New 11' x 7' listening room....small speaker?

Totem Acoustic Arro.

Maggie 1.6 will work in that space. They sound good and are reasonably priced too.

I'd to note a strong disagreement with Albert, the 1.6's it will simply swamp the room in sound and will be most unpleasant. I'm not even sure with extensive room treatments could you absorb the acoustic output that will reflect around the room. Nothing worse than A dipole backed into a corner either. Boom!

Channel seperation if that is important to you will be non existent. I think he might have misread your dimensions.

A super speaker for your application would be the Elac 330.3 JET, ATC SCM10's, Focal SM6, Acoustic Energy AE1 reissues, Someones LS3/5a even if you like that sound.

Small speakers with a DSP EQ'd subwoofer 8" to 10" to give you full range and some bass control in the room. EQ is very important in small rooms.

Hey, how about a pair of Sound Lab A-1's?

But seriously, something like VonSchweikert VR1's or Green Mountain Audio Europas might fill the bill nicely. I'm using a pair of Aural Ersatz TAD-803 speakers (single-driver mod) that work pretty well in my small room. But my small room is 12' x 14' so I can't guarantee anything.

It might be a prudent if you could borrow a pair of small speakers from somewhere and set them up in the room just to get an idea of the room acoustics and to see what that environment does to the bass response. Putting some sound absorbing material or panels on the side walls at the point of the first reflection might help. Good luck to you.

You need something with a small footprint also, so my suggestion would be something like a Totem Sttaf, which is Totem's mini-tower. Great sound in a small package. Good luck with your search.

Regards

You might also consider Gallo reference 3's. I'm using them in a small room with great results.

Without knowing your budget ... something like the NHT Classic 3 may work out well. They are acoustic suspension/sealed box design and so near rear wall placement is not an issue.

Regards, Rich

Albert,

I defer to your superior knowledge most of the time, but c'mon, his room is SEVEN FEET WIDE!!!!

Taking into account the width of the speakers, it would only leave less than 4 ft. between them even if they were touching the side walls. If you give them 1 ft. of clearance on either side you now have 22 inches separating the speakers. I'm sorry, but that won't work for any speaker, maggies especially.

Even if he sets them up on the long wall giving them 1 ft.(pretty lame for di-polar speakers) of clearance to the wall behind them and butting his couch up against the other wall, he is now around 6 ft. from the plane of the speakers. Not enough for maggies to integrate.

No, I don't agree with 1.6s in this application at all. The best he can do is a pair of mini-monitors on the long wall and listen in the extreme near field. At least that is my suggestion.

Oz

If you are considering Green Mountain Audio speakers, call Roy Johnson. He is a master at placement with all the soundstage work he has done in the past. Your room is tough. The Callisto's are bottom ported and can be close to the walls, but Roy would be the one to ask on placement. Maybe the new Pico would be better or the Europa.
Good luck!

http://www.greenmountainaudio.com/Speakers/BookshelfStandMounts.htm

As mentioned not knowing your budget or if a sub can be incorporated. I would try the Revel M22, or Acoustic Energy
Aelite 2, or if budget permits the Linn Akurate 212 which is an awsome sounding stand mounted speaker. Actually the Linn could probably satisfy the bass requirements of a smaller room without the sub.

I can spend up to $2000...thanks for the replies

Zafrann,

Some great suggestions posted. You might want to check out Ohm Micro series. There's a review on 6moons that might give you an idea if they'd work. 120 day home trial makes it nice to find out. Good luck.

http://www.ohmspeakers.com/styles_microwalsh.cfm

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/walsh/micro.html

Cheers

I was thinking of a speaker that was reasonably priced and had great tonal balance. I admit I have never tried Maggie 1.6's in a room that small.

One friend in my audio group has 1.6's in a spare room that's maybe 11 X 14 and they sound wonderful, maybe that's enough larger space to accommodate.

In spite of reactions here, I would likely try them myself if faced with that space. If it sucked, I'd pull em out. If it worked, it would be a speaker I could live with, even at low volume level.

You might consider the Proac tablette Reference 8 signature, they are very musical!
Good luck

At $2k used, I would put Merlin TSMs on the list but consult with Bobby @ Merlin to see if the room is big enough and if your electronics would mate well with his speaker. He will give you an honest answer.

thanks for all of the suggestions...going to try a few of these recommendations out...starting with the Ohm Micro Walsh Talls...

The Ohm engineer I talked to was very helpful and was confident that these would do well in my room. If not, I have 120 days to send them back. Not bad.

Totem forests - used right around the budget, no sub required in a room of that size.

My second room (bedroom) is about that size, maybe a tad smaller on the long side. I'm using Triangle Titus ES on 24-inch stands about 21 inches from the short wall and a bit more from the side walls. Listening is near field, of course; I sit on the bed.

It's not ideal, but I've been putting a bit more attention into it since the living room acquired a TV. I'm optimistic that with some room treatment the Tituses will produce the image and extension I heard them do in the store; already the setup is working quite well. There is quite acceptable bass from the tiny midwoofer--an advantage of the small room.

Try Meadowlark Audio Kestrel Hot Rods. I used them in a 9X11 room while temporarily living in an apartment. All the bass you'll need in the small room and they are one of the best speakers I've heard at low volume. That can be important in a small room where high volume can cause problems without thorough acoustic treatment. Good luck with our search.

Dulcet's measures about 7 inches wide, 12 inches high, and on average (given the sloping face), 8 inches deep, check out the reviews starting with Dulcet loudspeakers
.

Can anyone tell me, is there a perfect size for a sound room?

For an average sound room, you don't want any dimension smaller than 15' or so, with the other dimension being at least a couple feet longer. You want to avoid square rooms.

So 15' x 18' would be pretty good for a small pair of speakers, 25' x 19' or something would be better for a larger pair of speakers.

According to the Cardas website it would be 26 X16 X 10. My room gets two of these dimensions dead on, 26 X16 X 8.

Oz

Are these dimensions true for nearfield listening also? I ask because, for me, sitting further than 7 or 8 feet from the speakers isn't as thrilling as up close.

Try the GR Research Criterions, I think they are also being built still by RAW Acoustics in Canada. These are very affordable monitors that sound excellent in the nearfield.

Actually Ozzy, your dimensions are very poor, all of them almost all multiples of 8! serious piling up of standing waves at the 8 ft dimension (26 is close enough to 24 to be considered as such). The 26,16,10 works well because none is awhole multiple of any other.
Bob P.

On a 26'X16'room, which wall are you setting your speakers up on. I'm asumming the 16' wall. I ask because, I've never had a room that large to set up my system. This make me wonder with a room this size if you set the speakers on the 16' wall you would get a deeper soundstage. If you set the speaker up on the 26' wall you would get a widerer soundstage. Can you tell me if there would be any truth to this statement or not????

I have the speakers set up on the short wall. It is a dedicated room, so I can have them anywhere and sit anywhere. They are set up using the Cardas placement for planars.



SS is deep and wide in this position. I wouldn't want them on the long wall, would have to sit too close to them.

Oz

Oz in the room that you have your system, is this a dedicated room or do you have T.V and or furn.
I know most people are limited to the right space. So I was just wondering how you had it set up. How much difference furn. made vs no furn.

Dedicated. No TV, no computer, no dual duty anything. Music First.

A chair, love seat, room treatment, records, seedees and equipment. I just re-posted it here on Agon.

Oz