Loudspeakers, size vs sound in smaller room.

[Hialeo302]

Hello all. I recently finished setting up my new HT and after spending some time listening to my setup, I have a basic 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 looking 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 Emo 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.

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 me listening position and ear level. They are on stands and can be raised to about a foot above my ear level if need be. 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.

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. From reading it looks like this my be the hardest thing to get. I listen to a lot of SACD's and feel that by grading the speakers, the overall sound qaulity will be better. Just dont know weather to go towers or bookshelves. Any suggestions or things I should be looking for would be great.

Thanks,

Roland


PS I cannot post images or links yet but I have the room layout.

 

[Hialeo302]

Thought my signature would show up. System is as follows:

Yamaha rX-A3000, Oppo 93, Polk Monitor 70/30/CS2, Emotiva 12", Older Phillips Plasma, DirectTV HR24, Harmony 1100, APC S15

 

[j_garcia]

What is the budget? Bookshelf vs tower doesn't matter, but go for quality over size. The main thing will be to go listen to speakers and see what you can find in your budget that will get you some depth. I don't think those speakers are going to give you great depth no matter what you hook them up to.

The sub should not be facing the wall. Face it out into the room.

 

[Hialeo302]

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. I am very happy with the sub for now in my room and music, but I will play with which way the sub faces as you suggested.

Having the sub and listening to 2ch as well as MC, is the reason the size question came up. 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 have may have different likes, but a review like that coming 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.

 

[Hialeo302]

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.

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Roland