How do you chose speakers based on room size?

"In a small room I like a fairly narrow pattern that can be aimed to minimize early sidewall reflections"

Duke , is this why some speakers have the driver recessed from the front face of the speaker box and others put some type of built up ring around the driver if it is mounted on the face ? Or a narrow dispersion horn usage rather than a wide dispersion horn ? Would these perhaps be design features to look for if considering a small room speaker ?

And finally , what is your take on back loaded horns as suggested by J Bailey ? And speakers like the Altec 15 and 19 , used in small rooms in the Orient , where they are slammed up against the wall behind them but also used successfully away from the back wall in a larger room such as member 'T bone' does ?

Thank you .

""In a small room I like a fairly narrow pattern that can be aimed to minimize early sidewall reflections""

For me there are two viable approaches to fitting speakers into a particular room, large or small:

1) Do everything you can to isolate the speakers from room acoustics in order to hear just the recording and not the room

2) accept the room as your particular concert venue and utilize it

In the first case, more directional speakers or external tweaks that accomplish the same thing (see the isolated location of my Triangle monitors in my second system listing) are the solution, particularly in tight or limited quarters.

In the second case, omnis or other wide dispersion designs are the ticket.

Each sounds inherently different but both are viable approaches depending on the listener's goals.

I like and utilize both approaches in different rooms in my house, but, push come to shove, I tend to prefer the wide-dispersion approach.

Saki70, I'd have to see the speaker (and preferably know its crossover frequency) to make a judgment about its radiation pattern.

The room gain you get in a small room plays right into the hands of a good back-loaded horn that exits into a corner. That's an excellent, very high bang-for-the-buck format in my opinion. For instance I don't see how I could compete with what Ed Schilling is doing in that area.

And yup, your example of big Altecs in small Asian rooms is consistent with what I'm talking about.

Mapman, I'm encouraged by how many people find success with the Ohms in a small room. The Ohms aren't just wide-pattern speakers; they are wide, uniform pattern speakers - so their reverberant field is spectrally balanced. I suspect that there is a correlation between how good they sound in a small room and how far away from the walls they are positioned. Having experimented with fairly uniform-pattern quasi-omnis, that was my conclusion: Get 'em out from the walls and they can work great in a small room. My finding was that if they can't be pulled out at least 3.5 feet into the room, then controlled-pattern monopoles work better.

Have you found a correlation between sound quality and distance from the walls with your Ohms?

Interesting thread, and timing, to me as well as we are looking at buildng a new house and in the new house my wife would like my system to not be in the living room, but rather in its own room that will also be my office. The challenge has been finding floor plans we can use (and afford) that I feel will have a room large enough, yet I really don't know what "large enough" is. Budget will play a large role in what size room can be afforded.

Another issue is windows, they are a must for asthetics but suspect not the best for sound; I also will have hardwood floors, though a throw rug will be put down.

One of my concerns is sound off the back wall and I was surprised to read the comments above where they thought 18" was sufficient. My current room has my system in the living room. The speakers, facing me, face into the kitchen/dining room, so this is the full width of the house, 30'; I clearly hear more bass if I go to that back wall. Any (stereo) room in the new house would have me much closer to the back wall.

Audiokinesis,

The smaller OHMs can work surprisingly well just a foot or two out from the rear and side wall in that acoustic dampening material is used inside the can in the wall facing directions to lower output and enable closer placement to walls than would be desirable otherwise. Still I do tend to keep my 100s about 2-3 feet out from the rear wall or so.