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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. 

128x128kalali
kalali's avatar
kalali OP
1,977 posts
 

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.

erik_squires
16,049 posts
 
Oh, I'm not saying you should LISTEN to the speakers up close! :)

I just meant, you should know just how much detail is lost when your room acoustics are poor.

Best,

Erik
oleschool's avatar
oleschool
722 posts
 
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.
kennythekey
593 posts
 
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
kalali's avatar
kalali OP
1,977 posts
 

I’m going to experiment with some bass traps in the corners - cylinder, wedge, etc., but I think a 15’ equilateral triangle speaker placement and listening position is a challenge for most speakers, even not considering the very high ceiling. Rethinking the overall situation, I think I’m better off to leave the large family room set up as is, with some room acoustics improvements and focus on the living room where I now have the BP20s. That room is 13’x17’ with 8’ ceiling and much more suitable for music listening and allows for a lot of speaker options. A pair of medium size stand mount monitors will be perfect for that room, maybe a pair of used Aerial 5Ts. Thank you all again for all your input.

Anyone tried these guys for room treatment options?

http://www.shoplet.com/Fabrication-Enterprises-Inc-CanDo-half-round-foam-roller-6-x-48/FAB302118/spd...


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