Small room big amp, need speakers

I don't have personal experience with them ,but, maybe Gradients? IMHO, if I understand your post, (10' X 10' room?) you may need something like a TacT before you consider speakers.

With that kind of power, you should take a look at the ATC SCM-20SLs.

Thiel 1.6s may work....or even the 2.3s, but they may overload the room. The small Vandersteens (2ce) may work too. I'm not sure about Magnepans (1.6s) in such a small space though, but they would be worth trying. The amp will be overkill however. Maybe sell it and get a low powered model. You will probably never gewt great bass in such a small room.

It would be helpful if you would identify what your source is, and what your musical preferences are. Also, how much are you planning on spending on this? Stne418 - I somewhat disagree with your statement on bass; It can be had, but matching the system properly is difficult.

It is FAR easier to develop great quantities of bass in a small room, but the problem is that standing waves or "nodes" are far more common. As such, the quality of bass will probably suffer to a very noticeable degree. This is especially true of a room with the dimensions ( completely square ) that Minh mentions.

The very first thing that i would think about would be room treatments. In a room that is this size, nothing you can do to your system can make as much of a difference as some inexpensive but well built DIY room treatments.

As far as speakers go, i would look for something that was relatively small to medium sized and made use of a sealed cabinet. Look for something that places the drivers relatively close together, as you will end up sitting relatively close to them. The further that the drivers are spaced apart, the greater the distance that you have to sit back from them for the drivers to fully integrate into a cohesive presentation.

You might also want to look for a speaker that has a "focused field" radiation pattern. As small as the room is, you are bound to have quite a bit of sidewall reflections coming into play. This is not to mention that you won't be able to pull the speakers out too far from the rear wall. Sean
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Definitely get accoustic treatments! I have a 11' x 11' room (in an apartment) which has huge standing wave problems but it allows me to have a dedicated room. I used ASC Studio Traps, Argent Lens and 4 sheets of diffuser to tame the room and it prevented me from upgrading my speakers..

My systems is pretty radical for a small room NHT 3.3's (13" off the back wall to prevent eviction notices), Velodyne FS1800, Paradigm Active 20 rear speakers, Aerial CC3 Center... powered by an EAD PowerMaster 2000 (400wattx5 channels)... I have the sub basically turned off as the NHT's will keep upsetting my neighbors...

I can't wait to buy a stereo room (free with house purchase). Smaller speaker monitors will make taming the accoustics easier for you.

What type of diffuser did you purchase? Did the acoustical treatments really make a noticable improvement? I have a similar room (12x13) and am interested in similar treatments.

I'm currently using all Krell.
Krell krc-3 pre-amp
Krell ksp 30i cd player
and Krell Audio Standard. In the pass I used classe cam 200, for about a months then I saw the krell ksa 300 which was too sick bought that then I saw the Audio Standard got to have it. Look god dame toooo freaking sick. At the time I was too stuck on buying the right amps, kept changing. I also knew that I was too stuck and needed to unstuck myself. And I knew that the audio standard would finally satisfied me. You see I needed to have a system that sound good and most important of all look sick up the ass. Don't get me wrong I don't want a sick system to show off. Anyways I don't have any friends to show it too. It had to look sick because of the time and devotion I put into my room to get it ready for my system. Took hooked on this shit. Ok I hope my setup is clear now lets move to my room.

I'm a 25 years old colledge student who still live at home. So the only way that I can enjoy musics whenever I wanted too without desturbing my folks is going all out with soundproofing. First, I slaped on about three inches of gysum boards. Then I used the acoustical solutions audio seal sound barrier, 1/4 inch thick and glued it to the walls. I'm kinda lucky, my room is completely isolated from my parents room. However there's one wall that needed triple layers because it's faceing my parent's room. Separated by a hallway four feet wide which I felt isn't enough. Second, I used the alpha resilient clip to creat an airspace about 3" wide between the sound barrier and the outer walls. This airspace is very important if I wan't good result, so I took my time and seal everything with plenty of acoustical caulks. I made sure everything was air tight. Finally I slaped on two layers of 5/8 gysum board. Caulk every crack. Did a final inspections to see if all walls are air tight then I painted the walls. Next I installed corner bass traps by foam factory. The sides walls are treated with diy polyurthane foam boards from homedepot. Read about it online and thought that the concept
worked according the the laws of physis, and it doesn't coast a lot. All funding are focus on the Krell audio standard mono blocks. Its too sick! Got to have it when I first saw it no matter what the cause. And at the time my research and advices from all the audiophiles from audiogon let me to belived that you can't go wrong with a stroung amps. I'm a firm believer in that concept.

This hobby made my parents crazy with all the dusts and materials laying around the house during the six months it took me to finish. They wanted to stop me from building my dream listening room from the start but they dicided not to because they saw that I was too crazy and passionate about what I was doing. Just by looking at my face, they felt my my love for stereo. Dame I'm hooked on this hobby. As I research and gain more knowledge I started to notice that I love it more and more and this feeling is growing at an exponential rate. I'm dead. Stereo for life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, the fisrt speakers that I used were the 801's matrixs with the northcreek crossover upgrades. Very happy with the sound. It was the best that I ever heard musics being reproduced, never had a chance to listen to anything better finally relizied that musics is unlimited. I listen every day from 8am to about 3pm consistenly for about 4 months at a volume many audiophile would consider loud. I can't help it no one's home during this time and the musics just sounds tooo good. Damn I'm hooked on the musics. I like to listen to trances and damn it sounds too smooth on a high end system that I can't stop listening. I though I was done with my setup for now then I relizied that it can sound better. way better. My tastes in musics have change completely. I don't want loud and bass dominated musics anymore. I guess I want what all stereophile wants music that sounds good and real. The midrange is what drives me crazy. Got damn instruments sounds so real espacially the string. Hella extended.

That's why I need help from experience audiophiles on audiogon. Sold the 801's already. I now know that the room plays a major role in the reproduction of musics. What speakers would work best for my components and room size. All advices are welcome and greatly needed. Need speaker, no musics making me mad.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long essay and for the advice and help that I greatly need to enjoy music at the level that my room and components allow. I know that my limited experiences is preventing me from the sounds that my amps can deliver.
Thanks for all the great and unbias respones.
Minh Nguyen (Stereo for life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)