Speakers for a small room

@daveyf I thought it was decent sized as well but there is something about it that doesn't agree with me. I a currently looking at some special 40's and a pair of t5i's. Time will tell what I settle on.
@mktmkt: I will give the digital EQ readings a go before I make any final decisions. I am located in Canada so GIK isn't an option. I have Primacoustics London 12 room kit plus some extra panels that I ordered individually. My dealer has given me some advice on how to best position them and I have done a fair bit of research into where my reflections points are in my room. 

Thanks for the insight you two. 

Have you downloaded REW (Room EQ Wizard) and taken a look? All you need is a calibrated mic. There might still be potential for improvement via room treatment. If you send your REW measurements to GIK, they can give suggestions (I did this). Also, the measurements might show if speaker-boundary interference is causing a dip in your frequency response which might be helped by adjusting speaker or listening location.

@ostrey93 Not sure i would call a room that is 11x16x7'10" as small! That is a fairly good size...and has reasonable volume.
Nonetheless, I think you are probably on the right track with stand mounts and a couple of REL Subs. Take a look at my system picture and you can see how I deal with a much smaller room with that kind of a set-up.

I am digging up this old thread of mine to post an update. I have come to the conclusion that my room nodes are severely affecting my enjoyment and resulting in some compromises. When my speakers are brought out into the room (approx 4 ft or so) I get a great wide soundstage and on most tracks, the speakers do that disappearing thing. However, I lose impact, not necessarily bass but impact. This is a bit hard to explain but it goes something like this... strings don't have weight and now just sound like a string instead of being a string. So to add a bit more weight I can push the speakers further back and closer to the wall. There seems to be this magic zone in my room where if the speakers are put the bass becomes VERY boomy and muddy and drowns out the detail on the top end. This annoyance happens anywhere less than 4ft to 2ft from the wall. Needless to say, I can not place the speakers in this location so my other option is approx 1-2ft away from the wall. In this zone, there is weight to guitar strings (thanks to the rear firing port) but the soundstage collapses and it is very obvious that I am listening to two speakers. After months of playing with a quarter inch here and a quarter inch there I have come to the conclusion that my room nodes will not allow me to enjoy tower speakers. There is an obvious place in my room where bass and weight works best and an obvious place in my room where details shine. Unfortunately, I can not pull my speakers into two pieces and put one half in one part of the room and one half in the other. I do have room treatments, some acoustic panels, diffusion behind my equipment and corner bass traps as well as a rug on top of my vinyl floor. It doesn't help that my rear and side wall are basement walls which have a foundation behind them. Regardless of the arrangement of the panels and the arrangement of my speakers I can not get the sound to be "right" (good weight and good detail). After all of this I believe the direction that I need to head in is stand-mounts (such as a dynaudio special 40) and a rel sub such as the t5i or t7i. The advantage to this approach would be I can put the speakers in the location where details will sound the best and I can put the rel sub in the location where bass and weight performs the best. If need be I can even turn the sub down a fair bit to not aggravate the room nodes too much. What are your thoughts on this? Is there something else I should try before I up and sell my speakers and move to stand mounts + sub? 

Just thought of a niche speaker that should mate excellently with your Pass amp cause they're always demo'd with low power tubes - the Living Voice Auditorium series. So musical. 94db sensitivity. Thinking like the OBX-RW and down the range. https://livingvoice.eu/en/page/products

No ATCs (not even the SCM7) will give their best with only 30w behind them. You'd want something closer to 90db sensitivity, I'd think. Maybe a slim floorstander would suit. I'd go to take your amp to some dealers and listen to various things with those kind of specs.

I recently purchased a pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 SE , and I am very happy with the sound of these speakers in my small living room. They are efficient and have great mid range and non sibilant highs.They can be purchased online for $298 a pair plus shipping and are nicely built.

@bigddesign3 My current speakers are actually small towers (Tannoy Precision 6.2 LE) so I am sure towers work in my space but I know for a fact that not all towers will. EG. the Focal Aria 936's did not work in my space, they needed more room. I will look into those Martin Logans, they look interesting, they have nice high sensitivity as well, the same with the Spendors that were mentioned earlier on. As for the suggestions about subs I completely agree, REL or nothing. 

Elac makes some very nice bookshelf speakers.  Take a minute to look them over...
jhv

My room is dedicated to listening. It’s large enough for the equipment, record storage, a small computer and desk (which is used for digitizing and storage) and a chair. The walls are decorated with nothing but acoustic foam. I don’t need a sub with the ATC SCM 19s they give me plenty of bass without one.When listening near field it is not necessary for one, I am able to hear everything on the record clearly with excellent timbre and sound stage.
Rollin

Also, if you are going to use subs for music.....REL subs are the only way to fly. REL connected to the amplifiers speaker outputs will match the signature of your amp, and also REL is many times faster and adds to your speaker's midrange in a way that the others mentions here don't. Go REL or go home theater, because that is the way most all of the other subs sound with music.

