The Room, not us, determines our speaker choices

I totally aggree. In college I bought some Canton higher end speakers though they sounded great in the showroom when I go thtem home they still sounded good and flat in the midrange but I loss base soundstage and something else. I even called Canton thought something was wrong with the speakers. Several years later I moved to a bigger room they had some air around them and wow what a difference! The speakers where simply to big for the room, probably a good pair of bookshlves woudl of been better.

Now I have vandersteen 5a and same thing I had them in a decent room but just never really worked I moved to a new house about a year ago with a dedicated 23 x 23 HT, Much better my soundstage just opened up. Can't waite till I get some treatments in I have a base hump.

One other thing that people are swareing buy is these sound eq like audssey (sp) that balance your speakers to a room. These hit the HT market in processors a couple of years ago and wow what a difference. They now make some high end ones for 2 channel most audiofiles frown at them, I understand, but most people I know that tried them will never go back. I am a firm belever you need to not only match the speakers to the room but also in some cases balance them to a room. Heck Vandersteen has been doing this for years he balances to the room and the preamp with little pots on the backs of the speakers and crossovers. When is the last time you installed any speaker in to a totally equaly sounding room on both sides. Also once the speakers sound the same the sound stage appears and gets big and the speakers disappear.

Programmergeek,

What size room did you have the 5As in before?

The room was 12' x 18' but had some wierd stuff going on and had a L shaped dining room attached. The only way they would work is with the R speaker close to the wall between the TV and wall and the other speaker was almost out in the open. The tuning was fun one speaker had almost no bass the other was cranked. My new room is about 22x23 with 9' celings seems about perfect for the 5a's.

A good room can make a bose cube sound like a line array to some people!!! (sarcasm)

Biggest mistake many make, and I have myself so I am not pointing fingers is jamming a huge floorstander in a far less than adequate sized area... Side walls are a huge issue with throwing a real soundstage, and allowing the sound to integrate at your listening position... The further away the better from my experience, or go with some decent bookshelfs and a sub.

I feel anything under about 14 feet wide is VERY limited, and normally will not allow you to use those big boys everybody wants, from Wilson to Kharma, to 7 foot tall lines.. This is because I have had rooms of 12.5 feet wide. 13 feet wide, and until having 15 plus wide never heard a room even with great room treatments anything as good as simply having the "Space"...

If your on smallish side room, or odd shape, or against all audio world grain with several obstructions and shared space type rooms not being dedicated, don't waste money on I say anything above 1500 to 2000 used, and thats even pushing it if you want your moneys worth. These are my own rules now, but believe me they apply pretty universally, however do you think a speaker company trying to make big bucks off you will really drive this home and kill a sale on thier big ticket item? They would be out of business!

Another reason so many unreasonable accusations are made of several speakers at these "Audio shows" in hotel rooms, mostly they are very limited in space, and are made to fit a king sized bed, not a speaker that belongs in an area trying to recreate a concert sized setting.