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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
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.
frank_sm
113 posts
 
I recommend doing some serious acoustic treatment before buying any new speakers. You have a very poorly dimensioned room and spending more money on speakers before addressing room acoustics seems ill advised.
magnumpi205
504 posts
 
Buy the speakers first and treat the room afterwards.
Treating the room first would be like going in for surgury and then going to the doctor after surgury to diagnose the problem.
newbee
4,767 posts
 
FWIW, as you do not discuss a proposed set up and I assume that you will set the system up with the speakers on the long wall in a nearfield listening set up (6'triangular type arrangement) as its the only thing that I can think of that will give good imaging at moderate levels.

I would be looking for speakers with a very clean/clear but unemphasized tweeter - consider that most speakers are not designed to be heard that close, or a speaker with rolled highs. I finally got some speakers with Dynaudio Esotar tweeters and I can't over emphaize how impressed I amp. If my speakers were not 3 ways requiring some distance for integration I'd recommend them. But, I'd sure recommend considering any of Dynaudio's models with that tweeter.
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