I'm surprised by some of the choices here. Your room is big enough, and has the ability to have a tower speaker instead of bookshelf size ones. The Martin Logan Motion 60XT is a great performer that will give you that ribbon style tweeter, that is so much easier on the ears. It will give you so much more full sound than a bookshelf. An all around award winning speaker. There's Monitor Audio 300 series, and the more expensive Montor Audio Platunum II Series for $5,700. Both the Martin Logan and the Monitor Audio Towers are great with all types of music, but most of all they are full range and non fatiguing. Throw just about any amount of amplifier power into them, and they will sing. I don't know what makes some prefer what they do. Choice is what makes the world go round. I'm just stating the fact that a full tower speaker like I'm pointing out would allow for a full spectrum sound that excites. Sit a bookshelf next to a really good tower speaker and I find the realism will make the tower win, time and time again. Just my 2 cents.

ADS 300 with a 8" Subwoofer.

If it were me, I'd get either Quad S2 or Ascend Acoustic Sierra 2 bookshelf speakers (both get raves) & stand mount them. I'd also get a pair of SVS SB-1000 or SB-2000 subs. And I'd finish that with a Marchand electronic crossover to divide signal from preamp into 2 filtered streams, hi-pass & low-pass (high for speakers; low for subs). All of this would cost ~$3-$4K maximum, leaving plenty left over for a good preamp & ~100 wpc amp.

@dcevans my space is a dedicated listening room. Only things in there are my components, acoustic panels and my chair. Its my little get away. 

Is your room strictly for listening, or will it be used also as a den/office?  I have a 12x14x8 room that is my den. I did not want ugly acoustic room treatments, and because I have several bookcases and a small desk in the room, I didn’t want a speaker more than a foot from the front wall and impinging on the space. While I have a fondness for 2 way monitors, I didn’t want to worry about a dog or grandchild tipping them over.  After quite a bit of research, I decided upon Klipsch Heresy IIIs. They are smaller highly efficient 3 way speakers tilted slightly on risers that do not require a stand. They can be placed close to the front wall. They have a horn tweeter with controlled directivity, which lessens their impact on the room.  They get down into the 50s Hz range, so do not overpower the room with bass energy. I recently added a REL T9i sub to 30 Hz, and am pleased. I drive them with a Coincident Dynamo SET 8 watts per channel amp, to very loud levels if desired. Was worried about the often cited “honking” tweeter, but the speakers and amp are a splendid match.  Food for thought.  This is not my main system. Nice amp btw

Thanks for all the input everyone. This definitely means I have got some homework to do. 

I'm using Vandersteen Treo CTs in a 12.5' x 15' x 9' room and am very happy with the sound. They replaced KEF LS50s, which I also liked. The thing about stand-mounted monitors is that they take up almost as much space as floor-standers and look precarious, to my eye at least.

Audio Physic
Joesph Audio

@rollintubes 
will soon upgrade my 12s to 19s or 20s. For the SL driver. Might at the same time need a bigger desk. Yes, you like to find another better, but always come back to them. And the easyness with wich you can integrate a sub, preferrably from the same brand.

I have a similar size room.... McIntosh amplification...try some Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor M's.  A sleeper in the Audiophile community and perform way over their price point.  I shocked a lot of my audiophile buds with mine.  $3500 - $4k with stands.  

Eddie,    used merlin VSM
black magic speakers is all you need  OK an extra interconnect also  

I have a room that is 10'6" X 10' X 8'. I searched, tried and tweaked, but my ATC SCM19s sound terrific in that small space. I listen near field so bass reverb is minimized. They articulate very well with my Prima Luna Dialogue Premium HP power amp using KT150s. ATCs have no bass port making location much less of an issue. I don't use any EQ to muddy the sound either.


Rollin

I have a pair of Canton Vento Reference 9.2 DC speakers that I have really liked in both my bedroom and a spare room about the size of your room.  They are rear ported and will need a little space behind them.  They produce a surprising amount of tight bass and are very detailed.  You can find them at accessories4less.

I've tried a number of other speakers in both rooms, Klipsch Heresy I (too "in your face" for a small space), Vienna Acoustics Grand Haydn, Monitor Audio R352s, Spendor S5E, and probably a few others I don't remember. 

I like the Canton's the best.  They are priced quite a bit lower than your budget.

I've recently  outfitted a small room and used Sonus Faber Olympica 1s on their stands  and they are good.  Some might prefer them with a sub.

My room is 11x15x8 and I have a pair of Charney Audio Maestro Companion with Omega RS7 Drivers. Beautiful engaging sound that lacks for nothing. If your in the NJ,NY,CT, PA region I highly recommend taking an evening of weekend day to stop by Charney for an audition.

http://charneyaudio.com/ 

Ah, someone with similar taste in music! 😂
B

Currently I am running some small Tannoy towers and the dual concentric is amazing. I suspect the LS50s would have similar benefits. Ideally I would like something a bit more capable than the LS50s but if that does not exist in my budget then I am happy to pocket the change. Also looking at a focal speaker with the BE tweeter as I heard those can match well with pass gear. 
@audiotroy as for my musical tastes its easier to say what I do not listen to. Those genres are rap, hip hop and country. Everything else is good. 

