speaker recommendations for a 12 x 12 room?

I tried Duke's suggestion this morning . . .

I have a spare bedroom with about those dimensions (actually 12x13x8) that I had set up a spare system in, just as an afterthought when my son moved out. Components are all spares not even close to your budget - I'm using a TAD60 amp, Von Schweikert VR3 speakers and a Marantz cd changer. I had it set up square originally and found it ok, but unremarkable. Moving the speakers out into the room didn't materially improve performance.

After rearranging per Duke's advice there's a huge improvement in imaging and bass performance. Thanks Duke! I have the speakers set up at about a 20% angle and they're pretty well hugging the walls right now, though I will be playing some with placement in the next day or 2.

The results now are good enough to entice me to put my spare turntable back up there and do some more tweaks - particularly on furnishing. I may even invest on some equipment upgrades.

Thanks for the thread, and thanks again Duke!

Totem might be a good option for your room. I have a pair of Model 1s in my 11-wide room and, with some room treatment, have wonderful sound and deep, deep imaging. I have mine mated with a Totem sub and a Creek amp.

I've dedided that a monitor-type speaker (on stands) sounds much better than a floorstander in my narrow and wide room.

You should check out Robert Harley's review of the Sunfire CRM-2 ribbon speakers with SubRosa subwoofer in Issue 183 (August 2008) of the The Absolue Sound. The ribbons are small and not as sensitive to boundry effects as a regular cone driver speaker. This would solve some of the problem and the subwoofer would allow placement of it in the best sounding location possibly solving the rest of the problem. If you can believe what Robert says this is one nice sounding system. I can't confirm it though since I haven't had a chance to search out a dealer with these.

Monitor speakers will work best, plus a separate sub that is front firing. The monitor's must be front ported. Look at some models in the ProAc line that have that feature.

Here's another vote for monitor (by design, not necessarily by name or model) speakers intended for near field listening. This should help overcome your limited maximum boundary dimension. You have several options from Spendor, Harbeth, ProAc, Totem, etc. My first choice would be to look for one of the LS3/5a designs (used). For a room this size, I would not be concerned with adding a subwoofer -- you could easily create more problems than you solve.

Another option to Duke's suggestion would be to set up your listening triangle across one corner of the room so the two speakers stand in front of adjacent walls. This may help reduce standing waves and increase benefits from reduced sidewall reflections, plus by maintaining symmetry you may improve imaging - if that is important to you.

In any case, experimentation should help find your best answer among the suggestions posted here.