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The Room, not us, determines our speaker choices

A bit cryptic perhaps, but after going through several pairs of expensive speakers, one just clicked with my room in an incredible way. It was like the errors in the speaker complimented the errors in my room so perfectly that the speaker actually sounded better to me than other "better" speakers. Unfortunately, you have to just keep trying until it happens. There's no way to predict which one it's going to be, but when the stars line up, it's a beautiful thing.

I guess if you have a dedicated audio room, where you can place the speakers 6 feet out from the front wall, 5 feet away from the corners and 10 feet from your couch, which is 5 feet from the rear wall, you may have some predictable performance, but how many have that? I would wager that many of us are fighting with clutter, TVs, computer desks,,,

Keep working at it - if you find the speaker that clicks with your room, you'll be a long way towards audio bliss. As a former musician, I always knew that NOTHING affects the sound more than the room. The greatest acoustic guitar played in a POS room sounded like a POS. You just have to find a friendly speaker and you'll know it when you do. It's a worthwhile quest.

I'm not saying your source or amplification components are not important. They make a huge difference once you find the right speaker. It's just without that speaker you're back to the great guitar in the shitty room. Experiment people. A bit of a crazy rant, but my pills are kicking in, so i'm more prolific than ususal. Have at it.
chayro
gerrym5's avatar
gerrym5
286 posts
 
Charyo, I think you are on to something here in this discussion. Since this room is usually some reflection our music expectations and living taste, speakers must work well in the room. Our living room is also our audio listening room. I owned and tried in my home over 50 speakers, maybe more. For years I put music reproduction way over how they worked in my room situation. That was a huge mistake that cause me to change speakers wasting a lots of money along the way. A few years ago I selected the best speaker for music reproduction, aesthetics, and budget for our room situation. I'm happy.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
I think one must truly know (1). their total budget, and (2). their room, to choose the right speakers.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,466 posts
 
If you have such a small space to relegate to a stereo system, get great electonics and earphones. You will be much happier.
magnumpi205
504 posts
 
A great room can't make a poor speaker sound good. You can take a good speaker into a poor room and make the adjustments necessary.
When you go to shows, there are certain speakers brands that consistently sound good. They are not necessarily the best speakers but have the best set up.
rodman99999
6,125 posts
 
I never expected that I'd write a post in agreement with Mrtennis either. BUT- I'm one that could never be happy with boxed speakers as well(except as studio monitors). I too have been using Maggies(a couple of the smaller models, modded, 24" from the front and side walls) in an undersized room for over ten years now. I've actually found the beaminess of the planar to be an advantage with regards to reducing reflections. My only problems were in my enjoyment of realistic SPLs(plugged in and acoustic jazz/blues) and the correct placement of my two transmission line woofers(actively bi-amped). The room overloaded quite easily, and I was forced to keep the TLs between, and lined up with, the planars. Covering my back wall with Auralex and using LENRDs in the corners(no WAF at my house) solved the first problem. Of course æsthetically: The room is a complete embarrassment, BUT- I've always had excellent sound staging(YEAH, I know: That's not supposed to be possible), solid imaging(even with an equipment rack between the speakers), and the timbral accuracy I love. Adding a TACT RCS 2.2X to the mix some years back solved the woofer placement/time domain issue and allowed me to REALLY smooth out my bottom two octaves. Room acoustics CAN be overcome, to a large degree, with the right treatments and equipment. It's all much easier without a wife, but getting rid of her(very expensive process) is why I've got such a pitiful listening room now. At least that exponentially reduced the ambient noise levels. =8^)
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