I picked these broken in F15’s up from the forum recently. Finally got around to throwing some baffles together based on Randy’s (same size only 3/4” birch ply though) as a temporary way to try them out. My room is very small, square, and stuffed with guitar gear mostly. Because of this these are nearfield as is all my listening. I’ve tried them on the floor and sat on my other speakers stands and hear absolutely no difference in bass, but they definitely sound better to me on the stands. My positioning is just haphazard though and this is what I need help with in such a small room.  They are 7’ apart, 3.5’ from the front wall and 2.5’ from the side wall. Listening position is 6’ from the from the driver with them pointed in right at each ear.

I’ve tried different pieces of music and these definitely sound like a$$ with heavy rock. They shine with uncomplicated classical or jazz (they sound very good on cello like Jacqueline du Pre). Vocals tend to sound nasally to me on a lot of tracks though.

I’ve heard open baffle speakers off and on through the years, but not many single driver speakers. Am I expecting too much from these? I could see keeping them for acoustic, jazz, and small ensemble classical.

I tried sitting them on the floor again and raising the front up 1-2”. No deal. The main performers never get above chest level. It’s just low enough I can tell everything is low. Back on the 9” stands they go. That puts the center of the F15 at about chin height. Again, absolutely no difference in bass that I can hear.  I ended up crossing them right in front of my face a few inches and that helped. My hearing is poor enough in the upper frequencies that off axis too much and I can really tell. I’m boosting the bass slightly and that helps as well. If I decide to keep them I’ll get a sub. I also moved a foot farther away or so as well as move them 6” farther from the side walls. My room is a disaster which isn’t helping 😜 Time to leave them alone and just listen.

I finally ended up with the best sound for my room as is. On the 10” stands is better than the floor as my listening distance is pretty short. They actually ended up exactly, to the 1/2” of where I had my other speakers, toe-in and all. I’ve moved these things 100X in the last week. Finished some ACA monoblocks for them that sound decent for what they are. Better than the old NAD integrated. Then I threw my diy 1626 Darling on them tonight. What a difference!  This is a basic amp with nothing special for OPT’s. Decent guys though with Mills, Kiwame, K40 couplers, tube rec dual choke PS. This amp finally has some speakers that it works with!  Typical soft 1626 top end, but I can see what the SET/F15 fuss is about. So good on vocals, strings, and ambience in general. I’m not even missing the lack of bass. Thanks everyone for the help.

Now to start the upgrading gear process. Get rid of all this old mid-fi crap piece by piece.