I'll put my 2 cents in for what it's worth
i have a pair of Greybeard KB/2/2 speakers and a small listening space. 
They are floorstanding. Actually, Larger monitor and attached stand. Two way with 7" & 1"  scanspeak drivers. I think they were in $5k range when new
Very cool. Mine are covered in black tile.They were also available with slate covering. Excellent Sound quality and detail at lower Amplifier power. Of course the bigger the room the bigger the soundstage. 
I beleive I read that Modwright uses a pair of Greybeard for their reference speaker. 
Apparently they were a company from the Portland area that was on the move, then the owner was diagnosed with cancer and the company disappeared. I'm going off memory here so no disrespect if my facts are not right 

Eminent Technology LFT-16A, $1250/pr.

Also the point source of the ls50s helps make for better imaging especially in a smaller room in close quarters.

Ultrek BINGO! 

This is exactly the coaching we expouse. If the total volume of the room is small, then you need monitors that will not over load the room with bass. 

Ideally you would not want a speaker with bass that is lower than mid 30 hz bass response. 

So a great pair of monitors is what you want. Then is depends on the type of music you like and what you are drawn to.

There are more articulate monitors and more rounded musical ones, if you are using a Pass which tends to the warm and bloomy side then you should look at more articulate monitors. 

You can look at smaller floorstanders with out very deep bass as well.

One of the most incredible speakers that you can get in this price point is the Quad Z3 roughly $3k or the larger Z4 at $4k, these speakers offer an incredible ribbon tweeter, a stunning midrange and thorow a huge soundstage. 

They would match the Pass really well. Would need to know more about your musical tastes and the rest of the system.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

My room is 11' x '16 x '10. I spent 2 years learning room acoustics and treating my room. I spent another 2 years going through speakers that were too big for my room (e.g., Golden Ear T2). A year and a half ago I got a pair of Kef Ls50s. Last week I finished dialing them in. They are incredible. I'm very happy with what I'm hearing now. 

@gdnrbob i have never heard vandy speakers. I will need to hear their sound at some point. People seem to love them. We will see if their sound agrees with me. 

@yogiboy good to know. I would much rather some floor standers for the added extension. 

@ostrey93 ,
I have not heard the D7’s in my room. But I have owned similar sized Spendors in my 20x15 size room. The S8e, S6e and the A5. I am now using a Harbeth stand mount. If I was to go back to a floor stander the Spendor would be my choice!

@yogiboy Have you heard the Spendor D7's in a room with similar dimensions? 

Hi
I use JBL TLX6 in a small room with a vintage 30w amp and sometimes a modern 60w amp with both tv and turntable I’m really happy with these small base US made speakers. They are on stands.
Ps they cost $100 USD  Maybe you need to spend more money🤢

Joseph Audio

I have a room with similar dimensions.

 I like my Fritz Carerras .  They sound big without taking up much room.

ATC has to be mentioned in all speaker recommendation threads :-). For that kind of money you can find a used SCM50 passive. The smaller passive SCM12 (pro-speaker) is a giant killer for much lesser money. Then you have money left for a professional room calibration system.

The Spendor D7 would fit the bill!

https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/94323/Spendor-Spendor_D7_Stereo_Speakers-Speakers

I agree with Tomic.
I would also ask you to consider the Vandersteen VLR bookshelf speakers. If you got a pair of subs, you would get a real treat.
I have mine coupled with a pair of HSU subs, and am really impressed.
Of course, if you can get a pair of Treo's or Quatro's, I doubt you would be disappointed. My Main setup has Treo's with a pair of 2wq subs, and is very impressive, especially for the money I paid (-I bought everything used).
So, in a nutshell. If you want something to listen to non-critically, I would get the VLR's, but if you want something killer, go for the Treo/Quatro's

I have listened to the the ProAc at Audioconnection, and I liked them, too.
Different from Vandy, but nice, very nice. I don't think you would be sorry with either brand. But, there is something that Vandersteen does that makes me forget about the other manufacturers.
If possible, go to as many dealers as you can, before you decide.

Bob

Pro-Ac has some nice models.

But if you are after a speaker best suited to a smaller room take a look at Kudos

They have down-firing bass ports - so corner related bass issues of a smaller room are minimized.

For dealers see...

http://kudosaudio.com/international/

Regards Steve

There's another ongoing thread right now on a very similar topic.  Here:https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/big-speakers-in-small-room-at-moderate-volume-levels/post?highlight=gik&postid=1669544#1669544

Thanks all for the comments so far. @williewonka it does not need to be a small speaker, it just has to work in a small room. If I can get a tower speaker that others have had success within a smaller room I would prefer that over bookshelves with a sub. But if that is the way it must be than so be it.

Why do you require small speakers?

I had my Gershman Acoustics Sonogram floor standers in a 12 x 15 x 8 room and they were great.

If it's a size issue then the Neat Motive line has some great small floor standing models.

The Gershman Acoustics Avant Garde Are also very good and quite small

I like floor standing models because then I do not have to fuss with a stand.

Regards - Steve

vandersteen Treo CT.....hyper musical
or a used set of Quattro, would be spectacular with your amp and 11 bands of analog EQ to address room issues in the bass...

prepare for inputs !!!!!

have fun

great amp you have there