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is too large a room no good?

I am looking into a new apartment that is approximately 48' long, 18 feet/23 feet wide and 10' ceilings.

Does anyone have experience moving their system into such a large room?

I heard Greg Petans system - which are the huge Sunny Speakers in his massive 2100 sq/ft room and then the slightly larger version in Clement Perry's rather normal size room, and Clement's sounded better.

On another note, I'm almost sure the place I'm considering does not have concrete floors, since it;s a very old structure (but with no columns).

I will sorely miss the concrete floor in our old building, since no one above or below me could hear my system, and the structural stability was great.
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aball
2,018 posts
 
I think horns would be just about your only choice in a room like that. Otherwise, power requirements will really get out of hand. I personally prefer small rooms because you can load them just right without having to resort to anything crazy. I hear great things about top-end JBLs, but they sure aren't cheap.

Arthur
tweak1
3,673 posts
 
I too have a large challenging room 18 X 31 with 12 ft peak open beam ceiling, tile floors over concrete, lots of glass, plus an open stair well up/down.

If possible, position the speakers along the short wall. If not, then midway (or less) and fire towards a wall, not into the room. Alas, I have to fire into the long wall.

I found big speakers (lots of radiating area) to couple best. Currently biamping Magnepan 3.5Rs with Wyred4Sound multichannel amp, plus a SVS powered sub.

Getting great sound will definitely keep you busy, but hey, it's a hobby
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
I used ATC SCM 20 and a sub in a room with space for a complete badminton court, hot tub and large ornamental fig tree. Approx dimensions were 50 feet by 36 feet with 11 to 18 feet vaulted ceiling. No problem at all to fill this space (but I absolutely needed the sub) and I like to listen extremely loud - everything was wood with windows along two sides...not the best of acoustics due to the reflective gymn floor.

So if you get speakers with very wide and even dispersion that play at pro SPL levels with low distortion then they will fill any space well (won't fix reverberation issues but will fill the space evenly).

Without naming names (and upsetting owners), my experience with these small ATC bookshelf speakers compared to several other brands of consumer speakers (big well known names) caused me to radically change my opinion about non pro designs with non-pro drivers. Today I would not use anything but a pro design in a large space.
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I agree with Aball, I think horns are by far your best choice in a room of that size. You could come up with some other set-ups that would work, but the horns will be much more energy efficient.
oem
91 posts
 
Aball is correct.I heard the top JBL's he mentioned at Ears Nova only a few blocks from your door
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