How to choose speakers that won't overpower your room?

@zlone   Dealers/sellers always push stand mounts and sub(s) for smaller rooms. Why? They have you set up for an upgrade path and they have already sold speaker stands and subwoofer(s) that are not needed for the room. The question is how serious and committed with room treatments are you? I would rather spend my money on room treatment then speaker stands and sub(s) that can't be implemented correctly(due to space).in a smaller room.

+1 on the room treatments. Amongst the best money I have spent. 
When I went to audition my D9’s they were at a legit reviewers house. I was actually STUNNED when upon seeing his audio room. And took note of treatments. 
When he found out the size of my room he made strong emphasis to put a sound absorbing panel behind my head. 
Glad I listened.

Your room size is not that much different than mine. I use Audio Note speakers and have them in the corners of my room. Absolutely spectacular. 
 

john

Appropriate room treatment can make a small room sound much bigger and accommodate larger speakers. A front ported speaker works best when you don't have room to pull them out.

I found the issue in my room to be related to the woofers being 3 feet off the floor. The nodes created between the floor and ceiling persisted despite extensive bass trapping and diffusion. What worked for me was using a Marchand HPF at 80hz and having a sub on the floor.

I also use a White Instruments 4856 graphic equalizer to tame peaks and nodes. That's something that requires experience and persistence. I use an RTA to start, getting things essentially flat. Then comes the hard part. Extensive listening to familiar music, analyzing which frequencies need changes, and an iterative process for refining the settings over time. 

It's not brain surgery but does take time to learn to associate particular frequencies with the changes you want to make, and it adds another dimension to the hobby that I enjoy. After a couple of hours of tuning I can sit back and enjoy months of listening without being distracted by hearing something I don't like. 

I would prefer a room and system that didn't require the EQ but I don't have the room to build that so I optimize what I have. 

Definitely visit PS audio their Aspen FR5 is in another league. The design and engineering involved puts most to shame Sonus faber included. With the stand mounts your room limitations will be nonexistent. 
 

Cheers