Sound setup for 35 x 12 room

[KEW]

I think, if you were to get the Canton Vento Reference 9.2's you would get essentially the same sound quality as the 3.2 offer - as long as you use a subwoofer to cover the bass. I do think the 3.2's would sound great in your home, but they are over-kill in that you are spending money for capabilities that you will never tap! Also, I did not consider that the 3.2 would visually overwhelm your room (I think they definitely would)
The main advantages of a large floorstanding speaker like the 3.2's are deeper bass and ability to play louder. If you use a subwoofer, that gives you better and deeper bass than the 3.2 and in your smaller home, you are not going to push the 9.2's limits.
@Gryph has 9.2's paired with dual HSU ULS-15mk2 subwoofers so he may be able to help with any questions! I would probably go for good quality dual sealed sub (like the Hsu ULS-15) given the amount of room gain in your narrow room. One issue is the 9.2 is rumored not to be available much longer

New Bookshelf speaker advice

And done, Vento Ref 9.2 dc stand mounts with HSU ULS-15’s Two speakers, two subs I’m calling it good.

forums.audioholics.com

For the rest of your system (since you made it clear that music is where it is really at for you), I would go with simple Vento (not reference) or the Chrono SL models that use the Ceramic tweeter for your center, atmos, and surrounds! These are lovely sounding speakers and compact enough to fit your room well.

 

[Bartleby]

I will definitely check that out!

Okay so as I continue to look into things I get new ideas/revise old ones and explore options, and I just came across the Canton 5k smart tower.

What I like about the smart design is lack of wires and a manufacturer paired amp (600w for each tower). So few questions on that.

1. Allegedly the new cabinet design and materials science allow these speakers to be placed closer to the wall. Is that a bunch of marketing hogwash? For that matter, why do speakers sound better positioned away from the wall?

2. Music source quality. So I'm not really paying attention to "hi-fi.". As I understand it only a small percentage of music is produced in hi-fi and I read, but have not independently verified, that the industry trend for new music is being mastered for lower quality streaming friendly formats like mp3. So my target source quality is lossless CD quality. That would be for wired. Can I stream that quality to wireless speakers like the smart 5k without *discenable loss of quality. If so, are there dedicated players that basically just focus on high bandwidth low noise wireless streaming and have internal storage or USB for external storage?

Edit: hmm that unit is probably a receiver, which I'll want anyway to sync my room and play well with later add on components

 

[VMPS-TIII]

I'm not going to take the focal Electra for perhaps a stupid reason; I am biased towards German engineering. I feel like if I got these I'd be like they sound great don't they, but they are French made. I don't know.... It sounds dumb to me, but....

Les locuteurs du français Focal sont supérieurs aux drageons allemands.

 

[KEW]

The speakers of the French Focal are superior to the German suckers.

I thought you liked your Cantons better. Are you alluding to the Electras being better than your Focals (I don't remember the specific model Focal you have)?

 

[VMPS-TIII]

I thought you liked your Cantons better. Are you alluding to the Electras being better than your Focals (I don't remember the specific model Focal you have)?

I was joking by writing that in French as the gentlemen said he would not be happy with anything made in France. lol

The Focal speakers seem to be more sensitive and require less power. That seems like a nice feature to me.

 

[Bartleby]

Sony HAP-Z1ES +McIntosh MA252 + Canton 5k
Vs.
Denon 36x + Canton 5k

The first one is significantly more expensive. I know, this will probably be the 3rd time I get redirected back to Denon/marantz but I'm curious. Will combo 1 sound better?

I also looked at the chord stand alone DAC, but I can't find a product that just stores and plays music without also having a DAC. The closest I found was the Amazon link + echo, but it looks like a pain to play from your own library.

 

[Gryph]

I’ve bought all my current Canton speakers to best fit my smaller rooms along with the idea that they might end up in a tiny house one day.
There is no way I’d be looking at the Ref 3.2’s for that kind of space. Honestly a 3.1 or 3.2 setup is where I’d be looking the hardest.

From personal experience in a 12’Wx24’Lx16’H room the Canton 9.2’s plus two HSU ULS-15 subs work great for me with basically a 10’ by 10’ equilateral listening setup.
The above gear will eat up about $3200 and you’ll definitely want an AVR with a very healthy amp/power supply to drive them, especially with a center channel speaker and most definitely if adding surround speakers on that same power supply. You might want to consider budgeting for an outboard amp of some sort if not initially, then down the road.

