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Best Speaker Choice for my very "non-audio-friendly" Living Room

New to A-Gon, and looking for advise on purchasing a set of speakers.
My room is about as sound stage unfriendly as you can imagine (Hard to describe) as the center of the room is a huge fireplace with speaker placement options limited to about 25' apart from each other on each side of the fireplace. The room is approx 30' by 14' so my listening distance from each speaker is 15' & 16' from my center chair.
With that said, I have always (maybe wrongly) been inclined to buy big powerful speakers in an attempt to fill the room with good sound.
Up til now I have been running an Anthem 540 Amp, and running my fronts through a Peachtree 500 from the Pre-Outs on the Anthem to a set of Cerwin Vega Twin 15's. I actually liked the sound of this setup, but the twin 15s were just huge and honestly obnoxious on the living room (my wife had a stronger opinion on that than I did lol) 
So, I have moved the big Vega's down to the shop / pool room  and thats where they will live with a modest emotiva amp/pre amp combo that works well. 
I like the option of a Klipsch Cornwall (old school look, but much shorter and more esthetically appealing than the Vega's or maybe a set of Focal 948's which I listened to at the local shop. Both of these options are in my price range, and I "think" would give me the sound / performance I loved with my Old Vega's but look much better in the room. 
Any advice from the experts on this forum would be greatly appreciated. 
 
carzmaguy88
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lonemountain
451 posts
 
Actually its not about brand but about following basic room guidelines. Smaller nearfields placed near the listener but far away from the room boundaries is the goal. Having more energy at your [listening] location direct from the speaker vs reflected energy at your [listening] location, speakers always sound better and more like they actually sound. Its the reflected energy that changes speakers and makes them sound weird or different in every room you put them in. Then keep the level low enough that you dont "energize" the room where reflections do not get closer in level to direct sound.

This is the core idea of nearfield monitors developed by recording engineers years ago. SInce they work in all kinds of different rooms, get the speakers close to you to reduce [unwanted] room effects.
Brad
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,836 posts
 
It's too bad you're against using something with a 15" woofer as this review of the Magna Transpuls looks like it would work in your situation.
Although cheap in price, they compete with much higher brands, and Klipsch is the US dealer for them.

All the best,
Nonoise

motokokusanagi
189 posts
 
This is definitely a very challenging room. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/9787#&gid=1&pid=1

You need really good off-axis dispersion and immunity from reflection, so I’m even more inclined to say you should just eliminate normal box speakers from consideration as a starting point. I think open baffles and omnis are the way to go. Again, demo/return capability is a must.
fiesta75
1,378 posts
 
+1 for Ohm also. I would consider Zu Audio before Tekton for sure. Both can be demoed in your home and returned if you don't like.
ghdprentice
6,965 posts
 
Wow. You are not kidding on a challenging environment. The photos are worth a thousand words.

i would try small monitors on stands on the granite shelf. Put them just high enough not to get heated by direct radiation from the fireplace. This would allow cutting down the distance apart. Looks like you already have a subwoofer there… that would continue to work.
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