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Equipment setup

I have a reasonably sized listening room (8 1/2 feet by 12) but my stereo is in a nook by the windows which is 5 feet wide. I have Elac FS-247 speakers powered by Mcintosh MC501 monoblocks. The monoblocks are currently on the floor in front of the speakers. The problem I am trying to solve is that the speakers do not fill up the room like they did at the dealers. I feel this may have to do with my set up. I tried pulling the speakers out and pushing the monoblocks into the nook but this made it sound worse. The speakers are about 1 foot from the windows behind them, 6 inches from a side wall and 6 inches from the equipment rack which holds my turntable, cd player and preamp. Any suggestions as to what I can do?
Thanks in advance,
Saad
ssayeed
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
Any room, especially one that small, will benefit tremendously from acoustical room treatment. It is likely that the midrange and treble are being overwhelmed by the mid-bass in your setup. You could build some bass traps for the corners and some acoustical absorption panels for the first refection points that will tame these bass nodes and early relections.

A few months ago, I did just that and it was the best $500 I ever spent on audio, even though my room is much larger. If you are interested in knowing more about how to do this, email me.

Good luck.
j_bailey
53 posts
 
I second the acoustical room treatment suggestion.

I also have a small room -- 10.5 by 12.5. I have been working with it now for 2 years. Small rooms have special needs in terms of speakers and treatments.

The Decware website has an excellent white paper on treatments and small rooms.

The side walls need to be diffusive. For the front and back walls, one needs to be absorptive and one needs to be diffusive. In my roon the back wall is absorptive and the front is diffusive.

Treatments will make all of the difference in the world. I would rather have an average system in an excellent room than the other way around.

Good luck. Email me if you have any questions.
ssayeed OP
37 posts
 
Thanks for the responses. I am actually working on amp stands right now, so let's see if that makes a difference. As for cables, I am using the Cable Research Labs bronze series. They're inexpensive and the only other cable that I prefer to these is the Cardas Golden Reference, which is currently out of my price range.
Does anyone have a suggestion for acoustical room treatment? Where should I look?
ssayeed OP
37 posts
 
I should say that out of cables that I have heard, which include the Nordost Heimdall, the most basic XLOs, Cardas Crosslink, LFDSilver Horizon, and Kimber8 TC, the CRL cables have sounded the best on my system in terms of the price. The Golden Reference and the Heimdal's sounded really good, but they are out of my price range.
rhljazz
1,254 posts
 
Your speaker/amp selection = total overkill for the size of the room. I looked up your speakers and they are big units and rated to 30hz anechoic, yikes! I don't believe you could stuff enough room treatment into that space to make a difference. Throwing money at cables will accomplish nothing.
It's time to start over with a much larger room or speakers and amp to match your current room. I have a small room 10x14 for my secondary system, speakers are matched to the room and amplifier to speakers, with virtually zero dollars invested in cables or room treatments, and it sounds fantastic.
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