Speakers for long, tall, bare room in NYC


Hi all. Made a mistake. Could use some advice.

Living room in NYC that is 7' wide x 15' long with a 14' ceiling. Bare wood floor. Bare hard walls. Furniture is a desk and chair with a computer at one end. Other end is a desk, piano keyboard, and a couple of nearfields - Dynaudio BM5As. Those sound great when close but I'd like something to fill up the room.

What I thought might do is the Polk VM30s. Bought them for $450 and they sound like what I'd expect $450 speakers to sound like. No nice surprise. (Maybe it's just my room and setup because I can't believe Polk originally listed them at $2300.) All high and mid, no low, and no mid-low. No full feeling. Playing them loud just hurts. A sub isn't going to fix the problem because it's the mid-low that drives me nuts when not present. Amp is the emotiva $250 one.

Spending up to $3000 for speakers and an amp what are some options you can suggest. I live for music, lately classical. I'm at the Met frequently and Carnegie often (Avery Fisher - never!) so have a decent idea of what music should sound like. Obviously can't reproduce that but would like to not have big chunks of the audio spectrum missing.

How do I approach buying equipment for a room like this? A recommendation for a good audio shop in NYC won't be ignored either.
12001200

Showing 2 responses by donjr

Since you probably can't play music at glass shattering volumes, maybe you should look into the Tekton Design OB4.5 Monitors And S12 Subwoofer. They received a Blue Note Award from Enjoy the Music. Here's some of what they said about them.

You will also have to settle for moderate listening levels and a polite but tuneful bass. But its shortcomings are few. With a full-range driver on an open baffle it gives you superb focus, transparency, timing and phase coherence. Place them out into the room on solid stands and it delivers a wide, deep soundscape with excellent definition. Need more bass? Add a Tekton S12 subwoofer for $650 (or two) with Aperture Subwoofer Technology-an open baffle monopole design, similar to the monitors, that goes deep, reveals the tonality of the recording and blends seamlessly with the monitors. At $1200 for the monitors and subwoofer, this combination is an absolute category killer and one of the biggest bargains in high-end audio.
The Tekton's offer a 30 day trial period and a 5 year warranty. Buconero is right about room treatments.