Did Kharma make their 3.2 FE too short?

I do have a different take. In my experience, I listen almost near field with speakers 8' apart and I sit about 7' from the line drawn between the speakers, I do find most speakers can benefit from being a little taller. This is true regardless which room I use, ceiling can be 8' tall or 12' tall, I find raising them higher (or projecting them higher) improve spaciousness and sound more "relax".

I used to wonder why Sonus Faber would make Guaneri Homage sit on such a tall pedestal, but after hearing it I would not think the image is too high or any obvious short coming. In fact, that's the incentive I start experimenting with raising my speakers.

I remember that Swampwalker recommended these in the other thread. Mike, can you name some?

Can you suggest some line source models?

Thanks for your responses. I think you're spot-on, Don_s.

Did Kharma make their 3.2FE too short?

No, someone made your ceiling too high. Don't expect speakers designed for conventional 8-9' ceilings to sound great in the huge area you have. Some larger speakers may work well but you will have to choose wisely and ignore many speakers that would otherwise be fine performers.

In you situation I think I would look at some line source models. Small footprint but tall.

This is concerning. If it changes the presentation so much that you would question the speaker design then how can you be confident about the driver alignment, Xover (lobbing perhaps) or speaker dispersion. Perhaps you have hardwood floors and this made the effect more pronounced? Either it indicates something wrong with the speaker design or room acoustic issues - I prefer to think you have room acoustic issues with such a great speaker.

One of my tests of a good speaker/acoustics is consistent sound from a wide variety of positions - standing or seated - left and right - my experience is that good room acoustics and good speaker design means that you can move around without abrupt changes in response/imaging (widest sweetspot = most natural sound). Generally good balanced sound should be achievable anywhere in the room (standing or seating) provided you are at least 3 feet away from a wall and 6 feet from the speakers - image will be most precise in the sweetspot, of course.

If the blocks raising the speaker help, you should consider some sort of Sistrum stand. I'm not sure which one or if they would have to be a custom type job. Sistrum stands under my speakers made a huge impact. (mine were 20" models for monitors) The lower SP-1 stands under my turntable were excellent as well, so maybe they could make one of those series stands a bit higher for you.

My guess is ( being a Kharma 1.0 owner ) that the 3.2 is made for a room smaller than yours..From what I have read in the past many people buy them and love them but the ones that quickly sell them are the ones with room that are around or larger than your size room.Not because they arn't a wonderfull speaker,but because the have to be pushed to hard and asked to do something there are not bulit for ..My guess is your room has too much volume of space....