Is My Room Large Enough?

I'd get F. Alton Everest's "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget", which deals with acoustic treatment of domestic listening rooms (despite its title), and maybe the 4th edition of his "Master Handbook of Acoustics", for ideas on making your room into a decent listening venue. The close to equal L and W dimensions raise a problem, which you'll be able to see very clearly once you read about room nodes in either of his books. The electronic components and speakers are of course important too, but I'd start with the room, whose acoustic character (after treatment) will greatly affect your listening experience, IMHO. A room like yours will be a challenge, but it should be able to be met.

Sorry, I meant soom MODES, not nodes. Bad proof-reading.

You can also go to the Stereophile website and look through their archives. You will find several articles that relate to room setup. You can also try the Cardas site there is an area there that discusses room setup as well. Some things to understand first though. The deepest low frequency your room will support is 42.3 Hz. A good starting point for speaker setup is to divide room dimension by thirds. If we assume that you will be placing the speakers on the short wall (firing in the long direction) then put the speaker center of each speaker 3'-8" from the side walls and the face of each speaker 4'-4" from the front wall. Your listening seat should be centered in the room, 4'-4" from the back wall. This setup creates an equilateral triangle between your listening position and the two speakers. This setup creates what many audiophiles refer as the "near-field" listening position. Understand that these positions are a starting point only. From here make small movements in the speaker location until you get the desired effects. Moving the speaker back (toward the front wall) will tend to increase bass, although too far and the bass may become boomy and/or muddy. Moving the speakers toward the sidewall will have a tendancy to make the soundstage wider, but at some point the center image will lose focus. Moving the speakers in the opposite directions will have the opposite effects. You will have to spend some time on speaker placement, but the reward is worth the effort. Tom_nice is exactly correct concerning the room modes. Some of these can be treated with room treatments. Last, the equipment will make some differences so audition carefully. Good Luck, Doug

Your listening room is more than large enough for your intended purposes. You will have to apply acoustical treatment. Be careful not to over damp the room. You will also need to be attentive to your choice of speakers. Near field listening puts a premium upon coherence (multi-driver integration). Given your stated taste in music, I recommend the Magnepan 1.6 or the Quad 63. Both speakers will mate well with the Audio Research CA50 integrated tube amplifier. Together you will have the nucleus for a very high performance small room system. Regardless of what equipment you choose, your room will not be a major impediment.

Here is a link to an article by Steve Deckert that you might find interesting on his efforts to get a room slightly larger than yours to work well as a dedicated listening room. (His room was 13x15.) His experience might at least help you identify some of the challenges and possible solutions, even if you don't pursue all of the room treatment options.
http://www.decware.com/achowto.htm