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Listening Fatigue & Speakers in Small Room

The main components of my system are B&W N804s, a MF A300cr power amp (225 wpc), a BAT VK-3i, and a MF Nu Vista CD. All cabling is Cardas Golden Reference. I had this set up in my old, 20x24 condo dining room/living room with no problems. Now, I have a house with a dedicated listening room of approximately 10x10x8, and am experiencing listening fatigue. After a little while, the outside of my ears start to hurt. Recently, I have treated the room with GIK bass traps and spot panels which have made the quality of the sound much, much better, but my ears continue to hurt. I'm thinking that maybe the B&Ws are just too big for the room, and that I may need to go to monitors with a sub. Am I on the right track, or could another component may be the culprit? Thanks for your help.
rlb61

Showing 2 responses by newbee

newbee
4,794 posts
 
Not to rain on your parade, but usually when small tubes grow old they loose some highs and become dullish. Usually.

On the other hand some new tubes are often dullish and take some hours to open up in the highs. So what you hear initially is not necessarily where you will end up after 24 hours.

I think Bombaywalla's comments are quite good and could be very helpful, especially those in the first and last recommendations. It is possible that if you are listening in the near field these speakers may not be appropriate, at least for the best results. Re toe in, don't omit trying some severe toe in where the speakers axis crosses well in front of your listening position. This can solve all kinds of issues including 1st reflection issues off the side walls and ceilings as well.

Lastly, tonally speaking, tube brands can make a very big difference.
newbee
4,794 posts
 
If changing tube to warm up the tone is your goal, I have had a lot of success using JJ ECC88s. The are low noise tubes and I've used them in a BAT VK D5 successfully (as well as a Woo headphone amp. And they are cheap too.

But if you are contemplating a speaker change I would wait - what works now might not work then.

Re small speakers, Spendors, Harbeths, or on the cheap (or not so cheap) Silverlines come to mind.

Did you try crossing the axis of your speakers in front of you? How did that work?
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