Full range sound for little room

Greetings Vlad,

In my experience it is difficult to get decent bass in a small room with conventional speakers because the upper bass tends to be overpowering and the lower bass disappears. This is because the room isn't physically large enough for the low bass waves to form, and the room's bass resonant modes over-emphasize the upper bass. In addition, the close proximity of the walls tends to color the midrange and can confuse the imaging.

There is a Finnish company called Gradient that makes very intelligently designed full-range speakers that manage to avoid most of these problems. While you still won't get ultradeep bass in a small room, that which you do get will be extremely natural-sounding, to the point of being better defined than what you'd get from conventional speakers in a normal-sized room.

The speakers I'm talking about are the Revolutions. They use dipole bass loading which very significantly reduces the amount of energy put out into the room's bass resonant modes, and cardioid loading for the midbass driver which reduces the coloration from reflections off the wall behind the speaker. If I had to get by with a small room, this speaker would be my first choice. Its relative immunity to room-induced colorations means that it works well in pretty much any room. Disclaimer - I'm a Gradient dealer, not because that's the biggest money-making brand out there (ha!), but because I fell in love with them.

You can check out Gradient's Revolution page here: http://www.gradient.fi/En/Products/Revo/Revo1.htm

If you would like an in-depth description of why the Revolutions do what they do so well, send me an e-mail and I'll give it a shot.

Best wishes to you in your quest!

Duke

For lots of interesting info re room acoustics and dipole speakers try www.linkwitzlab.com

Hi Vlad. I'm quite happy with a set up which includes a pair of little ProAc Tablette 50 Signatures mated to an NHT SW3P subwoofer. The NHT isn't the best sub out there, but it does a good job of filling out the bottom end very naturally in my 12 x 14 foot room. I have a lot of stuff in my listening room, and the sub gives me the ability to tune the bass through different placement, adjustable gain and crossover, and phase control. I've never owned full range floorstanders in this room, but I can't imagine them having the same flexibility my monitor/sub combo does. Good luck.

I would like to direct your attention to Tyler Acoustic's Tylo Reference Monitor for your needs.. http://tyleracoustics.home.mindspring.com/ref_monitor_picture.html. (While there read the review by Soundstage... It hits the nail on the head with these transducers...)
These are some of the greatest monitors for the $$$ and will fill your small to mid-size room with 85-90% of the
full range sound you are looking for...add a Rel sub and you are there...
Look up the feedback on www.audioreview.com and read what others have said about this little giant killer...Ty the owner and manufacturer is the greatest guy you will ever meet (over the phone or in person). Fire off an E-mail and he will answer in an hour or less (excl. weekends) or heck just pick up the phone and call, he is the guy who will answer. He loves to talk music and of course Tyler Speakers...

PS. His parts used are some of the best in the world and his prices (see used listing on his site) are worth every penny and then some.

Small room: 7.5' x 10' x 8'
Quarter round bass traps in the corners of speaker wall were essential. Echo busters or MGD room tunes in ceiling/wall corners were also helpful. I use Moth Audio Cicada single driver floor standers (60Hz lower limit so they are like monitors) with a Janis W3 sub that has phase as well as volume control. -- I've measured the response with a one third octave analyzer and though I understand what has been said about the room being too small, it measures (and sounds) like I have low frequency energy down to 20Hz. I used a digital one third octave graphic EQ as well. Just purchased a Tact RCS on Agon to do digital room correction of phase as well as amplitude. Send me an email and I'll let you know what happens when I get it. Cheers

Vlad, you haven't told us the dimensions of your room. Size does matter :)

What's small to some, may be large to others.

I'm in a pretty small room (11'X13') and am having very good success with (are you ready for this?)...Magnepan 1.6/QRs!

I've only had them for about a month, so I'm still working on "fine-tuning" the system. I do have some of the problems that Audiokinesis mentions, ie resonant modes (midbass emphasis), but nothing more than any of the other speakers that I've tried (Aerial Model 5s, Hales Concept 2s).

I've got them on the short wall approximatey 6 1/2 feet apart and 2 1/2 feet from the front wall. They're about 1 1/2 feet from the side walls. I sit about 7 feet away from them and the sound is incredible.

They could probably benefit from a larger room but, IMHO, there's not much compromise sonically in the small room. Best of all - if and when I'm able to move them into a larger room (right now the living room is a "playroom" - we've got a 3 year old and 1 year old twins!) I won't need to buy new speakers. They're flexible enough to work in virtually any size room.

Big does not necessarily equal incompatible. Conversely, small does not necessarily indicate compatibility. Most small speakers are tuned to emphasize the midbass to begin with and most are also ported to the rear. This combination can be most frustrating.

My .02

Good luck.

The Gershamn Acoustic Avant Garde RX 20's will give you a great sound in a small room without the need for any sub. It stands 39 inches high with a 12 inch footprint - finish is first rate in piano black or burgundy. Adjustable treble control helps if needed. Check out the website and audioreview.com If interested I can tell you where to get a discount - I am not a dealer.

Several years ago I had Vandersteen 2Ce speakers in a 12 X 14 room-- bad choice overall. But I will say that the 2Ces did sound quite good if volume was kept at low to low-moderate levels. Of course I had no low bass, and the room was easily overloaded if volume was too high.

If I had to do it again, I'd follow the approach that Gunbei (above) used. Cheers. Craig

Monitors, in nearfield, and a subwoofer.