Is a 12' X 16' room big enough for stereo?


Dear fellow audiophiles:
I am in the process of building a house. Our builder went over the floor plans with us yestreday morning and there is an bonus room which I planned on making a dedicated sound room, I am strictly into 2-channel stereo, and my speakers aren't that big, the Thiels CS1.5 driven by Pass Aleph 5. This room measures 12'X 16'. Not sure about the height yet. Is it big enough? What is your opinion?

Thanks
Francis
yslee

Showing 1 response by mikelavigne

my 12' X 18' room has worked great. i have a bay window and an 11' stepped ceiling that have really helped. you will need to treat the walls for reflections. i spent 2 years experimenting with different levels of wall treatment before i got it right. getting the right balance between live and damped is important.

consider floor to ceiling shelving behind your seating position for cds and lps. they work great as a diffuser and reduce shelf clutter. you don't want to lose any width from 12'.

your biggest challenge will be smoothing the bass and avoiding a mid-bass bloat. consider raising the height of your speakers to decouple your woofers from the floor boundary.

the biggest advantage of a relatively small room is that you can control what is happenning better than in a large room. good luck!