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Can speakers be too large for a room

The reason I ask this question is I recently moved from a 10 ft x 10 ft home office/listening room with a nearfield setup (B & W CM1 and a CM sub with a Bryston B100SST intergrated amp) Which sounded wonderful to a 11 ft x 18 ft office/soundproof listening room. So I purchased a pr. of Sofia's from audiogon. Although they sound very good. They seem to want more. It's hard to explain. I'm kinda new at the highend music. My new office is built for listening. I have lots of bass traps and reflection panel to help tame the small room. So accoustics are not a real problem. The sound seems to be a little restricted. The amp pushes 200 wpc @ 4 ohm. There is no way to turn the volume past halfway, but the speaker don't really start sounding there best until you turn up the volume. Which gets a little fatiguing after a while. I know these are not technical terms, but i don't know how to explain it.

My question is could the sofias be to much for the room.

If so what would be a good choice for a replacement. I mostly listen to jazz and blues with a little classic rock.

Price range 6k to 10k

Thx Matt
mwilliams

Showing 3 responses by dlcockrum

dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
A 10' X 10' room is pretty small and worse, it's square. Very challenging room to get good sound in.

I would first try taking out the acoustic treatments and see if things don't perk up a bit. Add each piece back one piece at a time starting with the corner bass traps. It is possible to overdo it with acoustic damping, which would result in the type of problems you describe.

Try this and come back with your impressions before giving up on the Sophias.
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
Oops, misread your post. Your new 11' X18' room should work much better. Same recommendation though.
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
Now that you have eliminated the absorption at the reflection points to positive effect, it would be prudent to try an amplifier with about twice the power of your integrated, say 250w/ch into 8 ohms and then doubles down (doubles the power output as impedance halves). It will probably wake up the Sophias nicely.
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