Thoughts on Speakers for a Small Audio/Video Room

OP, I"m a broken record (jittery digital bitstream?) on this topic, but here I go again--for a problematic room like this, where no matter what you do the speakers will be near one boundary or another, you should stick to sealed/acoustic 2-ways. Same for a subwoofer, though obviously using any sub in this room will take lots of trial and error.

• My home office is a similarly problematic 13' x 13' space, filled to the brim with audio and furnishings. So my recommendation is based on experience (I had ported speakers here and no matter how good they sound tonally, the interact more with the room, particularly at moderately loud volumes)

Sealed designs will generally interact less with your room, in particular allowing you to put the speakers closer to the rear wall. And at least to my ears, sealed designs sound more natural in the lower bass than ported designs to begin with.

I can recommend the smallest of ATC's "Professional" speaker line for your application, the SCM12 Pro passive speakers. These take real power to get going, but sound amazing at all volumes.

Where are you?

I’d love to hear my restored AR-2ax speakers in that space. zero ports.

because they have 10" woofers, I suspect you would not need a sub.

level controls for the tweeters and mid drivers, a tripod mounted SPL mic, a CD with test tones

combined with the OEM or built-like stands designed to lift them up, tilt them back, aim them up would do a world of good by properly aimed dispersion and various angles of reflections off floor, clg, and side walls.

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next, I would like to hear speakers with Richard Modafferi’s ’infinite slope’ 100db/octave crossover in your space. Joseph Audio uses the crossover in his designs, pricey, and there are vintage JSE Speakers to find, the model 2 is too large, a smaller model perhaps. There is a conversation now about JSE .5 speakers, the OP knows a lot about the other models.

JSE Model 1, use UPS pack and ship

you give size and weight to UPS, they give you accurate estimate, seller simply drops them off unpackaged, in your name. You get exact price, you pay UPS, they are responsible to avoid damage. I’ve used it 3 times successfully

http://JSE Model 1 specs and review

when you paste an image ADDRESS in (top bar, 6th icon from left) enter 555 in the ’width’ box, that avoids distortions

replacement tweeters, mid, woofers all are known, I wish I had a space for them

JSE, never saw this model, seller says tweeter and 2 8" drivers

@wyoboy I do think addressing the room and optimizing speaker placement can definitely help and perhaps make my 7B’s workable.  But I guess the question in my mind is whether it’s still a matter of degree.  Meaning if you start with a smaller speaker, maybe sealed, you have fewer/smaller issues, relatively speaking, to address versus starting with a much larger ported speaker.  
 

@desktopguy Along the lines of the above, would you say that a sealed speaker would be easier, but still requires addressing the room and optimizing placement?  Intuitively, it seems to me that rear ported speakers (if limited in how far you can pull them away from the front wall) would be most difficult, followed by front ported, followed by sealed.  And size is another factor that plays into it as well in some way.

@elliottbnewcombjr I’m in the South Bay near 17/85.

Here’s one methodology I read about regarding speaker setup.  What do you all think of this?

“Start with one speaker by playing bass heavy music and dragging one speaker out from the rear wall until the bass locks with the room. As you drag the speaker from the wall you will hear the bass change in character as the speaker moves through null points in the room. Next you play vocal music and drag the second speaker out from the rear wall until you have a tight center image. In is important to note that (unless you are in a perfectly symmetrical room) the speakers may not be the same distance from the rear wall (mine are not). Next play with toein to get the right balance between sound stage. Lastly you adjust the rake angle until you hear the right balance between the tweeter woofer from the listening spot.”

If you treat the room as much as you’re willing/able, use speakers that make your treatment and placement tasks as manageable as possible, and follow an organized and logical setup methodology like the one above, perhaps that will allow one to find a reasonably satisfying result?

My friends has identical room size like yours. He is using diffusers, foam treatment , it works. If I were you I will audition monitors like Kef meta LS 50, Alnico Omega speakers. He also toe in about 2 inches .Your room is ok just used the right size speakers. And if you have audiophile friend let Him help you to listen to your system, sorry to say Mc Intosth and Aerial speakers for me are not good match. My  guess the Kef and omega Alnico will.