You could save $800 from the above setup by going with two RSL Speedwoofer10’s and I’d personally have no issue setting up my Canton Vento 876 towers, a center channel and two RSL Speedwoofers in the space you’ve designated for your audio/video as I use them with a single 10” sub for movies/music and I’d only add a second sub if I was looking at a more music biased setup.

Another benefit of the Vento 876’s, it needs far less distance from the boundaries vs the other larger Canton towers and they would also not visually or actively overwhelm the space you have to work with while offering excellent sound quality.

Some different tracks on the 876.2’s as I don’t know what music you prefer but gives you an idea what you could expect.

https://youtu.be/lJN_SCDc8jQ

https://youtu.be/rQ_aZcp1u28

https://youtu.be/rQ_aZcp1u28

 

[shadyJ]

Some different tracks on the 876.2’s as I don’t know what music you prefer but gives you an idea what you could expect.

You are hearing the microphone and the room more than the speakers in youtube demos. You can not demo speakers through a recording of those speakers.

 

[Pogre]

Sony HAP-Z1ES +McIntosh MA252 + Canton 5k
Vs.
Denon 36x + Canton 5k

The first one is significantly more expensive. I know, this will probably be the 3rd time I get redirected back to Denon/marantz but I'm curious. Will combo 1 sound better?

I also looked at the chord stand alone DAC, but I can't find a product that just stores and plays music without also having a DAC. The closest I found was the Amazon link + echo, but it looks like a pain to play from your own library.

McIntosh??? Standalone DACs? Now you're finding the best ways to empty your wallet!

The DACs in either the Denon or Marantz series of receivers we're talking about are very good. The tech has been around for a long time now and is very mature. Pretty much any competently made receiver is going to audibly perform just as well as the super expensive stuff you're looking at now. You will see differences and some may spec a little better than others but at the end of the day those differences are inaudible. If you're obsessed with specs and numbers that don't translate audibly then you can go down that road.

The overall consensus here is that your money is far, far better spent on the speakers and subs.

 

[Pogre]

I’ve bought all my current Canton speakers to best fit my smaller rooms along with the idea that they might end up in a tiny house one day.
There is no way I’d be looking at the Ref 3.2’s for that kind of space. Honestly a 3.1 or 3.2 setup is where I’d be looking the hardest.

From personal experience in a 12’Wx24’Lx16’H room the Canton 9.2’s plus two HSU ULS-15 subs work great for me with basically a 10’ by 10’ equilateral listening setup.
The above gear will eat up about $3200 and you’ll definitely want an AVR with a very healthy amp/power supply to drive them, especially with a center channel speaker and most definitely if adding surround speakers on that same power supply. You might want to consider budgeting for an outboard amp of some sort if not initially, then down the road.

You could save $800 from the above setup by going with two RSL Speedwoofer10’s and I’d personally have no issue setting up my Canton Vento 876 towers, a center channel and two RSL Speedwoofers in the space you’ve designated for your audio/video as I use them with a single 10” sub for movies/music and I’d only add a second sub if I was looking at a more music biased setup.

Another benefit of the Vento 876’s, it needs far less distance from the boundaries vs the other larger Canton towers and they would also not visually or actively overwhelm the space you have to work with while offering excellent sound quality.

Some different tracks on the 876.2’s as I don’t know what music you prefer but gives you an idea what you could expect.

https://youtu.be/lJN_SCDc8jQ

https://youtu.be/rQ_aZcp1u28

https://youtu.be/rQ_aZcp1u28

Man, I dunno. Those don't sound any better than the speakers that come with the Samsung 12.2 Galaxy Pro tablet. There is zero bass!

 

[Bartleby]

Thank you @Pogre ! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

 

[Pogre]

Thank you @Pogre ! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

Phew! You made it easy on me!

 

[Bartleby]

Phew! You made it easy on me!

I mean I just keep reading about fuller sound this, and warmer tone that, and higher sample rate etc.

But I've moonlighted as a photographer where you have this arms race in cameras for higher megapixels and lenses with sharpness and contrast and chromatic abberation control etc all through the roof. And all those things do have an effect, but it's composition and lighting that take the lion's share of how an image looks.

So it's easy for me to understand what you are talking about.

Okay, I think/hope last question is speaker wire. What level/brand etc is speaker wire at where it stops being a limiting factor... Or makes the transition between quality component to diminishing returns?

Setup
Canton 5k
Dual HSU ULS-15mk2
Denon 36x or equivelant when I buy

 

[VMPS-TIII]

Thank you @Pogre ! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

That 12' wall limits the size of the speaker setup. When you 1st get started and have money to burn BIG speakers look the best. You love the look of a HUGE speaker setup.

