Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?


Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to some very large speakers that are considered to be at, or close to, the pinnacle in speaker design and ability. Needless to say, the speakers retail in the mid to high $300k range. These speakers, and I will not be naming them, were sourced by about $800k of upstream gear. Room size was about thirty by twenty, maybe a little larger.
To say the the overall sound was BIG would be accurate, but also I noticed something else, that I typically hear with big speaker systems. Generally, the speakers were right on edge of overloading the room, depending on music, the dreaded bass boom could be heard. But, the whole presentation was greater in impact than most any smaller speaker system, yet it was almost unlistenable for the long term.

The question I asked myself, is do we really want this type of presentation in our home audio systems? The speakers threw a pretty large soundstage, but also made things sound somewhat larger than life. I also thought that this type of speaker is akin to the large box dynamic speakers of yesteryear. For example, a set of large horns from Altec Lansing or similar was reminiscent of this sound. Makes me believe that if one has a big room, a similar sound can be obtained from most any large speaker system and at a fraction of the price.

I listen in a very small room, and by necessity in the near field, yet I think the overall intimacy of this type of listening experience is better for me, your thoughts?

128x128daveyf

@daveyf wrote:

If you don't believe in fitting your speakers to your listening room, size-wise, you clearly have never heard a speaker that is too large for said space. There are numerous examples of less experienced a'philes trying to shoe horn a too large speaker into their listening space. 

I've heard my share of small, even very expensive such speakers sounding small, strained and much less than natural (to my ears) in a variety of listening spaces, more so than large speakers that were sonically hampered by being "shoehorned" into crammed listening rooms.

Which is the real, and bigger issue here, and to whom? I'd refer to my own moderately sized (i.e.: definitely not small, not very large either) listening space and physically all-out speaker setup as that which functions very well, the reasons for which I've tried to outline at more than one occasion.

To reiterate I'm generally no champion of large, multiway, low efficiency, full range-ish and passively configured speakers, because they can indeed be hell to integrate properly in most any space - for a variety of reasons - apart from not sounding right to my ears. My context of large speakers and how and why I find them to work well in a variety of spaces, you know by now, and that's my outset.  

@phusis Personally, I would much rather hear a small speaker hampered by a large room and consequently sounding small; than a large speaker in too small a space- that totally overloads the room. YMMV.

@daveyf +1 totally agree. And some bookshelf speakers can image like nobodies business. Mine do, particularly well.

I’m running my Usher Be-718’s full range with no sub and that’s all I’ve experienced so far but I can only imagine how much bigger the sound’s gonna be when I add a sub.

No absolutely not ,very good quality stand mounts dissapear better as well as image in many cases , justhave quality stands and feet and a good pair of quality powered subwoofers depending too on budget that will allow you the flexibility to adjust ,I have theSVS  SB 4000s and it has a great app  and you can down load a sub app-and buy a $100 usb Microphone and really dial-in the room with the REW App, if you want it perfect ,or pay someone to set your bass up, which too would  save a lot of money andyou can buy a wireless kit as another option.

 

phusis I’ve heard my share of small, even very expensive such speakers sounding small, strained and much less than natural (to my ears) in a variety of listening spaces,

Below videos are my audio system consists 5.25" 2 way speakers. Do you hear such a strained and less natural? My room is 22' x 14' x 8'. Alex/Wavetouch

My Rival - Steely Dan, Wavetouch audio live recording

Lidia Borda - Cuando silba el viento, Wavetouch audio live recording

Self Control (Laura Branigan) - Wavetouch audio live recording