Loudspeaker, speaker size vs room size?

[Hialeo302]

Hello all. I recently finished setting up my new HT and after spending some time listening to my setup, I have a basic upgrade/sound question. My gear is listed below, but I know my speakers are by far the weakest link. They were a present from the wife as they we on sale and I gladly accepted seeing as I had nothing before. I am planing to upgrade and plan to audition some Aperion Verus Grand speakers in home. What I'm trying to figure out is if the towers are too much for my space and a waste vs a set of bookshelves matched with my Emotiva 12" sub. I do about 65/35 listening to music over movies. I will be getting the center to match. I care mostly about audio over size, but not sure how much the size/layout of my room will effect the speakers and vice-versa.

The fronts are currently about 7ft apart from each other as thats all the space I have next to my HT stand. They are about 6" off the wall. My listening position is about 11ft away from the front speakers. They are slightly toe'ed in to me.

The rears are about 95* behind me to my sides. They are very close to my listening position and ear level right now. They are on stands and can be raised to about a foot above my ear level if need be for movies. They are 3.5'/4.5' away from me respectively R/L.

My sub is in the only corner I can place it atm. I have the speaker facing the wall and is about 2-3" off of it. It was suggested to me to NOT face the speaker towards the wall so I will play with turning it around. Should the speaker face towards the room in any direction?

I find my system has plenty of volume. The sound stage left-to-right is only OK. However what I'm really looking for is soundstage depth/imaging. From reading the forums it looks like this my be the hardest thing to get. I listen to a lot of SACD's and feel that by upgrading the speakers, the overall sound qaulity will be better. Just dont know if I should be looking at towers or bookshelves.

Budget is probably 3K max if I replaced the fronts, center and rears. I think tonally I shoud replace all with the same brand/type, at the very least the fronts and center. Footprint is not a problem for the fronts/center. The rears are another problem. Reason I was thinking of auditioning the Aperion Verus Grand was due to Gene's review. I know Gene, I and everyone else may have different likes, but a review like that coming from someone who does this for a living means I will be listening to a good speaker, even if it's not the one I buy in the end.

Here is the room layout as best as I could configure/draw it. As you can see, where the TV/speakers are is slightly off center of the couch, but its all I have to work with. You can see the rears are at ear level, and I have them facing in towards the listening position. Don't know if there is a better way to do this, but thats the start of a different conversation (mono/di/bipole?). Hope this image helps. Again volume right now with these entry speakers is not a problem with the Yamaha A3000, but not sure if it might be with another set of speakers. Also, should I do a spl test even though I use the Yamaha room eq test? Any suggestions or things I should be looking for would be great.

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Thanks

Roland

 

[PHANofPHUNK]

you and i have about thae same space, my dinning room is off the living room too. from the wall my tv is on, to the back wall of the room is 15'. the couch is about 9' from the tv and fronts.

I use towers, and they are not too much. for 3k you can get a nice Paradigm Monitor series set up.

or for 3k you could get a pair of bowers bookshelfs.

 

[Hialeo302]

Phan

Thanks for the responce. I measured to be sure, I have 14' from the front wall where the TV is to the rear wall. I have the couch right up against the rear wall. I've thought about moving the couch forward some, but could never think of what to do with the empty space it will create behind it, something so there isn't a hole out of place. What did you do with yours? Also, what are you doing for rear/side speakers? I know speakers will be the most important part of the system, but the roof on price is the sky. I have to try to at least set some sort of a cap...lol.

Roland

 

[PHANofPHUNK]

My couch isn't up against the wall, the front door is between the couch and the wall. I dont have any rears or a center for that that matter. Just a 2.1 system. I think towers will be fine for your room.

You'll want to measure the distance from your listening spot to a front speaker, then, you'll want to set your speakers no less than 3/4 that distance, but not more than the distance (so if its 10 feet to your listening spot, don't set your speakers apart more then 10 feet) apart from each other. This will help a lot with imaging.

 

[sholling]

Looking at the layout the right front corner is going to cause headaches. You're going to want either a front ported or sealed speaker to avoid corner loading a rear facing port. You might want to consider a pair Ascend Sierra-1 bookshelves and a matched center - with the NrT tweeter upgrade. You have to ask for the upgrade but I think the Sierra-1 are still on sale for $700/pr. They are rear ported so you'll optional (extra cost) port plugs and you'll want to cross them over somewhere between 60 and 80hz with the plugs in. You could order 2 more without the upgrade as surrounds and put the savings into a larger sub. The emo is a good little sub but that space with all of the rooms opening into it is about the ragged edge of its capability.

 

[Hialeo302]

Sholling

Thank for the heads up on the Ascend's. I know that front right corner is going to be tough. As it is, I can barely bring out the speakers away from the wall, about 6-8" but that doesn't solve the corner issue. Is the reason you pointed me to the bookshelves size, adjustability or both as opposed to a tower?

I need to play with the emotiva in that corner. Going to try to face it different ways today and see what it sounds like. I would like to have two of the 12's but could not figure out where I would put the second. If I moved the couch forward a bit a could possibly place it on other side but have to look into that. Not sure what would happen to the surround placement then.

 

[timoteo]

Stack two of the subs this will give you 6dB more output than one plus less distortion!! Big plus

 

[sholling]

Thank for the heads up on the Ascend's. I know that front right corner is going to be tough. As it is, I can barely bring out the speakers away from the wall, about 6-8" but that doesn't solve the corner issue. Is the reason you pointed me to the bookshelves size, adjustability or both as opposed to a tower?

Going sealed or front ported or with a plugged port will solve the right front problem. The reason for the Sierra-1s over towers is better bang for the buck and they're small enough to fit there with room to spare. Plus you don't need towers in a room that size. What I forget to mention is that the NrT option is expensive. I'm not aware of current NrT pricing and it's not listed but my guess is that you're looking at roughly $1800-1900 for the front three with the NrT upgrade. Port plugs are like $10-15ea. It's been a while since I bought mine.

I need to play with the emotiva in that corner. Going to try to face it different ways today and see what it sounds like. I would like to have two of the 12's but could not figure out where I would put the second. If I moved the couch forward a bit a could possibly place it on other side but have to look into that. Not sure what would happen to the surround placement then.

You can do stacked Emos or use something larger as an end table - either are great ideas. The Outlaws even have a plexiglass top for that purpose. Stacked emos a good solution, replacing the end table with a LFM-1 EX and moving the emo to the bedroom for almost the same price is another option. That's if you have nobody below you. Lots of options and it all comes down to what you prefer.