Large room making me apprehensive....

To my ears and experience Sean is right on the money as far as his thoughts on horn speakers are concerned. Two excellent manufacurers come to mind: The makers of the Avant-Gardes and of the A-Capellas. Happy new Year!

Sure, the Avant-Garde's should work fine. Horns were my other suggestion, but most "audiophiles" are VERY "anti-horn" and don't consider them "hi-fi". To those people, all i can say is that they have never experienced a GOOD horn based system. To give you some idea as to where i'm coming from i would then add that i agree that most STOCK mass produced horn based speakers ARE shrill, bright, edgy, lacking finesse, etc... Like any other mass produced product, there is always room to move in terms of better performance. Sean
>

Thanks for your responses...Would you think that Avantgards might be a possibility here?
Lovesmusic

Look at a TacT Audio RCS 2.0 I'm using one
in a 10X17' bedroom, the opposite problem you
face. It was the most significant upgrade to my
system (Mark Levinson/Magnepan). You'll be impressed
with the positive effect it produces on your system.

You can get "good sound" in just about any room if you match components with a LOT of elbow grease and well thought out room treatments. It looks like you have your work cut out for you in either place that you attempt to build a system though. Keep in mind that it will be hard to pressurize either room ( bass attack ) and you'll have to worry about room reflections. With all of that in mind, i would VERY seriously recommend reading a good book on acoustics. This will give you a good idea of what you'll have to deal with, which room is "better" to work with, the expenses in treating the room, how to do it yourself for pennies on the dollar, etc.. F. Alton Everest has several books that will point you in the right direction.

If i had a room that size, i'd be shooting for something that made use of a LOT of radiating area i.e. large planars / ribbons with multiple dynamic drivers for subs. The biggest Carver's come to mind, as they have 60" of ribbon surface, multiple woofers and are capable of prodigious bass output in a big enough room. On top of this, they are reasonably priced and can play loud. MOST panel type speakers don't fare too well in that area, although there are a few exceptions. While you might not necessarily want to play "loud", you need speakers capable of doing so just to pressurize a room of that size. Sean
>