Is the B&W N804 boomy when placed close to the wall? (1 Viewer)

[Arnel Enero]

This is my main candidate for my next purchase of front speakers. However, upgrading from a standmount speaker (CDM 1NT) I'm especially cautious about boominess of floorstanders when placed only 1 foot away from the wall behind them. As I use a long-wall placement (short-wall placement is NOT possible in my living room), distance from side wall is not an issue (up to 5 feet is possible).

The other speakers in my short list are:

Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home - well, my Concertino Home was boomy when placed close to the wall, so I assume the GPH will be much more trouble! I think Sonus Fabers have slightly lifted midbass, and that's the enemy of my room. Otherwise, I love these speakers, too.

Dynaudio Contour 1.3 SE - well, this is a perfect speaker for music. But I need a floorstander for my HT+music system.

Dynaudio Contour 1.8 mk2 - being back-ported, I also suspect this one will boom big-time. I've heard a lot of people complaining about boominess when placed less than 3 feet from the wall behind it.

 

[rodneyH]

yes, but I think that all/most speakers are, I place my CDM7NTs about 2 feet on each side (but I need more)

 

[Arnel Enero]

Weird thing is, I got a big room (long but narrow), but I'm unable to place the speakers well away from the back wall. :frowning:
If I setup along the short wall, I will need to mess up my furniture big time, to the extent that is simply unacceptable.

 

[Craig Morris]

All rooms are different, but in the store, when I auditioned the 804's, they had them within a foot of the rear wall. They used the same placement for the CDM 9NT (did I get that right?). I found that this placement was awful for both these speakers. The bass was bloated and over-powering.

Why are you set against a stand-mount? I have room constraints too, but I'm extremely pleased with the Revel M20 and B15 combo in my combined music/HT system.

 

[Mark Austin]

There aren't many speakers that can be placed within a foot of the rear wall, and not sound boomy. Placement constraints really suck.

 

[Arnel Enero]

Why are you set against a stand-mount?

Two reasons:

(1) I want to get as close to the ultimate macrodynamics and speed of the Wilson Watt/Puppy as possible for my HT. WITHOUT A SUB, any standmount I've auditioned below $5000 just don't do.

(2) I gave up on using a sub IN MY ROOM. I don't know if it's just because of my JMLab sub, but it never really integrated well with my CDM 1NT. I can always locate the sub, no matter how I set the crossover and sub volume. Or maybe it's because of the excessive output above crossover of the rather slow 12-dB/octave high-cut filter of the sub?

Btw, since many people seem to prefer a standmount + sub combo for easier placement, are there still advantages of using a floorstander (sans sub)?

 

[Larry Hilliard]

I have a pair of B&W Nautilus 803's and they sound better about 2' out from the wall. These are great sounding speaks. and I think you will like your new B&W's.