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speakers for a small room

First of all a happy new years to all.

this isn't another thread for speaker suggestions, but is instead a three parter of other sorts. I'm building a small listening room at the moment, in a small section of the basement willed to me by the spouse. The dimensions will be roughly 13W x 14L x 9H.

1) is this room large enough for two systems? I would like to have both a SS and tube system.
2) the SET system will have 2-way bookshelf speakers, but I would like the SS setup to be hooked to planar/electrostatic speakers. Is the room too small for these types of speakers (Apogee, Acoustat, Eminent, etc)
3) the room is in the middle of the basement and will have 2 sets of 30" doors. Would placing the speakers, with either the one or two sets between a set of doors be breaking audio taboos (the door is centered on one of the walls)? I'm planning to acoutically treat the room with some DIY later, but want to first test with the equipment.

the systems will have CD/SACD and TTs, also my listening tastes stretch from jazz, vocals to rock.
thanks all for your feedback to my newbie Qs
qclabrat_1

Showing 2 responses by sebrof

sebrof's avatar
sebrof
837 posts
 
I'm sure you could fit 3 or 4 systems in there, but I would only have 1. I would think you could take the sum of the money from 2 systems and make 1 system that is better than either system for all your listening needs. IOW, take the funds necessary for a SET amp + SS amp and get a better/higher power SET or better/class A SS amp (or just better in either case). Same with speakers.

I have a 12' x 13' x 9' room, and I tried Maggie 12s, 1.6s, Martin Logan Ascents in there, and it wasn't until I put smaller speakers in my room that I stopped fighting the room. But others have had success with putting those size speakers in similar rooms. 2 rigs in there is too much, IMO. But...
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
837 posts
 
Milpai - I guess you could say I've done 3 things to improve the sound in my small box of a room:
1. Speakers appropriate for the room. I ended up with smallish floorstanders, but I suppose monitors and a sub could work well, too. I did not have success with bigger speakers in here.
2. Room treatments. You can see on my system page
3. Diagonal setup. See the paper by Steve Deckert - http://www.decware.com/paper14.htm

Each of these 3 things helped a lot, and at this point I feel like I'm getting close to the best from my system in this room.
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