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Thoughts on Speakers for a Small Audio/Video Room

Hoping to get some thoughts from the group here. 

I recently moved into a dedicated TV/audio room, but the room size is on the small side: 15.5ft x 11.5ft.  As pics will show, there's quite a bit in there, so empty volume is decreased further due to that.

I've been using Aerial Acoustics Model 7B speakers, which I've been very happy with in larger spaces, but they seem to be overwhelming the room and I'm getting fairly overwhelming bass. Vocals have sort of a chestiness/congested nature to them, and there are bass undertones to most songs.  If I play records loud, I need to activate my rumble filter, which I never used to have to do.  As a sidetone, I also have Monitor Audio Gold Reference 20's in my collection.

Preamp is a recapped Mcintosh C35 and amp is a recapped MC2255.  Phono pre is a VTL TP 2.5 II, TT is a Marantz TT-15S1 running a SAE1000LT MM cart.

I borrowed a friend's Sonus Faber Electa Amator II's and they sounded very good in my room - sweeter, more natural, no congestion, though I did give up bass slam/impact, which I kind of missed.

Here are pictures of the room:

Front:

Back:

I'm playing around now with plugging the rear ports of the Aerial, as well as putting some acoustic panels in the back corners of the room.  Both of those seem to have helped quite a bit.

As far as measurements, those Aerials are currently about 80" apart, 16" from speaker back to front of cabinet, 96" from each speaker to the listening position.

What's your opinion: With some room treatments/plugged ports, can the Aerials work well in a room of this size, or do I need to move toward smaller speakers?

If I go smaller, any thoughts on something like the Sonus Faber Concerto Domus (there's a pair local to me) or Sonetto III?  Those seem to be more modestly sized, don't go as low.  Would those be at least a lateral to the AA Model 7B's, or a step down in terms of overall speaker quality?  I only mention Sonus Faber models as I was impressed with my friend's speakers and generally do enjoy the smoother, more musical speakers and will give up some detail/pinpoint accuracy if needed to avoid brightness/listening fatigue.

Thanks all. . .

 

captouch
captouch OP
25 posts
 

@wyoboy Interesting about speaker location not playing into it.  I’ll have to download the app you mentioned.  Looking at all the nodes, if you superimpose all bad zones on top of each other, seems like I’d be left with very little options for a good listening position.

But I do have minor room treatments now and I’m sure the volume taken up by cabinets and furniture must have a bearing.  So if those are just potential/theoretical trouble zones that may be less excited if I put my speakers in a “better” position, an actual measurement tool seems the best way to actually see whether I’m in a suboptimal spot or not.

Will look forward to trying that.

wyoboy
281 posts
 

@captouch Well, speaker placement does play into it to the extent speaker location can emphasize strong nodes even more--but i was initially confused about superimposing all the nodes and wondering where there wasn't one--but then i only paid attention to the main nodes below 150Hz to avoid placing my speakers where the bass would become overemphasized--and where my turntable would experience greater vibration.  Plus knowing where the nodes are allows you to treat those areas if you wish (i did not as far as bass traps).

audiorusty
281 posts
 

I am not very knowledgeable about acoustics, but my understanding is that nodes, aka standing waves occur between parallel surfaces, i.e. front and back walls, left and right side walls and floor to ceiling. The distance between the surfaces dictate the frequency of the standing wave. The speaker emits the signal, it bounces off the front wall, back to the back wall and then back to the speaker, arriving at the speaker in phase with itself making a perpetual loop at that frequency, and when like frequencies collide in phase their output energy increases. (Sidebar, octave intervals of the fundamental standing wave will be their own standing waves.) Due to the omni directional behavior of low frequencies and the low number of actual cycles of the frequency in the room at any given moment, using speaker placement as your only weapon against standing waves can be challenging. Specially in smaller rooms.

Standing waves usually diminish above 300 Hz, because as the wave length gets shorter many more cycles of each frequency can be present bouncing around the room and when like frequencies collide out of phase their output energy decreases creating a smoothing effect between nulls and nodes. This is the theory behind multiple subwoofers in an audio system. Multiple subs place more cycles in a room that can collide at different phases smoothing out the low bass response of the room.

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