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Can speakers be too large for a room

The reason I ask this question is I recently moved from a 10 ft x 10 ft home office/listening room with a nearfield setup (B & W CM1 and a CM sub with a Bryston B100SST intergrated amp) Which sounded wonderful to a 11 ft x 18 ft office/soundproof listening room. So I purchased a pr. of Sofia's from audiogon. Although they sound very good. They seem to want more. It's hard to explain. I'm kinda new at the highend music. My new office is built for listening. I have lots of bass traps and reflection panel to help tame the small room. So accoustics are not a real problem. The sound seems to be a little restricted. The amp pushes 200 wpc @ 4 ohm. There is no way to turn the volume past halfway, but the speaker don't really start sounding there best until you turn up the volume. Which gets a little fatiguing after a while. I know these are not technical terms, but i don't know how to explain it.

My question is could the sofias be to much for the room.

If so what would be a good choice for a replacement. I mostly listen to jazz and blues with a little classic rock.

Price range 6k to 10k

Thx Matt
mwilliams
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
A 10' X 10' room is pretty small and worse, it's square. Very challenging room to get good sound in.

I would first try taking out the acoustic treatments and see if things don't perk up a bit. Add each piece back one piece at a time starting with the corner bass traps. It is possible to overdo it with acoustic damping, which would result in the type of problems you describe.

Try this and come back with your impressions before giving up on the Sophias.
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
Oops, misread your post. Your new 11' X18' room should work much better. Same recommendation though.
br3098
974 posts
 
Yes, but it doesn't sound like that's your problem.

I agree with Dlcockrum; 1st remove all of your room treatments and listen. Then reposition your speakers, even if that means trying them in a different orientation to the room, and listen again. Then find your best seting position and listen some more. Finally, start to reintroduce your room treatments (as necessary). Change or add only one thing at a time, and listen carefully between changes.

Once you have optimized your gear, listening position and the room treatments will you know if your speakers and your room is optimized - keeping in mind that it only has to be good enough, not perfect. Otherwise you wouldn't have anything to dream about!
xti16
1,525 posts
 
As a Bryston B100 owner (with dynaudio C1's) I would say the Bryston is your problem. Some speakers really need more than the min recommended power to sound their best. Also the Bryston does seem to clip a little past 1 o'clock (in my system) which is where the C1's really start to show what they are.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
I know that many A'goners are happy with Wilson speakers in small rooms, but...

While others will disagree, I've always felt that most of the Wilsons I've heard (going back to the original WAMM with Crown electronics)sound like they're "voiced" for large-ish rooms. I haven't heard the newer Sophia iterations, but I have heard the original Sophia. I thought it was a very good sounding speaker with bass a little too ripe for the audition room, which IIRC was a bit larger than yours. My impression was that the bass would probably have been more neutral in a larger room. From that experience, I would guess that the bass from the Sophia would likely dominate in a room with dimensions like yours.

Like I said, others will surely disagree - just, MHO.

Marty
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