jjmarriott
LP12, Wiim Pro, Supernait, PMC Twenty5 26
The REL T Zero has a 6.5” driver as well, and the specs say it does -6dB at 37 Hz. Is that similar? Sorry, I’m not technical.
Speaker advice - open plan room
- Thread starter jjmarriott
- Start date
This is a very untechnical response. My room is also open plan but without the high vaulted ceiling and with different constraints in terms of placement.
But I bought some shahinian arcs a few years ago and haven’t looked back. They present differently. But first they sound great ‘Straight ahead’ and in my opinion (I’m sure not everyone’s!) are pretty flexible in terms of placement to achieve that. But second the sounds seems to fill the room unlike anything I had before so your ‘background listening’ when down the other end is surprisingly good.
Bit left field from where you are. But for what it’s worth….worth considering something along those lines/ obs etc that go about filling the space in a different way?
But I bought some shahinian arcs a few years ago and haven’t looked back. They present differently. But first they sound great ‘Straight ahead’ and in my opinion (I’m sure not everyone’s!) are pretty flexible in terms of placement to achieve that. But second the sounds seems to fill the room unlike anything I had before so your ‘background listening’ when down the other end is surprisingly good.
Bit left field from where you are. But for what it’s worth….worth considering something along those lines/ obs etc that go about filling the space in a different way?
tuga
Legal Alien
The REL driver is designed for low and sub bass and has a separate amplifier so I would expect the headroom to be higher.
As for your question, it's doing -6dB below 60Hz and is flat between 60Hz and 100Hz. But it doesn't go very low for a subwoofer, even if you put it in a corner to increase the gain, but it will still produce more bass or less distortion than the 25.26.
Your current acoustic system is a 4-way (5 if we include the supertweeter), the PMC a 3-way.
tuga
Legal Alien
What matters most is that you are happy, but Shahinians are designed for flat ceilings on which they rely to achieve the correct balance and imaging and will not work exactly as expected with vaulted ceilings.
If the ceiling is very high then it won't matter as much.
I wondered about that which is why I pointed out I have flat ceilings. I don’t know, though…
tuga
Legal Alien
It will sound better if they're firing along the ridge vs across, may even produce more interesting tridimensional effects than with a flat ceiling.
jjmarriott
LP12, Wiim Pro, Supernait, PMC Twenty5 26
Oh blimey, that’s a house deposit!!
gez
pfm Member
I don't think any other brand of speaker is going to give you the same qualatitive sound as PMC. They're pretty unique in their use of transmission line for the Bass, which has it's own "quality" to it that's somewhat different to ported etc.
But if you're willing to go for something different, you may find Proac speakers to your taste. They have a similar treble response to PMC speakers.
I've not heard any in a controlled environment though so as always with speakers, you'd really need to home demo them.
But if you're willing to go for something different, you may find Proac speakers to your taste. They have a similar treble response to PMC speakers.
I've not heard any in a controlled environment though so as always with speakers, you'd really need to home demo them.
jjmarriott
LP12, Wiim Pro, Supernait, PMC Twenty5 26
gez
pfm Member
Not necessarily no. IF your only issue is lack of bass volume, then I'd be more tempted to go for larger subs that can put out significant SPL. As has been said above rooms that large just swallow bass, particularly low bass. The issue being that decent high spl subs are not cheap (£2-3k ish minimum). Floorstanders are also going to have a pretty set balance between bass and midrange (theres a limit to how much rear wall reinforcement will increase the bass) whereas subs, presuming they're powerful enough, will give you a lot more flexibity to balance the mids with the bass level you need/want.
IF you really do want to go for floor standers, I suspect you're going to need to get ones that are on the bass heavy side. Try auditioning larger Dynaudios maybe? (Haven't heard any in years, but they always used to be speakers with stong bass).
Also, you need to get as much soft furnishings as you can in to the space. A live listening room tends to emphasise the lower mids and often the presence region, to the expense of perceived low end bass weight
Tony L
Administrator
If that was my room I’d think very carefully about large panels, e.g. Magnepan as they are fairly narrow and perfectly happy hard against a side wall. If the width is acceptable maybe Quads would be an option too, though Maggies would be less obtrusive. I’d be positioning them as semi-room dividers between the lounge and diner areas about where you have the ‘15m’ written and on the wall opposite. They should fill the whole space with sound as it comes out the back just as loud as out of the front. You’d obviously need to rotate the seating in the lounge to face them, but I can’t think of anything else that would theoretically work better in such an uneven space.
jjmarriott
LP12, Wiim Pro, Supernait, PMC Twenty5 26
This may be a stupid question. What’s the benefit of floorstanders vs bookshelf speakers if they don’t offer more bass/weight?
Martin hifi
pfm Member
Audition some Kudos speakers you'll buy them im sure best manufacture of speakers by far I've owned a few speakers from B&W Proac PMC.
I purchased some Kudos Super 10A and never looked back best hi-fi investment i have ever made super controlled plenty of detail and very tight well balanced bass, work with all music types.
I purchased some Kudos Super 10A and never looked back best hi-fi investment i have ever made super controlled plenty of detail and very tight well balanced bass, work with all music types.
gez
pfm Member
Generally they do, but OP already has Subs that they say are sufficent at giving the bass boost they want. At least that's how I read the post. They're looking to simplify the set up by using floor standers.
gez
pfm Member
Now that's a thought, dipole speakers would suit that arrangement. Pure panels may not solve the bass weight issue though? I have no experience of hybrid types though, maybe they could put out enough bass.
Tony L
Administrator
I’d not bet against it. They behave by entirely different rules and they will energise the whole area albeit with a 180 degree phase-shift in the space in front vs. behind. My suspicion is nothing else, aside from maybe properly large corner horns (in the ‘lounge‘ corners), stands much chance. It’s a big space. It needs a lot air moving, and moving in the right direction. Whatever the answer is it is going to be big IMHO.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Shall read the rest of this thread tomorrow, but at just over 14 feet width as you have it minus at least a foot when your sofa comes away from the wall minus your position on the sofa (6"?) minus maybe 5 or 6 feet min. behind the speakers leaves a max of 7 feet signal range. Not ideal and limited for positioning too.
Of te models you mention, the .26 has to be the better bet (I've got the Twenty.26 in a tighter width but longer room space by firing down the room (nearly always better, i.m.o. with any kind of ported speaker. That 14' width should be properly utilised. Also, I'd suggest getting a used pair of any of the 3 iterations of .26. Plenty around on classified and at dealers; you'll save a bomb and have the same musical performance.