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Questions about room size and speaker choice

I have two unrelated questions regarding speaker choice:

1) I am moving to a new, bigger apartment, which is great as I will have a dedicated listening room, but at the same time somewhat of a problem as the dedicated room is rather small measuring 9 x 11 feet. (It's the master bedroom and the shorter wall behind the listening chair has an opening into the bathroom so it's open in a sense.)

I am in the process of upgrading my speakers from the Totem Acoustic Hawk and the smaller room now has thrown another twist into the selection process. Some of the floorstanders I have been considering, such as the Acoustic Zen Adagio or the Silverline Sonatina, might now just overpower the room, or it might simply be not possible to set them up optimally given the distance of 9 feet between the side walls.

I wanted to ask whether anyone has tackled a similar problem and what the results were. Should I forgo full range floorstanders for a pair of monitors, perhaps? Harbeth comes to mind and I have been wanting to audition a pair of the 7es-3.

2) I have seen some incredible deals here on Audiogon on used speakers, and was curious what the opinions were on the age of the used speakers. Assuming a speaker is in a great condition and there are no flaws beyond cosmetic blemishes and simple age, at which point would you say a speaker has been used for simply too long to bother with it? Since it's a mechanical transducer with moving parts, years of use might exert more wear-and-tear on it than might be visible with a naked eye. The rubber surround might not be as pliable as it was and slowly start to crack; the voice coil might be pretty stressed and more prone to breaking; screws loosening; you get the idea.

I'd appreciate any input and opinions. Thank you.
actusreus

Showing 1 response by inpieces

inpieces's avatar
inpieces
199 posts
 
Actusreus, what is ridiculous prices? Where do you draw a line for what is ok and not?
You can use many large speakers in fairly small rooms, IF, i say if, you keep the bass peaks under control. Next factor is probably how well the speakers work in nearfield.

Do you have any pictures of your room?

I am no expert, but i can help you and tell you what i have tried in my room. The acoustics will determine more than you think, i swear on that. It is far too much to print here. You can change the whole aspect of how it sounds with acoustics. I would say, start off with this if you can. No room is perfect. They do not need to be, but by addressing acoustics your system will sound so much better. Later on, you can decide if it is good enough, or if you wish to work more on the acoustics.
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