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Hello all, My room is 11ft wide, 17ft long 8ft high. what size speaker will you consider uptimal to use, I do not want to be carried away, I want to follow my head not my heart.
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What are your requirements? Do you want to recreate reference level Low Frequency Effects or just have background music? Will you use a subwoofer? Are you looking at DIY or hoping for a commercial recommendation? It's hard for us to know what to tell you without more specifics. Like me saying I need the optimum car without telling you that I may need to haul a trailer and am 6'4" tall, but I really love to carve corners.
Most likely a 2 way with a 5-7" woofer and sub 12-15" will get you close but not if you need to go terribly loud or low. -
Want to recreate reference low level frequency effect, will use sub woofer if need be, both DIY and commercial recommendation welcomed. I do not want to go Terribly Loud, I want to keep an eye not to spend on speakers that the room size can not support. SQ more than just low end grunt.Comment
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Reference level LFE requires multiple subs if you want to go low - there are a number of soundtracks with significant signal below 10 Hz. You can get away with a lot less sub if you settle for 20 Hz extension. Reference level subs make little sense if your mains can't keep up. I'd start with at least one 15" sub like an Ultimax sealed and probably Linkwitz transformed. Add more if you find it straining to reach where you want to go.
Using Jon Marsh's Cardas placement, your listening distance is probably around 2-2.5 meters. To me that puts you on the edge of proper integration of a 3 way speaker. You might want to consider a waveguide 2 way to help control side reflections. You haven't mentioned a budget, but Modula MT-XE?Comment
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a few Months ago I heard a pair of Finalists
in a room about that size. two Tempest X subs.
Set-up wasn't exactly Cardas...but close. woofer
distance to room boundaries were all different.
1st reflections taken care of with GIK panels
as well as rear wall behind listening seat.
Nice sound. Good freq. range coverage.
The Power region of music was well served.
good luckComment
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No, 2.5 meters isn't near field but it's on the edge of being able to distinguish each driver's contribution of they are relatively far apart as in a 3 way.
You might consider a single 15" sub. While I prefer multiple subs, you lose displacement and therefore extension with 10s and you save little if any money with 2 small subs.
While I've heard great things about the Finalists, your budget says 2 way if it includes the subwoofer and amp take a look at the NatP or if you can wait a bit, the CatZ. That should leave you enough for an ultimax 15/enclosure/amp combo.Comment
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If you don't need to fit the sub into your budget it opens up your possibilities. Consider the Finalists. I know I said I was concerned about listening distance but Carl's comments put them in contention.
The good thing about the established designs is there are usually build pictures of the crossovers so even if there's a high parts count you can be confident building it. I wouldn't count on the CatZ being a simple design and given all the demands on Jon's time it could be this time next year before the design is finalized.Comment
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agree with Bob's arm chair assessments.
I'll throw something out here that is controversial. XO slopes.
We all have our own unique perceptions and preferences.
lower order XO VS higher order XO is something you need
to listen to and think about. The Finalists design has more
Driver overlap or blending than some other designs. And at
that distance 2-2.5 m. you need to listen for phase & integration.
2nd order LR XO for instance has some appeal. Coherence.
Good luck & have funComment
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Bob asked the right question, but didn't go far enough.
- usage, music vs. film
- layout? number of speakers, location limitations
- listening needs, how many seats? how large an area?
- room acoustic characteristics, construction, content, furnishings
- how loud
- how much room available (dedicated HT or family room with speakers)
- how much (budget)
- what do you have now?
I have a similar size room, and perhaps similar goals, so perhaps my path would be close... but perhaps not?
You'll find that most forum participants speaker from their path, their goals, their purchase decisions. It's your responsibililty to separate the self-serving advice from the good advice. The more you tell us about you, the less likely the response will be "do what I did."
Have fun,
FrankComment
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Hello Frank, mine is a very small room that can easily be overloaded, and I want to avoid that. 11ft by 17ft by 8ft. all space available. room will be treated with bass taps and absorbers, just for music, Loud is very relative, I want to keep my hearing and be a good neibour. room will be used by one only; most of the time. I have given a budget.Comment
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Perhaps you missed the point behind some of my questions.
Room construction and furnishings are part of room acoustic treatment. I ask to find what kind and level of treatment you may need. In my case, normal furnishings and fortuitous room construction result in no need for acoustic treatment - I can't find a problem that it would fix! Always, identify the problem first, then try to fix only that, without collateral damage. That's very hard to do in acoustics.
Loud has definitions in terms of system performance capability. The THX specs look for an average sound level of 75dB, with 30dB of headroom at the listening position, and an additional 10dB of subwoofer output. That's what Bobellis was getting at when you said: "Want to recreate reference low level frequency effect..." Reference level may not mean the same thing to you as it did to Bob.
When you say the room is small, I think in terms of space for speakers; some need 2-3 feet of air space behind/around them to sound good. A smaller room wants speakers that are happy near room boundaries, or perhaps speakers designed as in-wall speakers from the start. That's why I asked about other uses; some folks have young kids.
Same for the listening area... if it's only you, EQ is a more viable alternative to room treatments than if you're entertaining a crowd.
And what do you have now?
FrankComment
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