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New house room size opinions please........

Hi All,

Looking into new house and so far we have 7 "contenders" wich means a room of my own, most houses have rooms in the 13X21 to 24ft range, all in basements. I ran into a house today wich looks great, has alot of other features we would like but a room that is only 14X18 and I wonder if this can still be an ideal room for my use, the room my gear is in now is 13X17 and am pretty happy even though it is our living room so a large cabinet and TV are in between speakers wich kills any performance other then average.
I was hoping to be in a room where I had more room from back wall but if we picked this house should I expect enough improvement by gaining the center image to ignore the fact I will be maybe 2-3 feet from back wall?
Speakers are VMPS FF3SRE and are large but tunable with woofer tuning and active outboard crossover and I never once felt they over-loaded my current room. One thing to consider is in the new room I will listen roughly 10ft from speakers, my couch in current room is against back wall and could be closer but living room WAF issues stand in the way, if in that new room I went 3-4 ft from back wall, sat 10-11 feet away I would have 3 feet behind me, speakers would be 7 ft apart and almost 3 feet from side walls, all in all what do you guys think? Thanks a bunch for your time.....Chad
chadnliz
gammajo's avatar
gammajo
844 posts
 
Chadnliz - Unless you are home alone a lot, if you can, find a room where you can listen at good volume without disturbing her. This could be a basement room if bedroom is two floors above, or the end opposite the master bed in a long ranch etc. It is invaluable to me to be able to listen after my wife goes to bed without worry of waking her.
chadnliz OP
3,736 posts
 
thanks Gammajo, if you would call it fortunate I am disabled so one advantage is I am home alone atleast 60 hrs every week so that isnt as large a concern as it would be many times, but great point. I also cant really entertain a bedroom on a second floor for saame reasons, I can get down to a basement to listen in, have a bathroom down there and small fridge and Microwave to camp out for a day, but doing steps for bed time and such isnt very workable for me. Again thanks for the tips so far!
beavis
272 posts
 
Chadnliiz, bear in mind how notoriously difficult it is to predict sound from room size alone. My advice is to select the house first or like Jaybo suggest above "let your wife pick the house...don't even offer an opinion, or you'll pay for it down the road in ways too bizarre to imagine." Good Luck!
fjn04
1,561 posts
 
I now have Vandersteen 5A's FWIW in a 23+ x 12+ room. This is
a living room , that I have dedicated to me me me. I have
given my family the 19x18 family room. If anything, I wish
that the 12+ was at least 2-3 feet wider. This enabling me to get the Vandersteens further than approx. 2 feet away from the side walls, where they now reside. I know it's a non-issue for you, but Gammajo makes an essentially important point on getting the listening room away from her ears when she is sleeping. Cardas has some their ideal dimensions on their site, I do remember this includes 9 foot ceilings, but I cannot remember the exact dimensions. It would seem difficult to find this in an existing room, but who knows.
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
"Let your wife pick the house...don't even offer an opinion, or you'll pay for it down the road in ways too bizarre to imagine."

Are you kidding?!
What ever happened to concepts like discussion and compromise?
Do you guys really live like that?
Seriously?!

I am sorry to disagree with you who support this line of thought, but there is no way in the world I would let my wife pick the house without my opinion or input.

When we went looking for our last house (about 10-12 years ago), I made it understood that I wanted a large room so I could have my stereo in it. (Like I had in my first house, that I had bought alone, and into which we moved when we got married.) If said large room was the living room, I could live with sharing it with her, if she could live with my stereo. She agreed without hesitating. (Luckily she too loves music, which is one reason I married her.) She wanted a house with a nice view, a large kitchen and master bedroom, and a separate dining room. Items which I did not mind having and paying for, (although if would have only had a normal sized kitchen and/or no view, I would not be too upset, as those items were not a high priority to me.) We looked and looked until we found exactly what we wanted, and agreed to buy it. Communications and Compromise, IMHO, is the cornerstone to a good marriage.

To knowingly let someone buy your house for you is like letting someone dress you every day. Sorry, but that is not the life for me.

My two cents worth.

Chadnliz,

My advice is to get the largest room you can, and, if you can get a dedicated sound room, two thumbs up for you. (I wish I could have gotten one, but I compromised on our 16' x 24' living room, which works fine for me, and my family.) Remember that your room, being in a basement, will probably need substantial acoustical treatment, as it is probably concrete on the floors and walls, which is not so good for sound. I also agree that square rooms are not the best, but if that is what you end up with, you'll be able to deal with it, especially if it is decent sized. 14'x18' is a little small, but again, if it is a dedicated sound room, I think it would work acceptably.

Good Luck in your house search!
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