New room, very small .Speaker Placement???

Bass traps in the corners behind the speakers might help. I wouldn't trade in the Hales for monitors--I think it's better to try to deal with the problems an excellent full range speaker may have than to give up 'real' bass for what a monitor can do. I imagine that's unpopular, but so be it. You could also find a preamp with tone controls. Good luck!

Mitch, try using Cara Quick to play around with placement.
http://www.cara.de/ENU/index.php?load=quick.html (its pretty self explainatory... note that you can actually move the speakers and listening position in the little diagram of the room layout by click each item).

Everything is pure speculation until you actually move in. Dont't beat yourself up over it. Wait until you get everything moved in, then start the insanity. Good luck.

Well I made my Apogee full range ribbons work in a 10 X 15 room and everyone said it can be NOT done, when I got a new place, my room was much bigger and there was subtle difference but better difference since the Apogees need lots and lots of breathing room, the treatment cost me a fortune but it worked to my liking.

If you do the math to be honest, you are better off revamping the speakers cause I believe the Hales T5 can NOT be toed in too much compared to most speakers and its big too and therefor you sweet spot if going to be far off behind. The distance between each speaker is going to be a trick as well with the Hales. Try it and see if it works, dont give up easily. If you can kill all the standing waves that the Hales is producing based on its volume then...... shop around for something new with speakers. If you ceilings were higher, at least something like the Martin Logan Aerius would work well to but with 8 feet heitht to work, monitors would be the best and dont be fooled by people with the full range sound and size of monitors, I had may big boys before including Wilson, Apogee Divas (my favourite) and now I actually prefer monitors for long term listning compared to the monsters.
Get a good high performance monitor and you will be in that room of your most of the time. Good luck with in.
And if you can, try looking up for software room acoustics and read about on them to get a better feel of the room.
It works sometimes.

We took possession of our new town house today but we have a couple of months to slowly move. Of course the first thing I moved was my bigger system and it sounds surprisingly good for being in a space that is 10x 11 feet. At first the boominess made the system sound bad but what cleared the problem immediately was putting the two strips of Aurolex foam one behind each speaker in the corners kind of folded and then I played with speaker placement a bit and the sound is good. I'm actualy getting a nice soundstage. The wall behind the speakers and behind my listening position are only 3.5 feet high leaving open space in front of me and behind me further than the walls. I'm impressed although I'll only be able to use it at nice volumes when the girls are out but at least it sounds nice. It actually sounds better than the Jungson system which is now on the dedicated audio/video room where it is sounding like a nice little sytstem should sound but the Hales are working well in their/our new environment so I felt I must go on a little rant. I'm done but would ask if you have any suggestions what else I can do to even further improve the sound. I would like to use the 24" by 40" approximate Aurolex foam on either side of the speakers for side first reflection and am wondering what would work well in the corners behind the spreakers. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mitch