Can a room design support both stat and omni speakers?

[caesar]

I am a big fan of different speakers for different experiences and music types, so I am wondering if the same room can support both stat and omni directional speakers without too much finagling and moving treatments around.

 

[JackD201]

Shooting from the hip, I'd say yes. Makers of Omni's like Duevel (I have two pairs of Planets in my mostly glass living room and dining room) and MBL typically have FR that slopes downwards from bass to treble in anticipation of regular domestic environments. If the room was too dead to begin with, everything with the exceptions of horns would, I imagine, sound bloated.

 

[DonH50]

Omnis are by far the harder problem, so yes.

My room is far too dead by most standards, but imaging is very precise.

 

[microstrip]

From my limited experience in room treatments, no. Each type of of speaker needs an appropriate environment to sound at its best. Some examples MBL's need a lot of diffusion to sound good, Soundlab's need some absorption on the back and Wilson's need reflection in the lateral areas. Perhaps an expert can design a room that sounds good for all of them, but every time I change my speakers I need some reallocating of sound treatments.

 

[DonH50]

But in this case, the wavefront from a 'stat is essentially a line source over most of the range, with pronounced radiation from the back and front and little from the sides or top (or bottom). An omni would require much more treatment, and my guess is that treatment for the omni's would not really impact the sound of the 'stat. Most any room (and speaker) could use some help in the bass region...

Over-absorbing is a problem for any room treatment, since absorption panels are cheap and easily found compared to diffusors. From that perspective, a room treated for omni's is likely too dead for stats, but worse for conventional speakers. OTOH, if more diffusors are used, then both (all) would probably sound OK.

All IMO, and I am not really hard over on any of this. - Don

 

[Ronm1]

A few years ago I tried that with little success. Could only get one or the other somewhat right, too much compromise to my ears. Each pair alone was the only way I could live with them. It was like some DBT's, small doses seemed ok, extended listening, forget it.

 

[NorthStar]

At the end you'll end up with only one pair; the one you prefer most of the time. :b

 

[fas42]

I would rephrase that: a system design could support both stat and omni speakers, and obviously, from me, that is a low audible distortion design. If distortion is audible, different styles of speakers will emphasise different aspects of that distortion, and hence will need different room treatments which attempt to quell those relatively obvious elements.

Frank

 

[JonFo]

Short answer: No, I do not believe one setup would do both types justice.

One has to start from the premise of what is a given speaker design is assuming the listener wants. An omni delivers the enveloping sound from all the room reflections it energizes, and in the right room MBLs can be spectacular, especially when reproducing instruments that naturally light up a room acoustically, such as a grand piano. But the room is always 'coloring' the sound to a significant degree. Treatments to tune or focus the delivered sound-stage involve diffusion and selective absorption along front and side walls.

A stat (or any line source dipole) is about delivering the benefits of low-distortion line-source focused energy. The penalty is it's dipole, radiating equal amounts to the rear, managing the rear wave is critical to getting the best out of a Stat. So room treatments of the walls behind the speakers are critical in my experience.

I've spent more than a decade tuning my room (using measurements) and arrived at a satisfying result, but it took tremendous effort and tons of treatments and gear to achieve it. It's now perfect for large stats, but I would not imagine an MBL 101 sounding its best in my room.

 

[FrantzM]

Short answer: No, I do not believe one setup would do both types justice.

One has to start from the premise of what is a given speaker design is assuming the listener wants. An omni delivers the enveloping sound from all the room reflections it energizes, and in the right room MBLs can be spectacular, especially when reproducing instruments that naturally light up a room acoustically, such as a grand piano. But the room is always 'coloring' the sound to a significant degree. Treatments to tune or focus the delivered sound-stage involve diffusion and selective absorption along front and side walls.

A stat (or any line source dipole) is about delivering the benefits of low-distortion line-source focused energy. The penalty is it's dipole, radiating equal amounts to the rear, managing the rear wave is critical to getting the best out of a Stat. So room treatments of the walls behind the speakers are critical in my experience.

I've spent more than a decade tuning my room (using measurements) and arrived at a satisfying result, but it took tremendous effort and tons of treatments and gear to achieve it. It's now perfect for large stats, but I would not imagine an MBL 101 sounding its best in my room.

Agreeing 100%