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new small room, big change

I recently moved and had to go from a relatively large 15 x 14 room with 9' ceiling to a 8 x 16 room with a 7 foot ceiling. To compound issues more the room has a tile floor (at some point the room was converted from a porch into an extension of the main house) and the walls are wood.

In any event, having had Spendor S8e speakers for 3 years now....I thought I knew them! It became quite clear that they will not work in such a small space. Fortunately I have the smaller S3e speakers on hand and I put these little bookshelf speakers in place. What a huge difference! Now I am seeing how bookshelf speakers have a true place in life for all types of music...it's the room that dictates speaker size and not the music.

Therefore I am arriving at my question: What bookshelf speakers are one tier up with a woofer no greater than 6"? I am looking to spend no more than $5k on the used market and would be greatly interested to hear what is out their at this price point. Some thoughts are Verity, Ecalante (Pinion) and ???

Let me hear from you small room bound goners...

Thanks
chadlesko
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,981 posts
 
Chadlesko,

Even the small Dynaudios Contour 1.3's do need a good clean 60w/ch or better, be located at the correct height and need to be several feet away from walls and have room to breathe to sound best. If you can meet these requirements, they might be worth a try. They deliver a big clean sound from a tiny box.

I get best soundstage and imaging results about 3-4 feet in from side and rear walls in my two 12X12 rooms.
magnumpi205
504 posts
 
Chad,
Have Spendor, Harbeth and Reference 3a speakers. All have a very similar sound, which I would call musical versus other speakers listed that tend to be more linear.
The Reference 3a Decapo-i may be a good choice with a little more bottom end and very musical. The other 2 speakers that I have heard and really like are the Harbeth HPL-es3 2 and the Spendor SA 1.
The Spendor is the most lacking in base with the Harbeth in between the Reference 3a and Spendor. This Harbeth is definetly not dark sounding.
The Veritys are also very fine speakers.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,981 posts
 
What makes a speaker "musical" as opposed to "linear"?
gsm18439
895 posts
 
I use Celestion sl-700s in a small bedroom. If you can find a pair of SL-700se even better
magnumpi205
504 posts
 
Mapman
Linear- speakers designed to have the smoothest frequency response, therefore sound the best. B&W,Thiel, Wilson to name a few. They are generally brighter on top and not as mesmerizing in the midrange. Many of them are fatiguing after extended listening.
Musical- designed to have a smooth frequency response but also more critcally voiced by ear. The response is important but not as critical as linear responses. These speakers tend to have a more appealing midrange and aggressive highs. Can be listened to for extended periods because of the aforementioned traits. Spendor, Reference 3A, Harbeth and ATC are what I would call musical speakers.
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