HELP with Speakers for a 11 ft X 12 ft room???


I just moved and unfortunately the size of my room shrank!! I am in a 12' 3" by 11' 6" room with 7 1/2 foot ceilings. Speakers are along the shorter 11 foot wall. I have 2 ASC 16" diameter tube traps in my corners and 2 16" traps between the speakers. My current rig consists of Piega P-8-LTD speakers, Accuphase DP-75v cd player and an Accuphase A-50v amp. I am not sure if a smaller monitor speaker would be a better fit for this room?? It seems like I am not getting the soundstaging / imaging and depth that I was accustomed to - ALSO my ears hurt now when listening at loud levels!!
I like to listen to mostly mainstream rock - classic rock and female vocal recordings. I like to listen at fairly loud levels as well. Am I loosing my mind OR should I try a smaller speaker design?? - I was thinking of Totem Mani-2's, B&W Nautilus 805's OR Dynaudio 1.3's.

Thanks for any help or input!

Chris
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I have a 12 x 14 foot room with 8 foot ceilings, and TONS of crap along the walls and scattered throughout, so the effective space may be much smaller.

I've had great success with ProAc Tablette 50 Signatures and ProAc 1SC monitors. Huge soundstage with beautiful female vocals and very nice acoustic instruments. With a sub they can even rock, HARD.

If your ears hurt I have to ask, "how loud are you listening?" I crank it up pretty high, but my ears can survive up to six hours of music.

What are the characteristics of the Piegas? Have you compared them to other speakers in your room?
That is very close to a square room along two dimensions and is going to really give a boost at about 47hz. The room is probably playing a one note tune of its own at about f#(fourth black key from left on a piano) and multiples thereof. I've never tried to tame such a room w/ traps and stuff. I kind of doubt you can get enough(traps etc) into a room that size. There might be so much boosting that it is interfering with everything else and the room is small enough that you are getting reflections from all over which is often tough on imaging. There might be an electronic way to help. Rives Audio sells something along those lines. In any event, these are serious problems that are going to exist for any speaker. Small rooms with common dimensions can be very tough.

On other hand folks like Gunbei above have a fairly small room and pull it off.

I remain,
Are the speakers well out into the room ? I have a similar size room, and my speakers (Spicas) are 2.5 feet from the rear wall and 1.5 feet from the side walls, heavily toed in, to minimize side wall reflections. I sit less than 6 feet from the speakers, in a nearfield position.

Pulling the speakers away from walls dramatically improved the imaging and also got rid of boomy bass problems ... it transformed the sound. I think that increased distance from the side wall (plus toe-in) reduces side wall reflections to improve imaging, and increased distance from the rear walls improves bass response.

Do a web search on Cardas room setup, or go to audiophysic's web site ... both have good info on room setup.

Play with positioning before replacing speakers ... it's a lot cheaper ! If you end up having to replace speakers I have found that ls3/5 derivatives work well close to walls and in small rooms .. e.g. spendor or harbeth
Do check the Cardas site on speaker placement. His formulas got me within inches of optimal placement. A real time saver.

Also, look into room treatment. Try to deaden the wall behind the speakers and add diffusion on the rear wall. I've been increasing the diffussing surfaces on my rear wall - really helping, but still tweaking.

As for new speakers, others will be able to guide you better than I. I will say I am *very* happy with my N805's - strange because some won't pass up a chance to disparage them. Oh, well....

Best,
Thanks for all your help!!! I have had that bass boominess problem as well. I will go to Cardas and Rives audio to check my numbers.
Chris