advertisement


Small room speaker advice

D

Dave G

pfm Member
Hi,

I don't wish to bore you with the details, but I have had to move into a much smaller listening room that measures 3 meters wide by 4 meters deep.

My current system is a Chord 2Go, 2YU Hugo TT2 DAC, the TToby power amp (I like Chord) and my speakers are Dynaudio Countour 20i. I've been very, very happy with this system for some time, but the speakers just do not work in such a small space.

Given the layout of the room, I am about 2 meters from the speakers, and the speakers are tight against a back wall and close to the corners of the room. I've tried plugging the ports and moving the speakers a few centimeters away from the wall but I'm getting overwhelming bottom end at all but very low listening levels. The room is well damped but not acoustically treated.

I guess my room size suggests I should look for some nearfield-type speakers, but I have no idea where to start. I've even considered room correction in my chain.

I still want bass in the room, but controlled. Music likes are blues, jazz, and classic rock. The budget is pretty much set at a max of £4k.

Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks.
 
Before someone says LS3/5a I'd suggest Neat Iota or better yet Ophidian Mojo (if you have power enough)
Not up to budget I'm afraid, even cheaper are Rega Kyte.
 
PerF said:
Before someone says LS3/5a I'd suggest Neat Iota or better yet Ophidian Mojo (if you have power enough)
Not up to budget I'm afraid, even cheaper are Rega Kyte.
Click to expand...

I'm more than happy to go under budget, and thanks for the Neat suggestions.
 
I bought some GIK bass traps to tame the bass output from my Tanny Eaton Legacy speakers and I also have them about 80cm into the room (that's 80 from rear wall to the front of the speakers). If you like what you've got then there are options other than buying new speakers. Good luck whatever you choose to do :)
 
Purité Audio said:
Acoustically measure your room, and then use EQ to bring down the standing wave derived peaks.
Keith
Click to expand...
This is of course v good advice.
However I think a smaller sealed box speaker will perform better in such a tight space.
Having owned contours in the past they really don’t like being close to boundaries.
 
Placement closer to a room boundary between 10-60cm removes cancellations, any unwanted bass reinforcement can be dealt with by EQ.
Keith
 
I’m just moving stuff into a room very close to that size. The thing is that almost impossible to have either speakers or seat away from room boundaries. It sounds awful with speakers firing down the length, better across the width, but there’s no proper furniture yet and it’s all hard surfaces. My old room was barely 2.4m square, but some quite sizeable speakers worked ok in there.
 
Dave G said:
Given the layout of the room, I am about 2 meters from the speakers, and the speakers are tight against a back wall and close to the corners of the room. I've tried plugging the ports and moving the speakers a few centimeters away from the wall but I'm getting overwhelming bottom end at all but very low listening levels. The room is well damped but not acoustically treated.

I guess my room size suggests I should look for some nearfield-type speakers, but I have no idea where to start. I've even considered room correction in my chain.

I still want bass in the room, but controlled. Music likes are blues, jazz, and classic rock. The budget is pretty much set at a max of £4k.

Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I listen in a similar sized room, and am maybe 2.5m from the speakers. I also listen to the sort of music you like, especially jazz, and the Amphion Argon 7LS that I use have been great. Really tight, tuneful bass that really makes the timing on jazz work. I use mine about 30cm into the room, in a bay window, so far from ideal placement and they really don’t seem to care.
 
Purité Audio said:
Placement closer to a room boundary between 10-60cm removes cancellations, any unwanted bass reinforcement can be dealt with by EQ.
Keith
Click to expand...
Hi Keith,
Does it matter then if you have a rear port chuffing away?
I had overwhelming bass with mine when near boundaries due to the port.
 
I had Amphion Xenons in my old 2.4m square room. Big drivers and rear ports close to corners. No problems. There are just so many variables. Big thumbs up for the Amphion 7 LS by the way. I also had PMC Fact 3 which were great. Adjustable treble and bass switches on them were a bonus, though not needed. Maybe the Neat speakers with Isobaric loading might work (even Iota Alpha maybe) - thinking of trying those myself. .
 
Classic Snell/Audio Note designs are designed to work well in/close to corners. Audio Note AN-Ks would be a good place to start.

Or LS3/5as, that's the speaker I would and do have in a small room (they're what I use in my office system).
 
I'm using Dali Menuet SEs with a Rel T5i in a similar sized room. It is the best sound I have had in the room in twenty years ..... and there have been a LOT of combinations!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top