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Questions about room size and speaker choice

I have two unrelated questions regarding speaker choice:

1) I am moving to a new, bigger apartment, which is great as I will have a dedicated listening room, but at the same time somewhat of a problem as the dedicated room is rather small measuring 9 x 11 feet. (It's the master bedroom and the shorter wall behind the listening chair has an opening into the bathroom so it's open in a sense.)

I am in the process of upgrading my speakers from the Totem Acoustic Hawk and the smaller room now has thrown another twist into the selection process. Some of the floorstanders I have been considering, such as the Acoustic Zen Adagio or the Silverline Sonatina, might now just overpower the room, or it might simply be not possible to set them up optimally given the distance of 9 feet between the side walls.

I wanted to ask whether anyone has tackled a similar problem and what the results were. Should I forgo full range floorstanders for a pair of monitors, perhaps? Harbeth comes to mind and I have been wanting to audition a pair of the 7es-3.

2) I have seen some incredible deals here on Audiogon on used speakers, and was curious what the opinions were on the age of the used speakers. Assuming a speaker is in a great condition and there are no flaws beyond cosmetic blemishes and simple age, at which point would you say a speaker has been used for simply too long to bother with it? Since it's a mechanical transducer with moving parts, years of use might exert more wear-and-tear on it than might be visible with a naked eye. The rubber surround might not be as pliable as it was and slowly start to crack; the voice coil might be pretty stressed and more prone to breaking; screws loosening; you get the idea.

I'd appreciate any input and opinions. Thank you.
actusreus
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Ok, here's an update: after the move-in I measured the room and it's actually 11.4 x 11.11 feet. The bathroom and walk-in closet are on the half of the longer wall (after 5 feet of solid wall, it extends at an angle for the bathroom door and provides about 3 extra feet of depth). The window wall is the opposite wall. My first inclination was to put the speakers against the window wall so that they'd be facing the bathroom/walk-in closet wall since it'd provide a little more open space behind, but I decided to set up along the solid shorter wall with the window and closet wall on the sides. I'm hoping with some acoustic treatment it will be possible to get good results.
br3098
996 posts
 
You will find it a real challenge to wring the best sound out of a square room. It probably won't matter much if you can limit bass to about 50 Hz and above and not try for anything lower, or if you are playing music at low listening levels only.

From my own experience, treating a square room will only get you so far. What are you willing to accept in terms of a compromise?

A couple of ideas: if the room design permits you might try locating the speakers in the diagonal position; that is, with a corner in between the speakers aimed at the opposite corner. Makes the room effectively larger and supposedly reduces some of the nasty nodes. Personally I have not had success with this method but others have reporthed that it has worked well. A near field listening position might also be helpful.

Also, you might try placing your speakers in the corners. There are speakers specifically designed for this - Audio Note Ks might work well but they are a little pricy. I suggest that you find a pair of good condition used Snell Ks or K IIs (NOT IIIs) and try them first. They are the speaker that the AN Ks are based on, and they will get you to about 80% of what the AN speakers will do for under $200 or so. There are other speakers that might work well in this scenario but I have not perspnally tried them: Linn Kans or Dynaudio 42W or 52W. I would advise that you stay away from horns in a room of your size. I'm sure that others can recommend more.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
How long will you 2 be living there?
When's the wedding?
I was just thinking that if you are only going to be there for a few months, some accommodations can be made.

You should get it straight right now, where the stereo goes AFTER the wedding, when it will simply be TOO LATE to negotiate.

When I got married, we lived in about 600ft/sq apt with lunatics on all sides. I pretty much had to back-burner my Magnepans until we found a house.

Stay on good terms with the cats. They'll take out there revenge on the speakers. MY cats, on the other hand, never looked TWICE at my panels.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,475 posts
 
You will no doubt get a bigger abode in a few years. Why spend money with limited results. Get a really good headphone and headphone amp if you need it, and get cutting edge sound for the here and now. When you get your bigger place you can go the route that makes music.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Thanks for all of your responses.
The system is already there so holding off on buying new equipment, or getting a set of headphones is really not an option, with the exception of speakers, but a pair of Harbeths or De Vore Gibbon Super 8s, for example, could still work and be a great long term upgrade I believe. I will be in the apt for at least 2 years (unless we hit the lottery), which is a chunk of time so I'd like to get the best out of the room.

The room is not really square since it has extensions on sides and in one of the corners. The listening space is however, pretty much (the speaker placement in terms of effective space, if that makes sense). I placed a queen size mattress topper foam on the wall behind the speakers and behind the listening chair to minimize reflections and deaden the room a little. I'm also hoping this will help with vibrations reaching the neighbors to some extent.

The speakers are currently 7 feet apart and I placed the listening chair about the same distance form the speakers. That leaves about 2 feet to the wall behind the chair. Any other suggestions?
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