Best speakers for small listening room

either speaker will do well, but you will almost surely need to do some acoustic treatment to make em' sound their best, since you have the dreaded "square room." tougher, IMO, than the tricky "L". -kelly

Every room in my house is square. Standing waves are driving me crazy. I dont know the speakers mentioned but best to stay away from the ones that have an upper or mid-bass hump to compensate for their size.

paulwp: ouch! 'course if you take out a wall and combine two of your rooms, you'll have very workable space. but then there are many of us who can only dream of this alternative. -kelly

I think cornfedboy had a great point. The most important (and expensive) part of your system is the room you're in. Clap your hands and you may hear a loud harsh flutter echo. This is something you'll need to address with any speaker. If you don't have carpeting, get it. Experiment with different room placement. A standing wave only affects distinct locations in the room (thus the name). These can also be reduced in amplitude with sound absorbing material. Sofas can soak up bass, not necessarily a bad thing in a small room. Bookshelves can help break up flutter echoes. There are a number of companies that sell room treatments.

B&W CDM-1 the current model is the CDM-1-NT

Hammy,
My small office is carpeted, has an upholstered and padded wall behind the system, bookshelves and two upholstered chairs. I just wondered whether better-quality, small speakers would make more sense than the Matrix 803's.
Thanks for all of the input. Joel

I was trying to be responsive. If you like the sound of the B&W's and you dont think they are bass-heavy in your small room, I'd leave well enough alone. If you are unhappy with the B&W's because (1) too much bass or (2) cant get them to image correctly with the amount of room in the room, then surely a smaller speaker would be better for the size of your room. I would think you might have both problems - not a lot of room to work with. But be careful with little speakers that boost the mid to upper bass.

Paulwp . . . thanks for the input. I do like to B&W's and don't have any experience with other speakers in my small area to compare. I'd just like the bass to be "tighter". I've played with the setup and have the back of the speaker about 18" away from the back wall. Since it is an office, I don't have much flexibility. I don't really understand the "standing wave" thing. Joel

Im not sure I know what a standing wave is either but I know one when I hear one. It's sort of like turning on a light in a room full of mirrors. I can get my little mini-monitors, supposedly down 6db at 60hz, to put out a 10db peak at 60 hz if I put them in the wrong position in a perfectly symmetrical room.

What you want in your room with your electronics, I think, and some might disagree, is a small but warmish speaker. I've never heard of the Dynaudio speaker you mention, but the Contour 1.3 is small and very good. Not really warm though, might be a little bright with the Plinius in your room, unless Ive heard wrong. I would suggest little Spendors, but I dont think they're known for having "tight" bass.

For my home office, I chose to go with very inexpensive speakers, Acoustic Energy Aegis Ones, ample bass but not "tight," nice detail, but a little soft on top. I listen off axis closer to one speaker than the other and found that my cleaner, more revealing, more detailed little mini-monitors were too bright in that situation. Small rooms are tough, especially if you cant listen in the sweet spot.

Ok, I was curious so I did some research. I hadnt heard of the Dynaudio's you mentioned because I dont shop in that price range (on principal, sort of, but I guess if I were filthy rich I might). Properly sited they would probably be fine and a better match for your room than the B&W's.

Joel, having lived in confined space, the advice above is sound (no pun). Recommended for easy set-up: JM labs with careful positioning, strongly recommended -- BBC LS3/5A (used; don't think U get them new nowadays), Audio Physic Step. Not easy to balance the sound from yr B&Ws: IMO U need an unnecessarily big amp.
Regards