Speaker size and soundstage


Question: for floor standing speakers, how does speaker size affect sound stage, bass response, and the depth of music?

I’m searching for a new speaker, and just tested Dynaudio Contour 30 against Tekton Electrons (16x18 room with cathedral ceiling). Tekton’s are bigger (48 vs 45 high, and 10 vs 8.5 wide, about the same depth) and had a much larger sound stage and greater dynamics and depth. Tekton’s as a rule are much bigger than most other brands, which can be imposing in a room, but the size must equate to a greater sound stage. 
But can a smaller tower be designed to achieve the same sound stage and bass depth of a bigger speaker? If so, what what speakers pull this off?
w123ale

Showing 1 response by bpoletti

There are a couple of items for comment.  

First is room acoustics.  It's probably the most critical component in soundstage.  A well-tuned room is both the starting point and the finishing effort in any listening environment from the basement cave to the symphony hall.  Without the room, it will not be possible to set up a fully satisfying system.

A very easy and inexpensive room tuning solution is using 5" artificial ficus trees available at most home decor stores.  "At Home" stores sell them for $40 each.  I ended up with about 15 scattered around the room, mostly behind and next to the speakers.  They act as diffusers and work great.  It's probably the cheapest and most effective room tweak available.

Next is optimizing speaker setup.  Much as been written about speaker set up.  Most is total crep.  But do try to keep the speakers away from the back wall and the side walls.  Place an artificial ficus between the side wall and the speaker a little forward of the speaker to break up the sound heading for the side wall.  You don't want those side wall echoes.  

What is a "bigger speaker?" What is a "smaller speaker?"  

The Dynaudio Contour 30 is a VERY good speaker.  I haven't heard the Tekton.    

Soundstage and imaging can be somewhat controlled with the speaker setup and room acoustics.  Artificial ficus trees are the 

I have gotten spectacular soundstage and imaging using a speaker with a single 5" driver in a mass-loaded transmission line enclosure.  It was a nearfield setup in a larger room that the OP describes.  Wonderful system, punchy, tight and fun, but a little lacking in macro dynamic range and sub-80hz bass.  And nearfield listening helps to remove room interaction.

I get spectacular soundstage and imaging with my current 3.5 way four driver speakers with 12" and 10" woofers, 6" mid and 1" tweeter drivers in the same large room --- obviously NOT a nearfield listening setup.  But it does provide a very wide range of dynamics and sub-40hz bass at maybe 20 times or more the size of the 5" MLTL system.  

But the MOST satisfying listening comes ONLY in a room that is properly acoustically tuned.