Is 9'x11' too small?

Rene, thanks for the idea. I'll try that in my current listening space to get an idea of what the sound may be in a nearfield condition. Yes, my current space, while larger, allows for little freedom as far as placement goes.

Kehut, thanks for your response. I would probably stick with Totem, but move to the Arro or Mite if I move to the smaller room. I think they would be less likely to interact with the room of this size than the Tabu.

I sit about 9' away from my speakers in my current space. They are about 8' apart and 18" from the rear wall.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone! I am getting excited about this possibilty now, I was thinking I would be getting an opposite reaction! I drew up a potential floor plan and posted it here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vopin&1106460038&view

Any comments/suggestions?

Rene, thanks for your comments. The ceiling height is 8', so I am exactly at the same dimensions as your old room. Did you have you speakers along the 'short' wall as I have shown, or the 'long wall'. At 9x11, there isn't much difference, but just curious.

Thanks Rene! I tried the calculator and emailed you a couple of questions.

'Calculator' Results:

Using the potential room layout & dimensions shown here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vopin&1106460038&read&keyw&zzroom%20layout

The calculator gave me back these results:

Sitting Postion Peaks:
Single Peaks 125.4 / 250.9
Sitting Position Nulls:
Single Nulls 62.7 / 188.2

Seems pretty promising?

If I play with the numbers a bit, I notice that if I position my sitting position 6" off center, there are no peaks/nulls, but I understand this may cause other problems with soundstaging, etc.? Any thoughts/education on these results?

Thanks Rene, for your off-line comments!

Kray, I would have a window directly behind my gear as well, not directly behind the speakers, but close enough. I currently have 2" wood blinds on both windows in the room, but I would consider putting up oversized curtains that actually fill the back wall behind the gear and speakers. I am thinking I could make some homebrew acoustical treatments with Armstrong's SoundSoak Material? I have relatively cheap access to this material and could have corner and wall treatment for the whole room for only about $100!

Spacekadet, nice inherited gear! I would love to hear my Totems on McIntosh gear! That is also inspiring that I can maybe move up the Totem line, while still in a small space.

Aroc, I am basing the system around Totem Arros at this point. Pairing them with a Cairn Fog v.2 and PrimaLuna Prologue Two. As far as AN gear, I used an AN DAC One.1 in my system breifly, but can't say I was overly impressed with it? It may have been the pairing (Classe' CDP.3 and Plinius 8200mkII at the time), but I wasn't wowed. AN may be like Naim in some respects, that it works together better with an all AN system? I've also read that AN is one of those 'love it / hate it' kin of things. While I didn't 'hate it', it didn't stay in my system long. It was replaced with the Cairn Fog actually.

Well, I had some extra time this weekend and I played around with my system a bit.

1. I took up Rene on the suggestion to arrange the speakers and my listening chair at the distances they would be in the new room. Things got a little better, but not incredibly so. If this remained my listening space, I would probably not move stuff around to do 'serious' listening. The benefits were negligible, but it was a worthwhile experience.

2. I drug some of the office furniture out, and moved the system into the proposed room. The soundstage was large and engaging. Deeper than the front wall of the room, and stretching the side walls. In this nearfield listening set-up, the soundstage was also incredibly engaging. The room seems to have great potential considering it was half emptied (although close to what I would have in there if it was a listening room) and no acoustical treatments yet.

I've updated my 'Room Layout?' thread with pictures of both spaces:

Room Layout

Now, to convince the wife. ;)

Thanks for the comment Kray! I was pleasantly surprised at how well a room this small sounded! Keep me posted on your 'room tuning' efforts, as I am sure they will prove useful for me as well.

Ben, I have since moved to a larger space. I consolidated my 2-channel and HT in one 2-channel HT music system. Basically two channel with an added dvd and DLP screen.

The cause of the move was two - after having such a sweet 2-channel system that sounded simply sublime in this small room, listeing on the HT was almost an annoyance. Second, was the 9x11 room didn't allow my wife and I to listen together. There was only one sweet spot, and if you moved from it, the sound changed drastically in such a small space.

Yes, using the excel chart I found ideal speaker and listening postitions and it sounded wonderful! I never had the chance to experiment with room treatments before consolidating and moving out, but was never really overly compelled to from lack of good sound, just mostly curiousity of what it could add and obviously it didn't overtake me.

If both my wife and I could have listened together, I would still have the small room system. It was such an intimate sound. I loved it! Enjoy yours! I am a beleiver that you can make a small room work with the right speakers and careful positioning!!!