-esque way.
Still looking for that best bang-for-buck, <$500 horizontal center speaker! It seems all of them are inherently flawed, one way or another.
Wow. 70 lbs!
So it only has one coaxial driver?Here's what's inside; which explains why it's so deep:
View attachment 162889
And behind the grill:
View attachment 162895
Why would you want more than one coax in a single channel speaker?So it only has one coaxial driver?
Are you saying that something like the Q350 (and others) could be made to have the time/phase step response correct, and then have a Thiel/Spika/Vandersteen sound?
I guess the emoticon is where you put it, to assume that the artist/engineer, did not intend them to sound like it was in my room or your room?
Ta M8
Nothing wrong with wanting or needing a horizontal center speaker, but from a performance perspective it's like looking for the best inexpensive amphibious car.
It looks like there are two woofers, mounted on a single enclosure firing each into a separate cavity. Some call this configuration slot loading, some call it a short horn but it is neither. It is also not a band-pass. In short it is a wishful configuration.Here's what's inside; which explains why it's so deep:
View attachment 162889
And behind the grill:
View attachment 162895
I'm in a similar situation and settled on a 2-way Kef UniQ center that just barely fit in our cabinet below the TV. I have the high pass filter set at 100hz to mitigate the limited bass capability and reduce distortion at high volumes. It's definitely a compromise. I previously used a cheap Cambridge Audio center (SX70) that suffered noticeable tonality changes depending on your seating position. That was more annoying than the limited output and more gradual roll-off of treble with the Kef.Can't fit another tower under my TV, alas.
I had not thought of this trick until I read/saw it somewhere:...Since I could not see the drivers, I only took a shot of measuring the central two-way driver in near-field:...