Smaller vs larger listening rooms?

Having speakers sound proper in a room where they can be placed out of the way is rare. 

Any "small" room, especially with irregular geometrey, or not the ideal geometry, and irregular topology and varied materials in there, need passive treatment and often active non electronic controls...

I succeed in my room ,but it takes me 2 years of listening experiments for my 2 listening positions....It was fun...

My room is irregular and not ideal by any means.... 13 feetx13x81/2 with a speaker in a corner and the other not...

The sound is now so perfect and balanced  that it is incredible....

Hope, listen and be creative.... All that cost me almost nothing and of that i am very proud...But my homemade devices are not suitable in a common room and not esthetical....

My post is there tough to be a glimmer of hope....There is no bad room in truth.... Only room in need of particular attention.... Those who pretend the opposite are sellers who dont want to take the time to do the job because they will lose money doing so it takes too much time to balance all the factors...

Acoustic is more powerful most of the times than ANY upgrade... People who has never experienced it cannot believe it, and the consumers market has no interest to communicate this truth....Who will bought an upgrade?

My room is 12.5 ft wide x 20 ft long x 7 ft high. Objectively, too low and two narrow for the best sound.

With attention to acoustics, it’s become one of the better rooms and systems I have heard.

The speakers are Janszen Valentina P8. Subs fill a hole in the bass of the main speakers that would be present in any reasonable listening position.  Adding DRC helped smooth the bass further, though it’s better than most even without that.

as @mahgister said, " Hope, listen and be creative" and address the room acoustics. That, almost always, will provide more improvement than gear upgrades, no matter how costly.

With attention to acoustics, it’s become one of the better rooms and systems I have heard.

With many testimonies people will understand at the end....Acoustic beat most speakers or amplifier upgrade....



«If i read you right, all audio companies will go bankrupt my dear»-Groucho Marx

I go into a lot of different rooms for demos as the ATC importer. Every small room (including studios) have problems because they are too small. Small rooms do not have enough length or width to allow a true deep bass wavelength to exist in the room properly. If a 40Hz wavelength is 28.3 feet, how does that work in 20 foot room? It doesnt!.

On top of that it can be near impossible to get the speakers far enough away from the side walls to avoid overpowering 1st reflection problems. (this one can be easy to fix with acoustic material). It is shocking to me how many high end speaker companies do not know the 1st reflection issue is critical

I’d much rather do a demo in a larger room than a smaller one. A hotel room is impossible; a big hotel meeting room it starts to get better. Knowing that, the same rules apply to both rooms: don’t get near side walls (for good imaging), stay away from corners (boundary effects boost bass), avoid reflective walls and floors (wood/stone/ceramic floors, plaster walls, ceilings), stay on axis and in the triangle.

I think its usually easier in a bigger space. A good test of this is take your speakers outside in your driveway- WOW- do they sound different.
Brad

My sister was just reminding me of a relative we visited 50 yrs ago, with a big old house with huge living room -- it contained a grand piano and six couches scattered around, as well as the stereo. 10 ft ceilings.

I still remembered how sound from the stereo bloomed in that room.

Enjoy your room it is ok.

I currently have a 25x26x7’ dedicated room. I have everything setup a little out of center so I don’t sit in a bass null. It works well enough. 
I had the same system in a 13.5’x18x7’ room in my last house. 
The large room was harder to get the bass right which is the opposite of what I would think. Both rooms were carpeted and both ceilings were acoustic tiles with 8” of mineral wool behind them. 
Sound stage and imaging are much better in the big room as I am not by any walls really. This could really not be achieved in the smaller room. The small room needed a lot of toe in to not have side wall bounce and that would shrink the soundstage and make the speakers brighter. In the large room I point the speakers with much less toe in. 
I should point out that I actively cross over two subs in both rooms so I dial in the bass as needed. 
I still need to buy treatments for the walls but it is coming along.