I’d suggest a good conversation with your wife. If your room is huge, having a pair of floor standers isn’t going to change much to her daily routine. If the issue, then, is just cosmetics, maybe she can compromise a little to allow her loved one some fun and self-indulgence with his hard earned cash. You only live once.
Starting from scratch in a large room
I am hoping to set up my first hi-fi system, but I have some room/equipment constraints and would appreciate some advice.
I am looking at an all-in-one amp and passive speakers. Right now, I am leaning toward a Naim Uniti Nova and KEF R3 speakers. I am a total novice and open to suggestions on both the amp and speakers, however, I do think an all-in-one like the Nova is the right direction for simplicity and space considerations. Other speakers I have considered are the Focal Aria 906 and BW 706 S2. I listen mostly to modern/classic rock, mixed with a little bit of everything, exclusively through streaming (preferably AirPlay).
The challenge is that I have a very large room, but I can’t use floor speakers or standmounts--the speakers will likely have to be on the built-in bookshelves, on a shelf that is 24" deep (it's not really a shelf, more like a wooden countertop on top of a closed cabinet). The room is 33’ x 18’ with 11-foot ceilings. I’ll be listening from either 13 feet or 25 feet. There are rugs covering most of the wood floors, heavy drapes on one of the long walls, and large canvas paintings hung on drywall on the other long wall. I understand I have some pretty major room limitations, but I'd like to have something that sounds as good as possible for around $10-15K. I've read somewhere around here that having two subs might help compensate for the smaller speakers. This is our living room/kitchen area, so I am limited in how many, if any, "treatments" I can make to improve the listening conditions. Would some kind of base between the speaker and countertop make a difference? Thanks very much.
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+1 I make it my policy to buy my partner a really nice expensive gift before I buy something for my audio system. If then putting speakers in a communal room, after the present… involve her in the process of picking out the speakers.
While I never bought Sonus Faber for the looks… it was a great bonus… and my partner does admire their looks. |
I would forget about an integrated amp and instead get a preamp with dsp and a pair of large active studio monitors (use the port plugs if necessary and the controls on the back of each speaker to adjust the highs and lows and you may not even need to use dsp). Not sure what your source is but some people can get by with a versatile DAC like the RME ADI-2 instead of a preamp. ie. Dynaudio BM15A, Adam, etc. If once placed you are unable to reach in behind and turn them on/off you can plug them into a device to accomplish that. Tiny speakers in a big room won’t work out, even with subs. |
@ddd1 , the Yamaha HS8 studio monitors has 8 inch drivers, if the OP gets the Paradigm PW Link it has the pre/streamer/ARC etc. No sub out though :) OP, if you look on Agon you might find a pair. |
First, thanks very much to everyone who responded to this thread. So much high-quality advice/information (both technical and practical--heck, even psychological!) offered to a complete stranger, and I truly appreciate it. Maybe some negotiating with/bribing of my wife might be a more efficient use of time than trying to figure out how to get great sound out of small speakers in a large room. Room correction seems to be a common theme, and @kota1's comment about being able to achieve a flat frequency response makes sense to me. Also, thanks for the Paradigm recommendation--that may be where I start, since it would be a good base for a house-wide system even if it doesn't work in the living room for some reason. The Buchardts are appealing to me, particularly the ease with which they can be returned if they don't work out. Perhaps the wireless A500 would be a good alternative, with the Platin hub (with room correction but no AirPlay 2) or the Primare SC15 (no room correction, but AirPlay 2 and wired outputs in case I wanted a wired sub). And I've read in a few places that the Buchardt's put out a lot of sound for their size. It may come down to personal preference, but @ddd1 might be right about the futility of using smaller speakers in the big room. I guess we will see. Those BM15A's are an interesting option. My only other thought was that maybe I could use Klipsch Heresy IV speakers as "bookshelf" speakers, since I think they would technically fit on the intended shelf space. Thanks again.
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