2. speakers
  3. 148783-67533

Big systems - Little rooms

I enjoy browsing the Virtual Systems posted online here ( and have posted my own).  I am puzzled , however, by the too common practice of placing large ( and usually expensive) speakers into very tight confines, often less than a foot from the front wall and barely more from the side walls.  Presumably the sitting position is likely against the back wall.  Many of these systems also have significant power and expensive source components.  While I may be as susceptible as most to upgradeitis, I have tried to give some recognition to the size of my listening space in my equipment selection.  Have I overlooked some new approach to managing room acoustics, or are most speakers not as sensitive as some articles describe to position within the room.  It would otherwise seem that these systems might benefit from  a bit of downsizing to achieve superior sound imaging.
sjtm

Showing 2 responses by yyzsantabarbara

yyzsantabarbara
5,026 posts
 
@sjtm The big speaker in a small room is something I am actually striving to do. I currently have an ideal monitor speaker in my small office, 12x11x9 but I am going to put a floor stander in their to join the club. I don't want a sub and I want the missing bass.

I do have the room treated and it sounds rather good even though my head is against a small wall. See pictures on my virtual system.

An additional solution to shoehorn a bigger speaker into a smaller space is DSP but I am not going to do that unless necessary. Luckily I have the ability to do a home demo of a floor stander that is maybe too large for my room without DSP.
yyzsantabarbara
5,026 posts
 
@soix I do not have room for subs in my office (I have a big desk in there). I am also not looking for very low bass, just more than what I currently have with my monitors. There are small floor standers with good bass that will fit into a space small as 12x11x9. I found out after room treatments that my room played much bigger. I will try without DSP first but if DSP is needed I will look at something like the following:

Anthem STR preamp
Linn SELEKT DSM

I have heard the Lyngdorf 2170 and liked the preamp section but did not like the amp section. So that unit is not being considered. Another recommended DSP unit, DEQX, seems more effort than I am willing to spend. So I have narrowed it down to the 2 mentioned above (if I need DSP).

I should add that I may wait a bit for Linn to upgrade the rest of their lineup because I need some analog inputs in my preamp | streamer | DAC unit. Linn has this in their older non-modular models. The new modular SELEKT DSM only has 1 analog phono only input.

More to discover