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Can good soundstage be had in small room

I have a rather small living room measured at about 11 x 18 feet. I currently have a modest set up that does a good job at replaying music, but I think I am ready to move up.

The problem is that since my room is pretty small, even if I get a nice system, I won't be able to get good soundstage regardless how good the equipments are.

With the room as it is right now, to maintain a listening position of about 9ft from the speakers, the best I can do is to place the speakers at about 1.5 from the front wall, and even then I have to sit right up to the back wall.

So my question is can I get a nice soundstage given the limited space between my speakers and the front wall?
lvb
restock
831 posts
 
Your room is pretty close to the golden ratio with 18/12= 1.64 (golden ratio is 1.618). It might not be quite a Golden Cuboid listening room, since I don't know the room height, but take a look at

http://www.cardas.com/insights/index.html

I would go for the near field listening stup shown in diagram C, which is a combination of diagrams A and B. This should be a good starting point. Your room is about the same size as mine. I have my room setup this way with some small Mission 751 monitors. I get an excellent sound stage. It might look a lttle funny at first with the speakers that far out and that close to you, but once you put on some music you're hooked. Also for good sound you want to sit not that close to a back wall (just as shown in diagram C)

Good luck.

Rene
restock
831 posts
 
Sorry about the previous post: I meant 18 feet by 11 feet gives you a ratio of 1.636.....A very good starting point for a room.
lvb OP
4 posts
 
Thanks for all response. While some have suggested I place the speakers along the short wall, the way I have things set up, I can only place the speakers along the long wall (18ft long) otherwise I would have blocked either the entrance to the bedroom or the main entrance to the living room.

Rene: thanks for the website info. It looks like diagram F is the closest to my situation for placing speakers along the long wall.

I will probably need some room treatment on the front wall behind the speakers to absorb the initial bass energy and the side wall to prevent the first reflection point with respect to the listening position.
sean
6,231 posts
 
Your room is not that small and you should be able to achieve very good results with the right equipment and set-up. My "office" at home is only about 15 x 13 and i get an amazing amount of soundstaging with that system. Then again, i'm running omni's for speakers, so that helps a lot in terms of "spaciousness" of sound. Sean
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tomcarr
1,484 posts
 
Lots of good information already posted above. I would say focus on room treatments. If it can become a dedicated listening room, even better. With correct acoustic treatment, the distances from walls won't affect the soundstage. 

Tom
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