Speakers "Too Big" for room

A speaker can easily be too big for a given room size.  Larger taller speakers with more drivers are made for higher volume SPL capabilities to satisfy listeners in a bigger room.  Often this requires a minimum distance from the speakers to the listening spot so the drivers output can blend and be coherent.  That is distance requirement no. 1, speakers to listening spot.

Largrer speakers also tend to sound best when positioned away from room boundaries, walls and corners so that reinforced bass is not overpowering. Distance requirement no. 2, open space behind and to the sides of the speakers. 

Distance requirement no. 3 is the minimum distance between the speakers for a coherent sound stage and its ratio to distance no. 1. 

The final distance requirement is distance from the listening spot to the wall behind you. If your head is closer than 2 feet from the wall you will be in a bass accumulation zone and the speakers will have exaggerated bass.  

Add up those three distance requirements for a given speaker and that will tell you if your room is sized for them or not.

Looks good and glad to hear it sounds good.  Speakers too big - clickbait to any audiophile.  If you can get them through the door they’re not too big.  If they don’t fit, you need a bigger room.  

@devinplombier

Yes!! I have a modified Carver with the following specs.

Here's the detail of the mod

https://nelionaudio.com/index.php?/services.html/carver/carver-amplifiers/carver-m-10t-mkii-opt002-restore-and-upgrade-r3/

Also, fwiw, 95% of what I listen to is voice and small ensemble acoustic instruments at medium volumes. So far so good.

I love the room. It looks like a great place to hang out. Great looking system as well. 

As you probably know, there is tremendous opportunity to improve sound quality through acoustic treatment. A larger rectangular highly absorbent rug. I think there are ways of making the curtains highly acoustically absorbent... so when you wan to critically listen you close them. Put flat absorbent panels behind, And these don't screw up the charm of the room. 

Enjoy the music!

@zx10 Wrote:

My L.R. is about 16'X14' and would love to have a pair of JBL L-300's or 4333's but it just doesn't seem like the room's big enough for them. So I have JBL L-100T's with updated crossovers 

I had my JBL 4430's in a 14'x16'x9' room. I also had my JBL L65's, JBL 4315's in the same room. I will note that you can sit in close proximity to the 4430's, 4435's and 4425's with no loss of stereo image see here and here. For in the what it's worth category, there is no perfect room! 😎

Enjoy the journey.

Mike