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My Home Speakers, My Car, and Me...The Ballad of What's Going Wrong?

Okay, so tell me what's going wrong.

My new dedicated room is 13x12x8. It's small. Bare walls. Hard tile floor. Windows on the front wall.

I have some loaner speakers in there at the moment while my other speakers are on order. Right now I have Dynaudio Focus 340s. They are 7ft apart from one another, 29" from the side walls, and 19" from the front wall. I am sitting 9.5ft from the speakers with a glorious center image.

I have ran room correction via my Linn KDS/3, called "Space Optimization." It works very well.

Yet, here I am listening, and verything I put on gives me anxiety. Literally a vibratory feeling that sucks.It's maybe half of a song in and I'm feeling this way.

And I think to myself, "When I'm in my car, cranking my music, why don't I feel the same?" I feel fine in the car. Perfect, even.

So, why would I be feeling this way in my room?

I question if I naturally need to sit further back from the speakers (which I can't do: I'm out of space/room). It seems my best speaker experiences are when I'm at a friend's house and either I'm a really good distance away from the speakers, or the room is very large and/or the speakers are much further apart. All of this, of course, is contrary to what I experience in my car.

Then I think, well, let me try some near field listening with my speakers, and I end up with the same anxious feeling. 

There's really only one more thing I can try, and that is to move all of my gear into the parlor, which is a much bigger room. I couldn't leave my stuff there, because the wife wouldn't want it, but at least I could experiment to see if a greater distance from the speakers will be better. However, that doesn't answer my question of why I feel fine in my auto with the music blaring in such a confined space.

Could it be that a sealed up listening space, full of soft stuff, is optimal?

Here is a diagram of my room (if it matters).

http://imgur.com/PC8LyVX


Thanks for nay thoughts. It's driving me batty.
evolvist
evolvist OP
167 posts
 
Hey guys, a theoretical question (on my part), though some of you may know in practice:

If you've clicked on the photo of my room you'll notice to open alcoves on back wall. One leads to a hallway and the other leads to the kitchen. 

Now, imagine that I've made back wall my front wall, so that now my LP is with my back to the windows. 

At almost a 45 degree angle in my room the ports of the speakers are now aimed towards the alcoves. In other words, there is no front wall that each speaker is directly in front of. 

From there, in order to keep an equilateral triangle, my speakers must be 8ft apart, in order to keep the ports in "open air," which also increases my distance from the side walls, although each speaker is now not an equal distance from the side walls. Still, not only would the speakers no longer be firing into a square room, buy also those ports are "free" and not firing into a wall. I got the idea from here:

http://www.decware.com/paper14.htm

Unfortunately, my power went out in Houston, so I couldn't have a listen. 

So, is this sound theory (pun intended) and/or do you think they'll sound good without worrying about bass traps behind the speakers? 
tomcarr
1,480 posts
 
My dedicated room is not much bigger and made me feel the same way until I installed room treatments on all walls including the ceiling, and covered most of the hardwood floor with a thick area rug. Cover all the first reflection points. Jim Smith’s book Get Better Sound is very helpful. Time spent getting the speakers and the listening seat absolutely correct will make all the difference. Keep in mind, the room will dictate 50% of what your system will sound like. 
You shouldn't need to read anything when you’re listening. When your system sounds really good all you’ll want to do is sit with your eyes closed and LISTEN. 

Tom
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
car audio benefits from synesthesia 
devilboy
1,176 posts
 
Headphones.
Problem solved.
prof
3,467 posts
 
Just a note, evolvist:  while smaller speakers can be easier to integrate in a smaller room, you don't have to give up on bigger speakers.   If you place them right, and treat the room right,  you can have the glory of full range sound in a small room.  I've been using a big variety of large floor standing speakers in a smallish room, close to yours, for decades and even though I've flirted with stand mounted speakers, I keep going back to fuller range because they sound better and are more satisfying IMO.
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