according to my testing and observations frugal horn and pensils Both have almost identical sound signature above bass range. the only thing sound-wise that keeps them different is the bass response. in my suboptimal non-treated assymetric room the pensils went down to 42hz and frugals go down to 38hz. SBIR interaction which causes a dip in the 100-130hz region is less significant in the frugals because it is rear ported and this frequency region is produced by the driver and the rear port aswell. So the cancellation due to SBIR is a bit compensated with the same frequency region coming from the rear port in the frugals. in pensils the SBIR is more significant because the driver and port is in front ie equal distance from backwall. hence port doesnt compensate for SBIR cancellation. But tables turn when it comes to ease of placement though. pensils are very easy to place to get a good frequency response. since the port is in the front, it doesnt matter much if you place them all the way to touch the wall. Actually the best response i got from the pensil is when i put them all the way touching the backwall. Also another experimental trick which you can attempt to further reduce SBIR interaction in pensil is that to tightly place it between two cupboards so that there is no way for sound waves to travel from the driver to the back wall. Whether this might inturn cause any other undesired result is yet to be seen by testing. Modern studios opting for in-wall mounting is to avoid this SBIR. now when it comes to frugals placement is a bit more complicated. Keeping them all the way touching the wall causes a 200 to 300 hz region bump. Keeping them 15 to 20 cm from wall provided me with a well balanced response. Placing them in corners will further enhance bass frequencies. keeping them more than 30 cm from back wall reduces mid frequency and bass to some extent. But all these would vary according to your room conditions. So moral of the story is that frugal horns are much harder to place in a suboptimal typical living room. sound stage is the same in both Lookwise frugal horns are like a piece of art where as pensils are just rectangular boxes. hope this reply answer your question adequately. happy listening.
