Speaker - Room/size dilemma
Need some advice. Like many other (married) folks here, I'm trying to find a reasonable balance between room esthetics and sound quality. We listen to music in our living room. It's a 16'X18' room with a two-story ceiling that is almost 20' high. So the room is basically a large cube. The other challenge is the speakers need to be placed along the18' wall, roughly a foot or two away front the side and the back walls, basically near the corners since we have a fireplace in the middle of that wall. The couch will be about 15' away from the speakers. All in all, the speakers and the main listening position form a 15' equilateral triangle. I guess I'll need to look for high dispersion speakers with good off-axis sound quality. Almost the opposite of what I have in there now which are ML Aerius i speakers. I still have the pair of Definitive Technologies BP20 speakers which I had originally purchased for this room and I think they better fit that application but I really prefer the clarity and focus of the MLs albeit with a much more constrained sweet spot. The MLs are being driven by a McIntosh MC2200 and I have the Def. Techs in another (smaller) room hooked up to a Vincent SP-331 hybrid amplifier. My bottom line question is what would be a decent option for this cubical size room, trying to stay within a $3K budget. The bi-polar design speakers seem to meet most of the requirements but sound a bit diffused to my taste. Anyone has experience with the newer/slimmer Def. Tech. tower models? What about the Magnepan 1.7? Thanks in advance.
Hmmm, feel like building yourself? There's a good 2-way that will play well in corners too. :) https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/2-way-speaker-kits/seas-a26-10-2-way-kit-pair-based-on-the-cla... |
Thank you guys. Great suggestions. Regarding the corner requirements, I have the MLs at 1.5' from the side and 2' from the front walls. That's about the practical placement limits of the speakers. I tried pulling the speakers more forward - while still keeping the side wall limit, and felt the sound stage suffered greatly by putting the speakers too close to the listening position relative to the distance between them. I'll definitely follow up with the options folks recommended, including room treatment. By the way someone asked about the type of music I listen to and its mostly jazz or American folk particularly female vocals. My current obsession is with Tidal and streaming through my Bluesound gadget. Oh, I looked up Sjofn. Lots of reviews but didn't find anyone actually selling the Clue. |
x2 with eric The addition of room treatment and bass traps were gamer changers for me in every room i have ever had .I use gik, all mine are custom sizes. It's only like 20.00 bks for the change of equipment to custom size ....also i bet a dollar to a donut they will try to get some traps in that high ceiling .My ht room is high and I get big slap echo,alot of the companies can imprint a design of your choice on the panels which can help soothe the partner. good luck. |
Another idea, depending on your flooring, is to move your speakers out into the room just when you're listening to music. My speakers sit on a wood floor and I don't spike them. Instead, I use Symposium platforms under them. These platforms have a number of benefits, but they let you slide around your speakers quite easily without scratching the floor. Just a thought. Kenny |
