What speakers for a 10 x10 room?


Please Help!?!? I am trying to decide what speakers to put in my tiny - but dedicated - room. I am currently running Aerial model 5 speakers with a Vandersteen subwoofer. They do a nice job, but I feel my amplification and front end (Blue Circle BC3000/BC26, Audiomeca Mephisto) could use something a little higher up the food chain. Also, it sounds to me like there is a dip in frequency response in the low-mid area (200-300 hz).
Any ideas???
esoxhntr
The dip that you are experiencing in the upper bass / lower midrange is typical of a "floor bounce" reflection. Altering the height of your speakers will play games with this to a great extent. Knowing this, you can experiment around and see what you can come up with. This is not to say that this is your only problem, but that it would be my first guess. Sean
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I have talon Peregine Xs set up in my 10*11 and they sound wonderful. They are almost right up against the back wall but because they are front ported this is a minor issue. Email me to discuss if you are interested...
I was recently at a dealer who had one small room about the size of yours.He was using Soliloquy 2a3 mini monitors on and off with a Soliloquy sub.The amps were Cary 2a3 monoblocks(5 watts set) or a Cary rocket 88(20 watts triode).Boys and girls,It doesn't get much better than that in a small room.
Yeah, I have extensive experience with small room set-ups from an acoustical standpoint. I assume your room is a perfect rectangle/square all around? Also, your ceiling is probably 8', right? If this is the case you need to be using ONLY 25" stands or shorter for 2 way monitor speakers. With an 8' ceiling, and small room dimmensions, is almost impossible to get good bass when the speakers are up higher on stands(26" and higher). Also, you will DEFINITELY have to play around with speaker placment in that room quite a bit to get the sound adequate from where you sit(probably against the wall, correct?). That scenario already will have some problems with bass response sounding boomy. You'll likely either have to get some small floor standers, or use 2 way ported speakers out into the room a bit, or do acoustic suspension sealed speaekers that can go a bit closer to the front wall. Sill, you want to stay away from really full range speakers in that tiny room, and cocentrate on bass limited speakers. Then, you can use your woofer if you need to, and perferablly EQ the sub!!!...for flat response from where you sit.
I know of what I speak, as my last room, using higher end gear, was 10.5' X 12.5' x 8'...and it was a bear to get my little ported SF Minima Amators to sound good in that room. I also had Thiel 1.5's in the room which worked great if you got em off the floor a bit, and tried Thiel 2.3's as well (too much bass for the room).
However, for your room, may I strongly suggest that you will do NO BETTER Sonically, and practically wise, then the Merlin Millenium TSM acousic suspension monitors!!! They are perfect for small rooms, are class A rated monitor for sure, work great with tube gear, or lower powered SS as well, and are easier to place in small rooms with their design! Not being ported they even usually work well closer to walls in small rooms.
They retail for $2500/pr new, and are a steal! I know, I own them currently myself. Anway, go to www.merlinmusic.com if you want specs and review.
My room is 7.5x10x8 and an interesting challenge as well. I started with ACS bass traps, Echo Busters, and Room Tunes. These properly applied helped. Next I tried a Rane one-third octave EQ. Since I own a real-time analyzer I could do the measurements and make the corrections. This helped the frequency response, but had the inherent phase problems. Then I tried a Roland digital EQ (24 bit AD/DA with 32 bit processing). This was much better but the additional AD/DA was evident with good speakers. Finally, I purchased a Tact RCS 2.0 and for me the problem was solved. (www.tactaudio.com) Good luck!