Then once you set it up you realize the fronts are 3' away from the wall encroaching in the walkway and your sitting 2 feet from the back wall which leaves you just 6-7 feet away from the speaker. Now you have the biggest set of headphones on the block. lol

But you are probably going to keep looking at bigger speakers no matter what you read. It's a learning curve. You can always spend more. The trick is learning how to do more with less.

 

[Pogre]

I mean I just keep reading about fuller sound this, and warmer tone that, and higher sample rate etc.

But I've moonlighted as a photographer where you have this arms race in cameras for higher megapixels and lenses with sharpness and contrast and chromatic abberation control etc all through the roof. And all those things do have an effect, but it's composition and lighting that take the lion's share of how an image looks.

So it's easy for me to understand what you are talking about.

Okay, I think/hope last question is speaker wire. What level/brand etc is speaker wire at where it stops being a limiting factor... Or makes the transition between quality component to diminishing returns?

When it comes to audio and DACs or expensive amplification one might have a little bit better distortion specs than another, but it's usually all below the limit of human hearing. If one specs 0.05% distortion and another is 0.003% it might look significant but if you don't hear it at all until it hits 0.1%..?

I'm not looking at any specs right now and just pulled those numbers out of my butt, but I think you get the idea.

 

[Bartleby]

That 12' wall limits the size of the speaker setup. When you 1st get started and have money to burn BIG speakers look the best. You love the look of a HUGE speaker setup.

Then once you set it up you realize the fronts are 3' away from the wall encroaching in the walkway and your sitting 2 feet from the back wall which leaves you just 6-7 feet away from the speaker. Now you have the biggest set of headphones on the block. lol

But you are probably going to keep looking at bigger speakers no matter what you read. It's a learning curve. You can always spend more. The trick is learning how to do more with less.

Yea I hear that. If my business does well I'm already thinking about a Canton 1k setup in a dedicated room. But we'll see. I like the small space, and I think the setup we are discussing is going to sound pretty wicked. I can't wait to hear cranberries Zombie on this thing, or human from Metallica's S&M album.

 

[Pogre]

That 12' wall limits the size of the speaker setup. When you 1st get started and have money to burn BIG speakers look the best. You love the look of a HUGE speaker setup.

Then once you set it up you realize the fronts are 3' away from the wall encroaching in the walkway and your sitting 2 feet from the back wall which leaves you just 6-7 feet away from the speaker. Now you have the biggest set of headphones on the block. lol

But you are probably going to keep looking at bigger speakers no matter what you read. It's a learning curve. You can always spend more. The trick is learning how to do more with less.

"Biggest set of headphones on the block", lol. I never quite heard it put that way before, but I like it!

I agree about the big speaker observation. Big speakers need lots of room to sound their best. You're getting a pair of subs so the advantages you gain from buying big speakers kind of cancels out. Another way to look at it too, is you can get better quality in a large bookshelf speaker for the same money you'd spend on towers. A lot of the expense of a tower goes into the cabinet, extra drivers and getting rid of resonances. That same amount of money going into a bookshelf can get you higher quality drivers, crossovers and overall performance within their frequency band.

 

[Gryph]

You are hearing the microphone and the room more than the speakers in youtube demos. You can not demo speakers through a recording of those speakers.

I hear ya, it’s still nice to get a feel for the voicing and timbre when you are going to potentially buy speakers sight unseen, or more importantly, unheard.
These demos may not have been the best choice for an accurate look at these speakers, but his other videos where he does 2 speaker comparisons were pretty good and because you are hearing the same music back and forth pretty well level matched between speakers, it does give an idea of the difference in sound signature between the different models if nothing else.

 

[Gryph]

Man, I dunno. Those don't sound any better than the speakers that come with the Samsung 12.2 Galaxy Pro tablet. There is zero bass!

Haha, there is that I guess. But Confucius say: Beggars can’t be choosers when they don’t have Canton dealer down the road.
For me I was lucky enough to listen to all his comparison vids on my Aria 906’s, Canton 502.2’s before making any decisions
It’s like gambling but you get an expensive prize win or loose

 

[Gryph]

Okay, I think/hope last question is speaker wire. What level/brand etc is speaker wire at where it stops being a limiting factor... Or makes the transition between quality component to diminishing returns?

Setup
Canton 5k
Dual HSU ULS-15mk2
Denon 36x or equivelant when I buy

So a $10,000 pair of speakers driven by a midfi AVR in a tiny house should definitely have cables costing someplace in between the price point of your speakers and AVR.
Well that would probably be my suggestion if I had smoked half as much weed today as I think you may have.