Versatile, non-fatiguing speakers for a small room under $1500 used or new: advice needed!


Hi, first post here! And not a very original one, my apologies!:)

So after years of listening to music through miscellaneous mid-fi solutions, I am finally thinking about dipping my toes in hi-fi audio and putting together a dedicated stereo setup. Currently I am looking at speakers, and my head is already aching from the abundance of options, so I am looking for suggestions from you guys, primarily from those of you who have had first-hand experience building a stereo in a small room like mine and achieved results they are happy with.

My room is pretty small (approx. 13’ x 10’), and I will be placing my speakers along the long wall. My listening position will be 6 feet away, give or take; plus the speakers will have to sit fairly close to the front wall. 15 inches from the back of the speaker would be nice, but if needed, I definitely I could move them out farther into the room (up to 20 inches from the back of the speaker), for listening sessions and then move them back again. There are several rows of shelves , filled with CDs and stuff, in the middle of the back wall above my head (not wall-to-wall though) - would that work as dispersion? I’m thinking of applying some room treatment behind the speakers, and on the right-hand side wall as well (if needed) - on the left hand side is a window covered with thick curtains.

Budget: under $1500 used or new.
I listen to all kinds of music, primarily rock of all eras and subgenres (blues/folk/prog/hard/art/psych/indie, etc), jazz, blues, classical, acoustic, singer-songwriters, female vocal, 80s new wave/post punk, some heavy metal. So the speakers need to be as versatile as possible. As someone who likes rock music, the bass is important, but I live in an apartment (neighbors!), so I have to find the right balance there as I don’t want to overload the room - the bass has to be there but under control and not boomy. I want as big a sound as possible in my small room without overpowering it. In general, I’m looking for engaging, non-fatiguing, dynamic sound with good midrange and tone, with enough punch to rock out when needed, nuance to play softer, more sparse types of music, and resolution so the details in fast complex passages don’t get lost or smeared. Not a fan of excessive brightness, sibilance, or harshness in the upper midrange.

I’m primarily looking at standmounts, but maybe certain smaller floorstanders would be fine? I’ve seen opinions claiming floorstanders are the way to go, regardless of the size of the room. What do you think would be preferable in my situation - apartment with neighbors, 13’x10’ room, long wall positioning, distance to speakers about 6 feet, maybe less?

Thanks!
mermaid_smiles

Showing 2 responses by yyzsantabarbara

Room treatments do little to address modal problems in a small room. I tried. Minimal benefits. And do you really want to fill a small room with 10inch ugly looking panels?
In my experience this statement is 100% wrong for my system and room. I tried and it was fantastic improvement. I did this in my office and listen about 8 hours a day. 

In my office I could care less what they look like so I went with the cheapest set from GIK. However, if aesthetics is important GIK and others have some artistic looking panels for a higher price.

Audiophile Style web site has some excellent articles by Acoustic Sounds from Canada about using DRC. These are the guys I will outsource my DRC too. Not too expensive either.
Room treatments first. I have the same sized room, though I took out a closet door to add a bit more volume. GIK Acoustics did my room treatments for $700.

My KEF LS50’s needed the room treatments before they sounded great. It was a massive difference in sound quality. The album I used to measure this improvement was the Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream. Prior to the GIK treatments the bass was all over the place and I had tons of fatigue. I could only play this album at low volume and even then it gave me some irritation. After the GIK treatments I cranked up volume on the album and played it to the end. Glorious sound, so good I played the album again. The LS50's work great in a small space though the bass is lacking. If you can swing a $5K price for speakers there are some impressive used and new stand mounts out there.

I will be replacing the LS50s soon (move them to a bedroom) with a much bigger speaker. I will use the GIK Acoustic treatments and Digital Room Correction via ROON convolution file support to make this big speaker work in the small space.

I am outsourcing the DRC to professionals. It will be software based DRC running on a computer with ROON (or JRver).