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Big speakers in small room at moderate volume levels

My office is 11’W x 10’L x 9’H and is where I can listen to music for the next few years. I have a toddler and, for now, he has commanded the big spaces in the rest of the house. I have auditioned the Magico A3 and wanted to buy it but that was before I was relegated to the smallish office (I was expecting to move to a bigger room). I have removed the closet doors in this office room. The removal of the closet door gives me another 4 feet of depth to this room, though for only 1/2 width of the room. I can sit unobstructed 8 feet away from the speakers before I hit the area where the closet ends (so near field listening).

I currently I have KEF LS50 with Peachtree Nova 150. It is good and I can listen for the whole day without fatigue. I listen to FM, digital files on ROON, and my Sony SCD-1 SACD player. I want a bigger sound so I am looking at bigger speakers. I also do not want to use a sub since I am not a fan. I will also upgrade the NOVA 150 to the NOVA 500 in Spring 2019 and use with the LS50’s in a bedroom.

I came to the conclusion that my tastes would be best served by one of KEF Reference 1 or Magico A3. I was thinking that I would use the Lyngdorf 3400 in this room but I am having seconds thoughts on this now (some A’gon comments that it maybe a little dry). I am interested in solid state AB units like the Hegel H590 and Mark Levinson 585 to drive the speakers. I have heard the ML 585 and it is a fatigue free sounding unit that was a joy to listen to. I have not heard the Hegel H590 yet (but have heard other Hegels with KEF) and I am in the process of getting an audition of the H590. I have also discounted the class AB Micromega M-One 150 (with MARS room correction) because I do not want a cooling fan blowing in the room.

I must mention that I do not listen that loud when I am working and when I am working very late at night the volume is very low. The Mark Levinson and A3 combo was very good at low volumes during my demo but that was in the dealers perfect large room.

1) Am I making a mistake foregoing room correction with the 2 integrateds I am considering? Should I go with the Lyngdorf and A3 or KEF Ref 1, though I have never heard the Lyngdorf?

2) Will the Magico A3 work in this small room at moderate volumes WITHOUT room correction or will I subject myself to headaches and fatigue?

I am going to ask the dealer selling the A3’s this question when I am ready to buy but i wanted to ask on A’gon first to get some feedback. I doubt I could get the A3’s into my room for a trial but I have not asked the dealer yet.

I think (not 100% sure) the KEF Reference 1 with a non room correcting amp should work in my office space but I would prefer to buy the Magico A3 for the office. I have plans to buy another KEF model once my kid is a bit older and I can kick him out of the big room.
yyzsantabarbara
yyzsantabarbara OP
5,056 posts
 
@d2girls I love the new KEF speakers. I have heard the KEF Reference 1 sound awful and also excellent. It was bad when firing into glass windows at a dealer. Headaches ensued  and it was rather unlistenable. Then at a show, it sounded great in a largish room driven by Wyred4Sound Class D monoblocks. 

Once my kid is older I hope to buy the KEF Blade for the downstairs living room. The KEF Ref 1 has a slice of the Blade sound. The Ref 1 is geared towards smaller spaces. My small office space maybe a little on the border of acceptability.
yyzsantabarbara OP
5,056 posts
 
@tomic6011 My current LS50 and Peachtree is NOT fatiguing. However, in the past I have had bigger speakers in various room sizes, Thiel SCS4, Revel Salon 1, NHT 2.9. These speakers overloaded some of the rooms  and gave me headaches. Now the amps I was using at the time were not considered the smoothest so that could be a factor.

One thing that I realized was that I had my head very close to the back wall in the bad sounding situations. I was reading the Vandersteen setup manual today for the Quattro CT and in it it stated to add some dampening to the wall behind your head if the head is close to the wall. My current office has the same positioning where I am sitting right next to a partial wall. No fatigue with the LS50 but I was thinking with a bigger speaker it would be deja vu again.
yyzsantabarbara OP
5,056 posts
 
@pokey77 I was reading some of your posts recently. I thought I read you had bought the TAD ME1 and TAD electronics. I was assuming from Excel Audio in Newport. I was thinking of going to some audio store in LA and checking out something in the Harbeth line last year, but there are so many models so I dropped that idea. I will take a drive down to LA and check out the model you listed.

I have had a lot of different amps on the LS50 over the past 5 years.

Bryston 7B-SST
Bryston 4B-SST
Parasound A23
Benchmark AHB2 (the best so far)
Peachtree Nova 150 (mix of the Bryston and Parasound and my 2nd favorite)


@ohlala If you look at pokey77’s statements above on the KEF R1 and the TAD ME1. It seems to me he preferred the TAD by a significant margin.

yyzsantabarbara OP
5,056 posts
 
@pokey77  I found a Harbeth dealer in Ventura, CA and I happen to be going to Ventura in 2 weeks. I have contacted him tonight to schedule a demo.
dbphd
1,632 posts
 
I'm near the Biltmore and have been using KEF Ref 1s driven by Ayre KX-5/20 preamp and VX-5/20 amp in a near field setup.  The source is usually Roon files played through an Ayre QX-5/20 digital hub.  The KEFs are supplemented by a pair of Velodyne HGS-10s low-passed at 40 Hz with a 6 dB/octave slope by a SMS-1 bass manager that also does acoustic room correction.  If you want to hear this setup, you can PM me
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