Questions about room size and speaker choice


I have two unrelated questions regarding speaker choice:

1) I am moving to a new, bigger apartment, which is great as I will have a dedicated listening room, but at the same time somewhat of a problem as the dedicated room is rather small measuring 9 x 11 feet. (It's the master bedroom and the shorter wall behind the listening chair has an opening into the bathroom so it's open in a sense.)

I am in the process of upgrading my speakers from the Totem Acoustic Hawk and the smaller room now has thrown another twist into the selection process. Some of the floorstanders I have been considering, such as the Acoustic Zen Adagio or the Silverline Sonatina, might now just overpower the room, or it might simply be not possible to set them up optimally given the distance of 9 feet between the side walls.

I wanted to ask whether anyone has tackled a similar problem and what the results were. Should I forgo full range floorstanders for a pair of monitors, perhaps? Harbeth comes to mind and I have been wanting to audition a pair of the 7es-3.

2) I have seen some incredible deals here on Audiogon on used speakers, and was curious what the opinions were on the age of the used speakers. Assuming a speaker is in a great condition and there are no flaws beyond cosmetic blemishes and simple age, at which point would you say a speaker has been used for simply too long to bother with it? Since it's a mechanical transducer with moving parts, years of use might exert more wear-and-tear on it than might be visible with a naked eye. The rubber surround might not be as pliable as it was and slowly start to crack; the voice coil might be pretty stressed and more prone to breaking; screws loosening; you get the idea.

I'd appreciate any input and opinions. Thank you.
actusreus
Thank you for your advice and all the information Kevin.

Here's a link to the Acoustic Fields website:
http://www.acousticfields.com/
Kevinzoe, you be THE man. Thanks for listing this info. It lead me to discover Dr. Toole's great 90 minute ipod-mp3 cast at: http://twit.tv/htg14

I really enjoyed his thoughts on listening to live music versus recorded music and large room acoustics vs. those for small rooms.

Good stuff!
Foam speaker suspensions wear out the most quickly, 5-10 years (don't expect 10 years without climate controlled environment). But often easily replaced, replacement kits can be ordered online for some popular speakers (JBL). Butyl rubber gets hard 20-30 years. Doped paper and cloth can last a lifetime unless dried out or contaminated. Electrolytic capacitors in crossovers (and everything) need to be replaced about every 20 years.

For given room dimensions, I recommend what I have, Acoustat 1+1 (thin, tall) or Revel Performa M20 on factory stands. Another factor is what space will be allowed around the speaker. Electrostats should be 3' from wall, ordinary monitors 2'.