Speakers "Too Big" for room

So, I moved them in. So far, to my tin ear, everything sounds OK. I’ve not really stress tested anything yet so...time will tell.

I even have the KEF KC62 sub going. This is a VERY cool product and perfect for a small room matched with LS50.

@pawlowski6132 

That's quite a rack going on.  Reminds me of a game I played were you continue to stack things higher and higher until someone goes too high and they lose.  

With that tripod configuration I wonder how powerful an earthquake would need to be to topple things.  My guess is you don't have a dog or a cat.  

Love the space.  

@pawlowski6132 

Brilliant speakers (I should know)

Mine play in a room 3x the size, so I can only guess at how they might behave in a smaller room. Sealed bass, open-baffle mids, front- and rear-facing ribbons; ideally they like a lot of space around them but I imagine they will sound fine at low to moderate sound levels, and they do sound fantastic even at quiet volumes.

RS-II need a LOT of power if they’re going to give their best. Think 4-500wpc @ 4 ohms, and stable to 2 ohms. They are nominally 4 ohm speakers, but their impedance curve dips to 2 ohms around 100Hz and above 10 kHz.

Rebuilding the crossovers should be considered. Unlike the RS-IIa and IIb, the RS-II are not bi-ampable.

You’d have to spend lowish five figures in today’s market to approximate their level of performance. Give them the amplification they need and I think you’ll love them.

Happy listening!

A speaker can easily be too big for a given room size.  Larger taller speakers with more drivers are made for higher volume SPL capabilities to satisfy listeners in a bigger room.  Often this requires a minimum distance from the speakers to the listening spot so the drivers output can blend and be coherent.  That is distance requirement no. 1, speakers to listening spot.

Largrer speakers also tend to sound best when positioned away from room boundaries, walls and corners so that reinforced bass is not overpowering. Distance requirement no. 2, open space behind and to the sides of the speakers. 

Distance requirement no. 3 is the minimum distance between the speakers for a coherent sound stage and its ratio to distance no. 1. 

The final distance requirement is distance from the listening spot to the wall behind you. If your head is closer than 2 feet from the wall you will be in a bass accumulation zone and the speakers will have exaggerated bass.  

Add up those three distance requirements for a given speaker and that will tell you if your room is sized for them or not.

Looks good and glad to hear it sounds good.  Speakers too big - clickbait to any audiophile.  If you can get them through the door they’re not too big.  If they don’t fit, you need a bigger room.