Bigger rooms better for sound?

There is a lot of, it depends going on here. I have had friends considering very large rooms and usually they were not good. The reason was hard floors, lots if glass and reflective surfaces and little one could do about it (covering a couple 20’ high walls with heavily absorbent material was not a possibility. Frequently “big” rooms are common or spousal controlled and hence not a good place to put a really good system.

After pursuing high end audio for over fifty years I have concluded you can creat a world class system in most rooms… provided you have complete control over it. The real benefit is that, in general the cost goes down with the smaller the room. If you cane afford $75K for a 9’ x 12’ x 7’h room, you would have to put twice that into a 12’ x 24’ x 12’ room. But like all of high end audio, it takes great knowledge and patience to do either.

An audiophile friend once offered this maxim—“Big room, big problems.” I don’t fully subscribe but it is true that very large rooms can create challenges you won’t encounter in tighter quarters. It will be very important to select speakers that compliment the scale of the space and consider treatments (and furnishings) that reduce unwanted reverb. Generally though, IMHE, a bigger room allows you to move the speakers out into the space and away from sidewalls while positioning the listening chair away from the wall behind. This will usually expand the stage, provide lots of realistic depth, and smooth out the bass. A large room will also gobble up the bass so again choosing the right speaker is key—you will want to move lots of air.

I have a 25+ foot ceiling in my Livingroom and even with a speaker relatively close to the front wall, but very far from the side walls the sound is pleasantly great. The room is 15 x 20 x 25+ and it opens up to a family room. A lot of volume. 

I only tested this out with LONG wall placement with a far distance to the side walls. I will try the SHORT wall placement too (need to buy a Livingroom system again) which will allow for placement further away from the front wall.

@brandonhifi 

😳 Your listening room is larger than the first house I bought!

My listening room has 16ft ceilings and is 45 feet wide and 35 feet deep, I've found the huge space to make the sound absolutely amazing as well, great discussion.

Soix, Great answer. Hope it's all true. I don't think the chance of echoes is a concern, the higher ceilings should be helpful as untreated as they are.  I think all the pressure amplitudes Will behave a lot better and not quarrel so much amongst them selves.

 Plus it's an overall more comfortable room as spacious rooms tend to be.  
 

I think the shape of the room is more important than the size.

That’s what she said.  She lied.

I think the shape of the room is more important than the size.

Because reflection times are longer.

Danger is too much echoes.

One of the main benefits of a larger room was my ability to pull the speakers out further from the back wall and giving them more room to breathe and also to move my listening chair away from the wall behind it.  This combined with the larger room led to much better balanced bass along with a greatly expanded soundstage in all directions with a better overall sense of space if it’s in the recording.  This is obviously somewhat system dependent, but I think you’re gonna be much happier with your overall sound. 

The further away the side walls are the wider a sweet spot you can have, plus the larger room pushes the room modes (peaks and valleys) down in frequency out of the way of the midrange and mid bass.

On the other hand the chance of hearing distinct echoes is now a lot more real so it's not as if large rooms are a panacea.