Thoughts on Speakers for a Small Audio/Video Room

@yoyoyaya What do you recommend for bass traps?  Is it the shape or material (or both) that differentiate a higher frequency panel from a bass trap?  I suppose not surprisingly, vendors advertise flat panels like the ones I have as bass traps, so would be good for me to be educated on this 

@erik_squires Am I treating for general reflections or bass in particular when doing ceilings?

@re-lar-kvothe @mesch @scotandholly Yes, more recommendations for Fritz!  I should really check him out.  I did go to the site, but all the models (current and legacy) are kind of overwhelming.  I’m sure he can clear things up in a conversation.  I grew up in SoCal and visit there 3-4 times a year.  Where in SoCal is he, and does he have a sound room where he can demo different models?  Seems ideal to be able to hear different models in the same environment and then go home with the one that I think fits best and demo them at home for awhile.

@mswale Yes, plenty of gear.  Some low powered tube gear as well.  Eico HF-85 preamp, Dynaco ST-35 and ST-70 amps, 2 x Eico HF-12 mono integrateds.  So lower powered gear.  I think I could be happy enough with something that went down to the high 30’s/low 40’s, which the Fritz models seem to.  And their series crossover is supposed to make the speakers easier to drive, so those may be able to bring my tube gear into rotation too.  The Aerials were too power hungry for them.

@captouch  I use my Frirz speakers with a PP EL34 tube amp in triode mode (<20wpc) with no problem.  I have also used 2x4' wall mounted acoustic absorption panels  set diagonally across corners of the front wall. The space behind the panels served as bass trapping. Now with a change to stand mount speakers not going much below 40hz) (which I was using) I am not sure  how much bass trapping you will need.  I do believe you may have too much reduction of upper bass and midrange absorption on your side walls, skewing frequency response increasing  the impression of lower bass. Keep in mind that if you change speakers your room treatment needs will likely change. Particularly regarding bass response.

If the speaker is too big for your room, overloading your room, etc, it means any car stereo you ever heard in life in that tiny space called a car cabin should have had overwhelming bass, chestiness, congestion, etc. But, that was not the case in the tiny space called the car, right?

Get a umik, rew software and measure what's happening at your listening location. You are most probably sitting on top of some modal peaks. After that  you can start moving yourself and your speakers around a bit (referred to as positional EQ). Aid it with some Schiit Loki analog eq as well and adjust to taste/make do.

Since you seem to be a analog only guy, digital dsp fixes went out the window. Your room is a bit small for treatments that actually work, etc....

@mesch Yes, I removed 3 of those large acoustic panels from the side walls already.  Just left two closest to the front of the room.  Can remove those if needed.

I also have acoustic foam inside all the canvas pictures on the walls.  Since that rug is very thin and floors are wood, along with the IKEA CD cabinets on the walls with glass doors, I thought I could benefit from some reflection taming.  But all that foam can be easily removed as well - nothing as far as “room treatments”’ is hard to remove.

@OP - a lot of what advertised as bass traps are broadband absorbers that have some attenuation at lower frequencies but aren't optimised for that freqency range. If you look at Vicoustic or Gik's websites, you'll see cylindrical and triangular corner traps that are specifically tuned to bass frequencies.