Poor Man's Strad - need thoughts on a concept

[powdercoater]

I'm an old guy new to speaker building and with a friends help just built Paul Carmody's Sunflowers. We are very pleased with the results (Thanks Paul!) and love listening to them. I am however, not able to design from scratch but am going to do another build anyway. This one presents a particular problem that I suspect isn't uncommon. It going to be a system for speakers flanking a flat screen in a small room. The viewing distance from the 50" screen is less than 8' although I'm hoping the design will be useful in a deeper space. The goal isn't to design a killer HT setup but to have a great stereo music pair of speakers. Other want-list items are on wall placement with cabinet depth as shallow as possible, a wide and open soundstage (like the dipole's) and an expanded sweet spot. Obviously since the room is shallow but very wide (28'), listening volume levels will not need to be very loud. I'm wondering if a wide baffle design, like Troels Gravesen's Poor Man's Strad might be appropriate. Maybe even using the tv screen itself as part of the baffle allowing the speaker separation to be a little closer. I think a design like this might be useful to others as well. Is this doable or just goofy?

[donradick]

I can't comment on the Strads, but you will need a specific on-wall crossover for your listening space. This design should work very well for you, and it's very reasonably priced also:
http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=32111

[Steve 6CA7]

Powdercoater, that sounds like a project that could be of use to a lot of us.
Maybe a ribbon,a rear firing or open back mid,separate woof or maybe DVC.

Keep us posted,
Steve 6CA7

[Steve 6CA7]

Donradick sound's like he's on to something. D.V.C.? open back? what was I thinking? In walls much better . I still like ribbons. Any thoughts on x-overs?
Maybe putting more cab in wall for smaller footprint.

[powdercoater]

Thanks guys. My screen sits off the wall about 6" so there's some wiggle room in the depth and I'm wondering if the baffle is wide that it might give some extra volume available to the cabinet.

[donradick]

Thanks guys. My screen sits off the wall about 6" so there's some wiggle room in the depth and I'm wondering if the baffle is wide that it might give some extra volume available to the cabinet.

I haven't built that design, and I am really not competent with modeling to predict the exact response, but - since the in-wall / on-wall Khans were designed to be mounted inside walls, they should be pretty insensitive to baffle width variations. You should be ok to make them a bit wider, and a bit shallower, keeping the internal volume the same. Don't try to make them 20 inches wide and 6 inches deep.