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Very small room! Help me with monitor speakers

I am sure some of you are tired of reading all the similar posts asking for help picking the right monitor speakers, but with the risk of boring you, please read this one too! 

When I was really young, I was fascinated by very small salt-water aquariums full of vibrant, beautiful live plants and fish since I knew the smaller the tank, the harder it is to have the occupants stay alive, let alone do well and thrive. I experimented with building my own and was semi successful...  ;-)

I now find myself in a similar situation. I am trying to build a good sounding system in my very small (10 x 9 ft small!) office. Unlike many here, I don't have a big budget. I have painstakingly upgraded many parts in an old EL34 based tube amp (around 35 watts per channel) that I would like to use, or I could go with a Rotel 100W per channel solid state stereo amp depending on the speakers. For source, I'm using an Oppo DAC connected to my Mac for digital music (Flac and DSD files). I will be adding a turntable and phono preamp later. My current speakers are Martin Logan Motion 15 bookshelf speakers and while they sound okay, I feel there is a lot of room for improvement. I listen to many types of music, but  primarily Jazz, some mellow rock and old electronic music (the likes of Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, The Art of Noise, etc.). I have done some acoustic treatments to my room which has helped. Speakers will be fairly close to the back-wall (around 1ft) and about 6-7 feet from each other.

I am looking for speakers under $2k, and here's what I am hoping for:
- Good sound at lower volumes since I listen a lot at nights, but with the ability to handle higher volumes when needed
- Large sound stage, revealing, a little warm, clean, and with high dynamics and definitely good with vocals

I am not looking for really analytical and super accurate speakers - I want to listen, relax and enjoy the music late at nights.
Since I can't go to stores and listen to different speakers, I've been reading a lot and feel these speakers could be good. If you have any real life experience with these, could you please tell me about what you liked and disliked and if they meet the criteria above? BTW, I am definitely open to buying used as well...

- LSA-10 Signature
- Silverline Minuet Grand
- Revel Performa3 M105
- Canton Reference 9k
- Xavian Perla Esclusiva

I appreciate all your comments and help!
rfarassat
rfarassat OP
17 posts
 
Thanks erik, the reviews on the Fritz are great. But all the models seem to be over my budget. 
dill
2,523 posts
 
In my experience, speakers in small rooms sound better with front firing ports.
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,274 posts
 
Rfarrassat,

I haven’t heard any of the speakers on your list but I have researched them.  Shooting from the hip, I would go with the LSA’s.  I’ve been researching canton quite a bit and was interested in the reference 9k as well.  I read that the Ventos are actually less bright.  Accessories for less has some Vento 826.2 that you should look at.  The 826 looks to be the same speaker so look at that one as well.  The 836 and 836.2 might overload your room with too much bass.

I just had some Fritz Carrera BE’s on review and they were sublime.  I’m sure you’d love them but they are a bit pricey.

It appears from all the reviews that I’ve read of his speakers, they all have a nice musical warm sound that I think you’d find appealing.

He’s working on a new model, called the Carbon 6.  It will use a 6” carbon fiber SB Acoustics midbass with a 1” soft dome tweeter from scan speak.  His series crossovers are awesome!  The way they integrate the 2 drivers is exceptional. It’s my guess that he will be done with all of the design work with the Carbon 6’s next week.  Unless something changes, they should be around $1500...
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,769 posts
 
Hi -

Similar situations over the years, I can tell you what speakers have worked for me.  Keep in mind, placement is key, especially for late night listening.  All below are outstanding with vocals. 

Totem Mites.  Owned these for a time.  The equivalent now would be the Skylight mini monitor 

Omega.  Super 7 MKII monitor (I own now) and would be my first choice.  Though the Super 3i (owned) would work out ok too.  

Rega RX1 (owned these as the Rega Aras).  


Rich 
big_greg
6,623 posts
 
Harbeth P3ESR.  I have them in my small computer room (about 12' X 12').  They are driven by a Vincent SV 237 integrated and I have a Power Sound Audio 15" subwoofer.  

I've had a lot of speakers in this room including Focal 1008BE, Canton Vento Reference 9 DC, Klipsch Heresy, and a few others.  Pretty much everything seemed like "too much" for the room.  The Focals were really nice, the Harbeths are nicer.  The Cantons are good, very neutral and lots of bass for a small monitor, but not very dynamic and not as detailed as the Harbeths and Focals. 

I've had the Harbeths for a few months now and can't imagine swapping them out for anything.  They are the Goldilocks speakers for this room. 

They will not play super loud, so if you want to crank things up once in a while, something like the Cantons might be better, but for low volume listening they are wonderful, very detailed and dynamic and the midrange is to die for.
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