Yes! It will take a bit more attention during the RoomMatching and setup process, but the 8c's can sound great when placed in a corner. Let me first explain the challenges you'll run into. I'll conclude with how you can ensure that your 8c's will sound great in the corner.

Be mindful of three challenges:

  1. The forming of the 8c's Acoustic Cardioid radiation pattern.
  2. Speaker-Boundary Interference Response.
  3. The acoustic and psychoacoustic effects of a strong and early sidewall reflection

Acoustic Cardioid
For the cardioid to properly form, at least 20 cm between the cardioid vent in the 8c's side and a sidewall is required, 30 cm is even better. Other than that, the 8c's themselves are not affected much by the sidewall.

Speaker-Boundary Interference Response
Speaker-Boundary Interference Response (SBIR) refers to the interaction of a loudspeaker that is placed in proximity of a large object or a wall. With conventional speakers, the sound that bounces off the sidewall will cause an increase of low frequencies, as well as cancellations at higher frequencies, that fall smack in the middle of the range of fundamental notes of the human voice. With conventional speakers SBIR causes coloration of the sound.

Reflections
At higher frequencies the side-wall will start to behave as a reflector, similar to how a mirror reflects light. The direct sound from the speaker and the reflection will blend together in your ear, which causes some frequencies to be heard louder, and other to be cancelled out. This effect is referred to as comb-filtering. If the reflection is strong and early enough, this may lead to an ambiguous soundstage and more colorations.

RoomMatching to the rescue

The 8c is what we call a RoomMatching speaker. With the 8c you can greatly mitigate the sidewall's effects by:

  1. selecting the corresponding Boundary Distance Settings;
  2. applying a bit of RoomEQ to deal with any residual issues in the frequency response; and
  3. by means of toe-in.

The toe-in works very well with the 8c, because unlike conventional speakers, the 8c is unidirectional across the entire frequency range. You could think of a conventional speaker as an acoustic light-bulb, then think of the 8c as an acoustic spotlight. Simply point it at the listener and away from the sidewall.

To conclude, if you pay careful attention to the 8c's boundary distance settings, apply the proper amount of RoomEQ (check out this article: https://support.dutchdutch.com/rew/) and if you give the 8c's the proper amount of toe-in, then yes, the 8c can sound amazing if placed in a corner.