Help - new house - new setup?

The ceiling is flat.

It is basically an open floor above the living room and also has a balcony room adjacent to that open space so it is a double whammy.

I cant put ceiling traps in because there are two large fans hanging from the ceiling.

I have 400wpc running at 70%+ at the moment.

So your room has the same floor dimensions as my living room but the ceiling is three times higher? Hmmmm...
For more bass reinforcement, try a Martin-Logan Descent sub.
For more speaker SPLs (and bass) try an Eggelstonworks Andra III.
Although I hear the Wilson Sophia can play cleanly at insane levels.

What about Wilson WP 7's there are three pair here for sale ? They are well under your 10k limit, can play at high db levels and leave money for a sub/subs to help load the room if needed.

I'm not as convinced as some of the others that the high ceiling is a main contributor to the problem. If the relevant specs of the speaker (89 db/1W/1m efficiency; 6 ohm average impedance; 300W max "music power" capability) are reasonably accurate, they should be able to generate peak SPL's of around 105 db at a listening distance of say 4 meters (about 13 feet), even in an infinitely large space. And I wouldn't expect reflections off of the ceiling to be major factors either at most frequencies, given the lengthy delay in the arrival of those reflections relative to the direct sound arrivals, and also the attenuation that would occur along the way. Certainly wall reflections could be significant factors, though.

Some questions:

1)When you refer to having both A51 and JC1 amplifiers, are you biamping the VR4Jrs with them?

2)If so, what outputs of the 8802 are you connecting to each of them? If you are by any chance connecting RCA outputs of the 8802 to one and XLR outputs of the 8802 to the other, that might result in a 6 db volume differential between the two sections of the speaker, even though the two amps have identical gain specs.

3)When you say "I have 400wpc running at 70%+ at the moment," how do you know that the amp is running at 70%+?

4)Can you describe the positions of the speakers relative to the nearest walls, and the location of the listening position relative to the speakers and to the nearest walls.

Regards,
-- Al

Al
thanks for your response.

I have the system balanced from the 8802 to the A51 and JC1s and to the Fathom 212.

The A51 is driving the centre and rears so does not really come into play on 2 channel.

I have each JC1 biwired to the VR4jrs.

The 8802 shows the %age of volume and it has run from a minimum of 50%(quite low) to about 75%(reasonably high but not rocking levels).

The speakers are about 4 feet from the sidewalls and front of the speakers about 4 feet into the room 11 feet apart and about 12 feet from the listening position toed in about 15 degrees.

I had them in this position in the old place and they sounded really sweet.