what replaced your Aerial 7B speakers?

thanks everybody. 

For what your budget is I don’t think you’re going to find anything new or used that’s going to crush your 7B’s; now if you’re just wanting a different sound altogether that’s a different thing. Your post started out looking for a speaker with a little more bottom end and the fact is your current speakers meet or exceed what your room can produce based on the dimensions you gave - it’s purely physics. There’s a lot of factors that could be why your room can’t support the low end it’s capable of such as are you on a concrete slab or a suspended wood floor system, how are your walls constructed which there’s many variables there and are you on an exterior wall with a large window with no window treatment such as heavy fabric curtains? Do you have any sort of room treatment and is your listening seat up against the wall? Are your speakers on the long or short wall, and if on the long or wider wall have you tried them on the narrow wall? Just hate to see you sale what you have and spend the money and not get what you’re looking for. I think you’re going to discover your room has a lot more to do with this than your speakers.

If you like your 7B’s I can recommend ProAc as a line to look at. I’ve listened to many speakers over the years as I’m fortunate to live by two great stores that cover or have covered about everything out there and I’ve heard many. Today my favorite is the B&W 800D3 which although up there is a speaker that delivers unlike many I have heard at two or three times their price.

I’ll close by saying I was floored by how much my 7B’s improved when I added dedicated circuits to my system which made it obvious my amp wasn’t delivering what it was capable of to my speakers; it wasn’t my speakers but the amp that was starving. Just food for thought if you’re not running dedicated circuits to your equipment. I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking my system with cables and etc. and I’m amazed how revealing my 7B’s are with subtle tweaks. The more time I spend with them, I’m confident they’re capable of better than what I’m feeding them. 

Whatever you you end up doing, if you can keep your 7B’s  before selling to compare. 
Goid luck and keep us posted.

adg101, I’m still fairly new at this stuff. What do you mean by dedicated circuits? Do you mean your house wiring?

Yes. From your electrical panel box to your wall receptacles. If you can run a dedicated circuit so no other receptacles (wall outlets) or lights are on the same circuit/breaker to your system.

Your amp requires all the juice it can get to run to its full potential. If your amp does not get the full load it requires it will sound thin and not power your 7Bs well. The 7Bs are a demanding load and with a small amp or even a big amp not running correctly your system will sound lean with no bottom end or as some say the 7B can be too polite which it’s not; they are not giving the 7B the power it demands and sometimes it’s more than just having a big amp as I’ll explain next.

If your system is say 50ft feet from your panel you may not have heavy enough wiring in the wall, not unlikely you have 14 gauge where depending on the distance you should be at number 12 or even 10. Your system is drawing a lot amps than say a couple lights, a computer and etc. Your amp will work but it’s not performing ideally. It’s kind of the same idea of using a table saw with a small gauge extension cord that’s 100ft long. It will work but in time you will burn the motor up. That’s why they sale heavy gauge extension cords as well.

If you live in an apartment there’s probably nothing you can do but if you’re in a home it might be best to contact a electrician to see what your options are. Then next step is throw out the $2 spec grade receptacles and spend $45 or so for a Porter Port - Hubbell outlet or better. A lot of people will run two dedicated circuits to keep their digital away from the analog.

Most house electricians are going to think you’re nuts, so just ask if it can be done and what the cost is. If you show them the specs on your amp they may get it but don’t bet on it. I think you’ll get more bang for your dollar doing this than spending the money on a new set of speakers which I don’t think is where your problem is. As several other 7Bs users have noted, the 7B is cabable of very good low end.

Good luck and keep us posted as I know many users have the same problem and don’t really know it. If you think I’m crazy you could do an experiment which I’ve never tried but I bet it will work. Go to the closest outlet by your electrical panel and go to Home Depot and buy a Ridgid 10/3 extra heavy extension cord and only plug your amp into it. They sale 50 and 100ft cords so only buy what you need. Carefully unpack the cord because after your experiment you’re going to return the cord or keep it to cut up and make your own power cords for your equipment or for your table saw. Again I’ve not tried this but I wouldn’t be surprised if it works. Now if your system is right by your electrical panel a dedicated circuit will be easier but my experiment probably doesn’t make sense. It’s about dedicated circuits and what is the distance of the wiring and sizing it properly or you’re wasting your time and money. Don’t forget to buy decent outlets if you haven’t done so already.

Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense.

I have not done that of course. But, this is a 90 year old house that we renovated about 8 years ago.

Most of the wiring was original but was the old two prong type outlets. So when they added extra 3 prong outlets to the room they ran them from the panel and they do not share any lights etc. Just the new 3 prong outlets in this room. About 6. So I'm pretty close to a dedicated circuit.

When I'm listening the TV is off of course so the only thing plugged in and running in the room tends to be my laptop and a lamp or two.

So, not a dedicated circuit, but fairly close. Standard gauge wire and outlet of course.