Room matters

One can use large loudspeakers in small rooms with very good results. Depends on the design. Some large speakers need space to intergate. Some dont.

In my experience, the Lyngdorf gear can dramatically improve how the room affects the sound.

I had never been able to get smooth bass response in any listening room. I have never had the luxury of a dedicated room – speaker placement and listening position have always had wife-based and room-sharing based constraints.

My new system is a Lyndorf TDA2200i, Focal BE1007s, Perraux 3150 amp and Lyngdorf W210 corner woofers. The TDA2200i has a crossover and time delay in the digital domain to integrate the two speaker systems. It also has a room correction module that claims to minimize room effects.

I am very, very happy with the result. Out-of-the-box, after the 30 minute setup process, I got bass flat to about 30Hz and really nice imaging.

However, like anything else audio, tweaking can yield major improvements.

After reading Jim Smith’s book “Get Better Sound,” I made several changes to the room (mostly WAF-friendly tricks for shared-use rooms). Then I ran through the Lyngdorf setup again. Huge, huge improvement. It’s as if the Lyngdorf can make certain improvements based on the starting point. So the better the starting point, the better the result…..

So, in my opinion, the room is no longer the limiting factor that it has been.

Shauns,

Yes!

Marty

PS The biggest problem with Tact/Lyngdorf/Audyssey etc digital room correction is that is philosphically incompatible with the audiophile notion of "purity". However, every one of these systems that I have auditioned works wonders, particularly in the bass. To reconcile the conflict, I use DRC only for subwoofers - where it makes the biggest improvement - and run a (mostly) "purist" main signal path.

Such notions of "purity" are grounded in analog considerations. With today's digital media, a more coherent reconsideration of the principle is necessary. ;-)

Kal

Kal,

The head says "Yessir! Couldn't agree more!", but it's the soul -or possibly nether regions- that begs to disagree. Since this hobby is (purportedly) for fun, I use an approach that tries to satisfy both pleasure centers. I know that "splitting the baby in half" is not necessarily the wisest approach to solving every dilemna, but in this case, it works for me.

Granted, I'm pretty sure that substituting an Integra pre-pro with full range Audyssey for my ARC preamp, NHT x-over and Velodyne PEq would reduce the cost, simplify the operation, and improve the accuracy of my current set-up. I'd only add that this incremental improvement would likely not be dispositive in determining my enjoyment of listening to my system and that it would be at the cost of a certain "right brain" sense of satisfaction.

This argument may not be entirely rational, but at least I'm no Party-Pooper!

Marty