Keeping stereo speakers on their side - Murphy BMR, other thoughts/suggestions?

[Steve Dallas]

Looking at the photo on a larger screen, you have room for slimline stands beside the console. You should be able to easily fit a speaker the size of the LS50M or Revel M105 to the sides of a console that size.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

If you look at the reviews Amir has done on the LS50's and LS50 Metas, you will see that the horizontal and vertical directivity plot are virtually identical. Same can be said for the Genelect 8341's. 51's and 61's. by virtue of their coaxial drivers. So yes, they should sound the same either positioned horizontally or vertically.

When I got my Metas and relegated my OG LS50's to surround sound duty, I placed them on 4.5 ft high stands and turned them on their sides which is how I have them right now.

 

[MattG]

Looking at the photo on a larger screen, you have room for slimline stands beside the console. You should be able to easily fit a speaker the size of the LS50M or Revel M105 to the sides of a console that size.

How is a stand, even a slimline stand, any different than floor standing speakers? Yes, if the entire console and TV are pulled out from the corner, there is room on either side for floor standing speakers (or stand mount speakers). But that is what we're trying to get away from: having the console out farther from the corner looks terrible, aesthetically - it dominates the room.

In short, the maximum width of everything (TV, speakers, and console) is the width of the TV itself. That allows us to push everything back towards the wall, and makes the room much less cluttered. We will likely get a new TV soon, same screen size, but a more modern one without the thick bezel. Which means total width will go down a few more inches.

Here is another idea I had, whipped up quickly in Paint. This is not to scale, but hopefully gives the idea: instead of putting speakers on their side, they are vertical (as designed). But they will be very low to the ground, on very short stands. We will purchase a new console that is considerably narrower, so the speakers can sit on either side of the console, but the speaker+console+speaker width is still less than the TV width:

Of course, the speakers are still close to walls, probably too close together, and basically at knee level, rather than ear level. But at least they are vertical! With good vertical dispersion, maybe being pointed at our knees isn't so bad. The other limitations (near walls, close together) are impossible to avoid with this setup.

Thoughts?

 

[TurtlePaul]

How is a stand, even a slimline stand, any different than floor standing speakers? Yes, if the entire console and TV are pulled out from the corner, there is room on either side for floor standing speakers (or stand mount speakers). But that is what we're trying to get away from: having the console out farther from the corner looks terrible, aesthetically - it dominates the room.

In short, the maximum width of everything (TV, speakers, and console) is the width of the TV itself. That allows us to push everything back towards the wall, and makes the room much less cluttered. We will likely get a new TV soon, same screen size, but a more modern one without the thick bezel. Which means total width will go down a few more inches.

Here is another idea I had, whipped up quickly in Paint. This is not to scale, but hopefully gives the idea: instead of putting speakers on their side, they are vertical (as designed). But they will be very low to the ground, on very short stands. We will purchase a new console that is considerably narrower, so the speakers can sit on either side of the console, but the speaker+console+speaker width is still less than the TV width:
View attachment 180572
Of course, the speakers are still close to walls, probably too close together, and basically at knee level, rather than ear level. But at least they are vertical! With good vertical dispersion, maybe being pointed at our knees isn't so bad. The other limitations (near walls, close together) are impossible to avoid with this setup.

Thoughts?

In that setup, there are also some speakers and/or stands which are adjustable or designed with tilt to allow the speaker axis to point directly to the ears even if they are at knee level. That would work much better than speakers on their sides. I would also point to the idea which others have had to use an AV processor which has room correction (Audessey, DIRAC, MiniDSP, etc.) which would allow for the correction of a lot of the frequency response non-linearities caused by the corner/wall placement.

Example Stands with Tilt Back Angle

 

[TimW]

Make those stands angled?

Since you're getting a new TV and console I would think there could be specific products for this situation but none come to mind. What speaker finishes are you okay with?