I was pretty much set on a pair of Q Acoustics 3020 or 3020i, being wall mounted in our kitchen/dining/living area. Please see attached picture. (note, this wall is the "living area" opposite to the kitchen proper on other side of the room. We will be adding two more of the black seats going right up to the radiator.) Powered by an old Sony Ta-Fe330r amp.
I am aware that wall mounting is not optimal for getting the best sound. But we have two young kids and the speakers need to be put well out of the way.
Then I built a cardboard model to scale of a 3020i, and both me and my wife agreed they looked far too big and imposing to be mounted on the wall. (see red positions on pic.)
So the only other option seems to be taking the description "bookshelf speaker" to its logical conclusion and putting the right speaker on a shelf in the tall unit, and building a similar thin shelf unit next to the radiator on the left for the left speaker (blue boxes in picture).
Will the sound be so awful that I might as well save my £200 and buy any old cheap speakers? Or will only a true audiophile notice the difference in audio quality? (I have no idea if I have audiophile level hearing, I doubt it. I just want the best sound I can get for a couple of hundred quid, within these speaker placement constraints.)
Would front ported speakers be an improvement?
Many thanks.
P. S. I realise £200 for speakers is pocket change compared to what some people spend! But it is a lot for me.
Edit: Unfortunately it is now too late to install in ceiling speakers or in wall speakers. So they are not an option.
Also before I built these units, I was using my old Mission 702e floorstanders against this wall with great success. But they are too big to fit into this new layout.
I am aware that wall mounting is not optimal for getting the best sound. But we have two young kids and the speakers need to be put well out of the way.
Then I built a cardboard model to scale of a 3020i, and both me and my wife agreed they looked far too big and imposing to be mounted on the wall. (see red positions on pic.)
So the only other option seems to be taking the description "bookshelf speaker" to its logical conclusion and putting the right speaker on a shelf in the tall unit, and building a similar thin shelf unit next to the radiator on the left for the left speaker (blue boxes in picture).
Will the sound be so awful that I might as well save my £200 and buy any old cheap speakers? Or will only a true audiophile notice the difference in audio quality? (I have no idea if I have audiophile level hearing, I doubt it. I just want the best sound I can get for a couple of hundred quid, within these speaker placement constraints.)
Would front ported speakers be an improvement?
Many thanks.
P. S. I realise £200 for speakers is pocket change compared to what some people spend! But it is a lot for me.
Edit: Unfortunately it is now too late to install in ceiling speakers or in wall speakers. So they are not an option.
Also before I built these units, I was using my old Mission 702e floorstanders against this wall with great success. But they are too big to fit into this new layout.
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