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Speaker Help Required

I have a 12'x14' living room with a cathedral ceiling.

My 2-channel audio system is along the 12' back wall. I have a 6.5' audio / video rack which houses all my audio gear (mostly Linn) with a bookshelf speaker (Linn Katan) at each side of this rack (roughly 7.5' apart) sitting on stands (Linn Katan stands). The left speaker is about 3' from the side wall and 2' from the back wall with a powered subwoofer (Linn Sizmik 10.25) between the left speaker and the side wall in the corner. The right speaker is also 2' from the back wall but no side wall since it is an opening to my hallway.

Because of this setup, I’m hearing more of the left speaker than the right speaker. I tried different amounts of toe-in, which seems to help a little but I’m still not 100% satisfied. Some people have suggested that since the Katan are very small speakers, the subwoofer is not only providing the added bass but may be participating in some midrange too which is why I’m hearing more of the left channel.

Since I cannot move things around in my living room nor add a door to the hallway opening, I’m looking for a pair of “full range” floorstanding speakers to replace my bookshelves / subwoofer combo in hopes of rectifying this problem. Also, my wife is totally opposed to any “room insulation / sound proofing” idea since we use this room for entertaining friends and family and the décor is her territory.

What floorstanding speakers would you recommend for a $2000-$2500 budget that will help with my issue?
agiaccio
blindjim
3,092 posts
 
Does your sub have a phase control?

I've been painting and moving around furniture as the result. leaving it displaced until I've findished up for a little while now. The offset arrangement of my furniture affects my sound stage. Albeit, not so much the imaging.

If you have a phase control on your sub, you've lots more freedom in where you can set it, aside from openings, and furniture constraints. I currently have my sub set in front of my left speaker facing across both speakers firing from one side wall to the other, left to right, about 3 feet and six inches off the side wall. I've done this same thing with a sub sans phase sw, but it had to be much closer to the plane of the speakers. Also placement in my room of the sub sans phase sw would change the depth of the sound stage as well... further behind the speakers, got me more depth, closer to their plane of operation eventually being forward of them, decreased it.

If you run the sub in L+R (stereo).. you've at least a 180 phase conttrol... just reverse the inputs to see if that helps any. Ya never know sometimes until you try things for yourself. G
Good luck.
danmyers
135 posts
 
This summer I bought some Gallo Ref 3.1s and have been very happy with them. While a bit over your budget (I paid $2300 delivered) they are a great music and HT speaker as you can ditch your troublesome subwoofer and just power the second voice coil for earth shaking lows. Granted this will cost you another $500 (used) for the sub-amp, but you can do it next year (after the economy rebounds and before congress raises tax rates :) With the wide dispersion tweeter and the ability to deliver subwoofer bass w/o a separate subwoofer, these speakers will meet both your and your wife's requirements.
ltmandella's avatar
ltmandella
171 posts
 

Get rid of the wife, and you can then do whatever the hell you want to fix the room.

Worked for me!

immatthewj
2,151 posts
 

I am glad I read the date  prior to typing out a reply to the OP.

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