If your looking for a speaker that fits your budget, will work with your amp and sub and has a top to bottom smooth frequency range the speakers from Fritz are your best option. Plus he will let you try them.
Requesting Your Expertise - Best Options - High Sensitivity Speakers For A Smaller Room
As the title says, I am looking into the best options for higher sensitivity speakers for a somewhat small room. The room itself is 12.5 feet by 9.5 feet. The speakers would be placed along the 12.5 foot wall. Amplifier power is 8wpc.
The system will be used for a variety of music, including folk, instrumental, rock, jazz, and singer songwriter offerings. Budget is a max of $3k, used. And a quality subwoofer, chosen specifically for the room, and use with whatever speakers that I choose, is available to employ.
I already have some ideas, but, clearly, none of us are aware of everything, and, in the higher sensitivity space, things can get a bit tricky. Your experiences, thoughts, recommendations and expertise would be appreciated in terms of outlining all the worthwhile options available. Thanks.
- ...
- 64 posts total
I have a demo set (actual set in below video) and they are in your budget. Alex/Wavetouch audio Eric Clapton - Tears in heaven, Krall - Temptation My Favorite Picture of You - Guy Clark, Wavetouch audio live recording. My Favorite Picture of You - Guy Clark
|
Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2 EX V2. Small, mid weight, wonderful timbre, astonishingly deep bottom end, low priced, easy to drive... I think they’ll send you a demo pair, but not sure about that. Ask and see - if not, what’s the return policy. You’ll be amazed. Sensitivity is 86, but I have used them in a 12 X19 room with that sized SET amp and they filled it very well.
BMR Monitor is another great option. Read the accolades, including Stereophile Recommended: https://philharmonicaudio.com/products/bmr-monitor?variant=44392808612084 Sensitivity and my experience with these? Same as the Ascend Acoustics above. Both of these models are real jewels. I own several pairs of $50K+ speakers and the BMRs and Ascend Acoustics continue to get a lot of listening. I would not consider selling either. |
The notion of speakers being too big for the room is just one of those unsubstantiated statements or claims that has no evidence to back it up. It’s a non-issue. Choose the speakers you like and don’t reject something that you would love. Audio Note has been mentioned and I concur and suggest a used pair of Snells. Devore are just lovely and do make smaller units that may fit your budget. The route I would go is to high-pass the mains relieving your low powered amp of transformer saturating low frequencies. If the speakers you choose have ports plug them rendering them a sealed box in performance rolling off at 12dB/ octave. You mention a sub but it is not clear to me if you own one or intend to. As far as I’m concerned subs are a necessity for any audio system regardless of room or speaker size. Even megabuck speakers need them because of unavoidable room modes. When sealing ports on a speaker you are removing additional bass sources which complicates set up. Now some will argue that you will lose bass and you will and that is the point which is to get quality over quantity. Full spectrum balance is achieved with subs (2 always better than 1) and for subs 2 parameters are paramount: must have variable phase and they must be sealed boxes and will therfore match the XO slope of the mains and provides the most seemless blend. Todays subs come with high damping factors unlike a low powered tube amp so there is no worry there because most but not all speakers are designed around solid state amplification. If you are wondering why any subs are needed it’s because of room modes, that nasty phenomenon that plays hell with your sound. The only way to avoid this is to listen to your speakers in an anechoic chamber or mounted high in the air in an open field. Fact. When you position the speakers for a nice soundstage and precise imaging the bass will be compromised but the 2 subs will smooth that out. No more nasty peaks or nulls Regarding high passing the mains this can be simply accomplised by inserting a PLLXO in the amp’s tape loop or soldered into the interconnect cable you just need to know the amps input impedance obtainable from the manufacturer. It consists of 1 capacitor and 1 resistor. Look up passive line level crossover. Check out the link below and look for my 2 posts which goes into more detail on setting up multi-subs |
- 64 posts total