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Best Speakers for Very Large Bright Room

I have a very large family room; 24'x24'x20'.  It has a lot of windows, hard wood floors, large flat marble fireplace front, etc.  The room is so reflective you can hardly understand the TV, it sounds more like a gymnasium than a family room.  We have a large area rug and I am working on my wife to put up acoustical treatments.  There is no wall space, it is all windows and french doors, so we are looking at the ceiling.  

I currently have KEF R300 front, KEF R200C center, LS50 rears, two Sunfire HRS-8 subs, Sunfire TGA-7401 400 watt amp, and Yamaha CX-A5100 preamp.

I noticed that when I turn off the center and use a phantom center I have an easier time understanding movies.  I have old pair of B&W 805 Nautilus I use as PC speakers and plugged them in and it was even better.  If you are sitting in the chair off to the side it is a bit annoying because you hear the speaker, but from the couch it is fine.

Here is my question; would a better bookshelf with better power allow an even clearer sound so I could turn the volume down and finally turn off subtitles?  I know a speaker cannot stop reflections but if it will help I will spend the money.

I was looking at the new B&W 805 D3's, KEF Reference 1's, Paradigm Persona B's, and the Sonus Faber Olympica I's.  They all sound great at the dealer but I have not heard any of them in my room.

Unfortunately I cannot do towers as there is a built in and my wife will not allow it.

Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated!


mobiusmu
11 responses Add your response
erik_squires
16,056 posts
 
Your choices are (always):

1 - Control dispersion 
2 - Control room acoustics

If you are unwilling to do anything in 2, consider an ESL or horn loaded speaker. 

The center issue is a little about your head though. Your head tends to cancel frequencies in the speech area when they are coming from the sides at the same time. The center helps fill this in for you. 

Best,


E
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,781 posts
 
I would look at some di-pole speakers. Di-poles (Magnapan, Martin-Logan ESL, et al) have a positive output in front and a negative output to the rear. What happens is the + and - wrap around and meet at the sides of the speaker and cancel each outer out. The result is a very focused sound to the listening position and minimal reflections from the walls.
I owned some Audio Artistry speakers (Dvoraks) that did this. Enjoyed them a lot.
erik_squires
16,056 posts
 
+1 dweller 

Dipoles and open baffle speakers in general are also a good choice. 

Emerald Physics is a good brand that comes to mind if you want something besides an ESL. 

Best,

E
ohlala
1,235 posts
 
I also have a bit of a racquet ball court of a room. While low distortion speakers with a good dispersion like the personas and KEFs can help I think you will spinning the wheels to solve your problem.  You could toe-in the fronts, maybe significantly, to reduce the amplitude of the first reflection and place a felt mat for under your rug the extend to the frequency range of its absorption. Folded drapes would help; its tough in a shared space. 
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Ohm Walsh's can work fine in large rooms. I own a pair!
markalarsen's avatar
markalarsen
651 posts
 
DEQX
mofojo
2,289 posts
 
Yup room correction if you don’t want to or can’t address the problem from asteticks reasons or other. A little bit of both would be your best bet. 
erik_squires
16,056 posts
 
Room correction is a pale pale solution here, and I'm a big EQ/DSP fan. It works much better in conjunction with decent room acoustics. A carpet and ceiling treatments, bass traps, anything, will help that work much much better. 

Best,

E
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
My room is 25’ x 25’ x 8’, the worst possible square. I have the system speakers occupying different distances from the side walls, asymmetrically positioned in the room left/right such that the left speaker is about 2’ from the left wall, and the right speaker is about 12’ from the left wall. I sit about 3’ from the rear wall. They are both about 3’ from the front wall and very slightly toed in (Thiel CS6). I have selectively covered parts of the front, side and rear walls with Aurelex panels and use the Lenrd bass traps from floor to celing in the front corners and one rear corner of the room. Two diffusors are placed on the rear wall behind my listening sofa. Ceiling reflections are partly cancelled by two 2’ x 4’ Aurelex panels on the celing at the mirrored first reflection points. Area rugs on the hard floors. Yes, it’s a man cave and looks like a recording studio (which the other half is) but it gets the job done and I have good imaging, very little room reverb (fingersnaps no longer produce that awful ping) and excellent 3 dimensionality. Rooms can be tamed and made to sound decent if you can stand the look.
mobiusmu OP
19 posts
 
Thank you all for the responses!

Can someone suggest a specific dipole or ESL that would fit in my space?  The built in space for the bookshelves is: 18" wide, 36" high, 21" deep and 36" off the floor.  The 36" high is if I remove the two shelves above it, which I am willing to do.

I am not too familiar with either dipoles or electrostatics.

Thanks!
Mobius
erik_squires
16,056 posts
 
Mobiusmu,

ESL and dipoles need space to work. If you are planning on cramming them in front of a wall, they are not for you.

Instead, I’d recommend horn loaded speakers with a sub. My bet is that this would work outstandingly well for good cost:

http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/hb-1.html
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