Is My Room Large Enough?

You can also go to the Stereophile website and look through their archives. You will find several articles that relate to room setup. You can also try the Cardas site there is an area there that discusses room setup as well. Some things to understand first though. The deepest low frequency your room will support is 42.3 Hz. A good starting point for speaker setup is to divide room dimension by thirds. If we assume that you will be placing the speakers on the short wall (firing in the long direction) then put the speaker center of each speaker 3'-8" from the side walls and the face of each speaker 4'-4" from the front wall. Your listening seat should be centered in the room, 4'-4" from the back wall. This setup creates an equilateral triangle between your listening position and the two speakers. This setup creates what many audiophiles refer as the "near-field" listening position. Understand that these positions are a starting point only. From here make small movements in the speaker location until you get the desired effects. Moving the speaker back (toward the front wall) will tend to increase bass, although too far and the bass may become boomy and/or muddy. Moving the speakers toward the sidewall will have a tendancy to make the soundstage wider, but at some point the center image will lose focus. Moving the speakers in the opposite directions will have the opposite effects. You will have to spend some time on speaker placement, but the reward is worth the effort. Tom_nice is exactly correct concerning the room modes. Some of these can be treated with room treatments. Last, the equipment will make some differences so audition carefully. Good Luck, Doug

Your listening room is more than large enough for your intended purposes. You will have to apply acoustical treatment. Be careful not to over damp the room. You will also need to be attentive to your choice of speakers. Near field listening puts a premium upon coherence (multi-driver integration). Given your stated taste in music, I recommend the Magnepan 1.6 or the Quad 63. Both speakers will mate well with the Audio Research CA50 integrated tube amplifier. Together you will have the nucleus for a very high performance small room system. Regardless of what equipment you choose, your room will not be a major impediment.

Here is a link to an article by Steve Deckert that you might find interesting on his efforts to get a room slightly larger than yours to work well as a dedicated listening room. (His room was 13x15.) His experience might at least help you identify some of the challenges and possible solutions, even if you don't pursue all of the room treatment options.
http://www.decware.com/achowto.htm

One thought to play with, and I'd love to here opinions on this. I've heard of others with squarish rooms setting up on the diagonal. This breaks up all the reflection points and could reduce the "acoustical treatments" required. It also has the potential effect of lengthening the room. Any thoughts? J.D.

Hi Am; Yes your room is big enough, just continue on the course you're suggesting, follow the advice in the above posts and you could have a very nice set-up. I started out with a 12 X 14 room, put Vand. 2Ce speakers (pretty big) and 175 wpc amp in it. If I was a grown-up at the time (I was late 40's), I would do what you are proposing. All that said, I still really enjoyed my system. I just couldn't play it at more than low to low/moderate levels. The speakers and speaker location)s) will be really important. Good Luck. Craig