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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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robm321
932 posts
 
I haven't but will be soon. I bought some Vonschweikert vr 4jr's and have a 10 by 10 room. I called Kevin at the VS headquarters and he said for small room to get a good sized sound stage that diagonal is best because the corner behind the speaker and the corners to the side will allow in more room to open up. I've read that before in audiophile rags. Only down side is the speakers will be close to the wall aka more bass problems. On the up side the room reflections will be spread out since it is no longer square.

I realize this post is a year old but anyone else try this?

Rob
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
Hmmm, interesting theory Robm321, I've never heard this.

I'm lucky in a way though. Although my room is only 12 x 14 with tons of stuff crammed in there, I have two large open areas behind each speaker. A water closet is behind the left speaker and an open walk-in closet and entry is behind the other.

A week ago I changed to larger floorstanding ProAc Response 2.5s and even they sound great in my acoustically challenged room.

Let us know how the diagonal set up compares to placing them along one of the walls. I'd be curious about your findings.
robm321
932 posts
 
I will let you know how it turns out. I read about this in Robert Harleys book too. It seems to be the best bet for square rooms (especially small ones) according to him. However the bass will have to be dealt with since the speakers will be close to the wall.

Also, in the manual for the Vonschweikerts it mentions that in a square room it's the best way to get an even frequency response. We'll see...
subaruguru
1,376 posts
 
Square rooms are nearly impossible. Try to asymmetrically damp the walls, set up a tight nearfield triangle and move it (and yourself) around the room to reduce bass res and slap-echo. I have friends who have squarish dining rooms with wooden floors, and there's no doubt that the difficulty in comprehension leads to louder levels which produces fatigue well before dessert. It's no different musically.
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