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Listening Fatigue & Speakers in Small Room

The main components of my system are B&W N804s, a MF A300cr power amp (225 wpc), a BAT VK-3i, and a MF Nu Vista CD. All cabling is Cardas Golden Reference. I had this set up in my old, 20x24 condo dining room/living room with no problems. Now, I have a house with a dedicated listening room of approximately 10x10x8, and am experiencing listening fatigue. After a little while, the outside of my ears start to hurt. Recently, I have treated the room with GIK bass traps and spot panels which have made the quality of the sound much, much better, but my ears continue to hurt. I'm thinking that maybe the B&Ws are just too big for the room, and that I may need to go to monitors with a sub. Am I on the right track, or could another component may be the culprit? Thanks for your help.
rlb61
rlb61 OP
789 posts
 
Newbee ... crossing the axis of the speakers just slightly
in front of me, coupled with reducing the volume to the 60-
68 db range has made a world of difference. The more I play
around with this, the more it appears that room reflection
is the culprit. When the speakers were firing forward, they
were hitting untreated surfaces. When I toed them in just
in front of me, imaging snapped into place and room
excitement was reduced substantially, so the outside of my
ears are not throbbing anymore. Also, I have ordered a
couple of 244s from GIK Acoustics for the front wall behind
the speakers, which should take care of certain reflections
as well. Hopefully, those will be the icing on the cake.
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
If you end up deciding to get new speakers, I would recommend you listen to the KEF LS-50s and the Gallo Stradas. Both of these are exceptionally good monitors and are time coherent. The Gallos also offer the benefit of being a crossover-less design, which makes them phase coherent as well.

Either of these speakers mated to a good sub with DSP control, like a Velodyne DD-10, would provide for an awesome listening experience in that room...
audiodistinction's avatar
audiodistinction
30 posts
 
I would suggest that you look at the Larsen speakers from Sweden. They feature an ortho-aoustic design that allows the speakers to work WITH virtually any room, not against it. The smallest Larsen speaker, the Model 4, will provide excellent sound in your 10x10x8 room and is very reasonably priced.

If you are interested, read this: Positive Feedback - Larsen Model 8

*Disclaimer* I am a Larsen dealer in Southern California
johnk's avatar
johnk
1,976 posts
 
Thermal compression caused by overly small transducers and massive power amp bet fatigue sets in after 30-40 mins of listening. You're sitting closer to loudspeaker thus hearing the compression more. 225 watts will easily heat a VC to near glowing even at moderate SPL all sorts of issues are caused by TC. If loudspeaker requires massive power or transducers are undersized TC is going to be the result.
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