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Best speakers for small-room, near-wall situation

seeformiles

pfm Member
Standmounts or small floorstanders, easy to drive, not too fussy with near wall placement (30-40cm from front wall), balanced, full sounding, musical and non fatiguing (not bright) w/ good non-boomy bass - what should I look at?

Any speakers that ended your quest for the perfect speaker in that type of scenario?

Budget under £1.5k used or new.
 
I don’t know what the rest of your kit is but SBLs would work very well in a small room; they can be placed hard against the front wall so take up less room than other speakers. Should get a mint pair for £500 or less. A small ATC stand mount would also work very well.
 
Standmounts or small floorstanders, easy to drive, not too fussy with near wall placement (30-40cm from front wall), balanced, full sounding, musical and non fatiguing (not bright) w/ good non-boomy bass - what should I look at?

Any speakers that ended your quest for the perfect speaker in that type of scenario?

Budget under £1.5k used or new.

How far from the speakers will you be sitting? What sort of music do you tend to play?
 
I rate the Amphion stuff, and the Argon 3S standmounter has the sealed box and ABRs of the larger models rather than the ports of the smaller ones, so is pretty room-agnostic as these things go. A bit over budget new (£2k/pair) but should be possible to pick up a lightly used pair within budget.
 
Exactly what the LS3/5A was designed for! Monitoring in small spaces, near wall placement. Doable with £1.5K even with todays stupidity on 'value'
It's refreshing to see a recommendation of positioning an LS3/5A close to wall when so many owners insist on pulling theirs way out into the room (I frequently see references to distances of > 1 metre). That's a surefire way to lose whatever support the room's length mode is giving to the bottom end, unless their listening position is very near to the rear wall.
 
I second the Amphion Argon 3S. I moved from Proac rear ported which boomed in my room. The Amphions cured that. Speakers are room dependant get a demo if you can. I never got on with the Tab 10 but many like them let your ears decide
 
I rate the Amphion stuff, and the Argon 3S standmounter has the sealed box and ABRs of the larger models rather than the ports of the smaller ones, so is pretty room-agnostic as these things go. A bit over budget new (£2k/pair) but should be possible to pick up a lightly used pair within budget.
The Argon1 also works well close to the front wall, despite the rear port. I've had both & preferred the 1s for there sweeter midrange, superb little speakers.
TS
 
Epos ES11s are working very well for me, around 20cm from the front wall, listening nearfield in a 1.3m triangle in an 8m x 4.2m converted garage room. £250 ish ought to be enough to get them with their original stands.
 
Kudos X2's. Great sounding speaker in small room and not that fussy with placement.
Think they have now been discontinued but there have been some deals recently.
 
Standmounts or small floorstanders, easy to drive, not too fussy with near wall placement (30-40cm from front wall), balanced, full sounding, musical and non fatiguing (not bright) w/ good non-boomy bass - what should I look at?

Any speakers that ended your quest for the perfect speaker in that type of scenario?

Budget under £1.5k used or new.

IMO 30-40 cm from wall is actually not "near wall"
Tablette 10, as some suggest, would need closer distance.

I wold have suggested LS50, Neat Iota or Minimo/Mojo from Ophidian. but they need some juice, well maybe not the Iotas which worked on my Unitiqute (small room only)
In fact the old Rega RS1 were easy to drive but worked only hard against wall.
 
How far from the speakers will you be sitting? What sort of music do you tend to play?
1. About 6-6.5 feet away.
2. That's hard, because my tastes are all over the place. Mostly it's rock and its subgenres (from 50s to current, incl. prog, art, folk, psych, hard, blues-rock, etc), classic 50s-60s jazz and blues, various singer-songwriters (think Nick Drake or Joni Mitchell), '80s-current new wave/alternative/indie rock/post-punk, some funk and reggae, instrumental classical (excl. opera), etc etc. I rarely if ever listen to opera, hip hop, modern mainstream pop, some extreme genres of metal (I do love some NWOBHM!), plus I'm not a huge electronic music head (I don't mind it but it's not a big chunk of my listening).
 
If you can home the speakers a few inches from the rear wall I'd say take a very close look at the Neat Iota's. The most riotous fun I've ever heard (and owned) in a box that size. If its a good time you are looking for, look no further. If its the drier LS3/5A kind of sound you are looking for then they probably arent right for you. Kan's will work really well too. FWIW, a friend bought my Iota's when I moved the hi fi to a larger room and I've never quite recaptured the sheer joy of them.
 
1. About 6-6.5 feet away.
2. That's hard, because my tastes are all over the place. Mostly it's rock and its subgenres (from 50s to current, incl. prog, art, folk, psych, hard, blues-rock, etc), classic 50s-60s jazz and blues, various singer-songwriters (think Nick Drake or Joni Mitchell), '80s-current new wave/alternative/indie rock/post-punk, some funk and reggae, instrumental classical (excl. opera), etc etc. I rarely if ever listen to opera, hip hop, modern mainstream pop, some extreme genres of metal (I do love some NWOBHM!), plus I'm not a huge electronic music head (I don't mind it but it's not a big chunk of my listening).

Rogers JR149. You don’t need to spend as much as £1000 - half that.
 
Worth checking Iota Alphas if you like their size / look. Tiny footprint but big and pretty expansive sound. Need some power though. With Naim Unitiqute 2 they lost most of the bass, which by contrast was quite exceptional for size with Simaudio i3.3 powering them
 


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