Speaker vs. Room Size

Coincident has revised its Triumph Signature monitor, price still $1199, and it may be extremely good. With claimed sensitivity of 94 dB, it is very friendly to low-watt amps. New tweeter and woofer (Vifa?), other improvements, nicely finished, coincidentspeaker.com. I'm curious about the EFE monitor, which was designed to compete with the B&W N805, has a nice looking semi-trapezoid profile. It's made by a small shop in California, Ed Frias, who seems to have a great reputation. $890. Contact him at EFESPKRS@aol.com. Check reviews on audioreview.com.

Thanks to all who responded. I've gotten some valuable info that really helps.

Bin

Greetings Bin,

You bring up a classic dilemma - namely, how to get natural sound in a small room at an affordable price. I take it you're willing to position the speakers as needed to get good sound.

One of the major hurdles in a small room is getting natural bass response. Most systems simply don't have good bass pitch definition in a small room because of the room's resonant modes, which blur the decay of bass notes while causing peaks and valleys in the response. There is little that can be done to remedy this as long as the speaker radiates bass omnidirectionally, which most speakers do.

There is one type of bass system that inherently minimizes room-induced bass coloration. That is the dipole. Because of its figure-8 radiation pattern, a dipole will put 5 dB less bass energy into the room's resonant modes for a given bass SPL than will a conventional (omnidirectional) bass system. The result is better pitch definition because, with less room-induced overhang, the notes decay more naturally.

Most dipole speaker are full range planars, such as Maggies, Quads, Martin-Logan CLS's, and Sound Labs. Some use dynamic woofers in a dipole configuration, such as Audio Artistry's line and the Gradient Revolutions.

Generalizing here, a dipole usually won't play as loud or as deep as a similarly priced conventional speaker, and will be more demanding in terms of amplification. But a dipole has certain inherent advantages in its lack of coloration. A good dipole will introduce fewer distracting colorations than a similarly-priced conventional speaker.

Now, in a reasonably priced full range dipole, Maggies are pretty much the only game in town. If you are willing to position them three or four feet out into your room, probably along the short wall, they will give you an extremely natural-sounding presentation. I don't sell Maggies, but I have a great deal of respect for them. I sell a couple of higher-priced dipoles.

Since auditioning isn't real practical for you, if you would like to read some reviews of dipole speakers let me know and I'll post a few links for you. Also, I'd be glad to take a shot at any specific questions you may have.

Best wishes,

Duke