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Am I Better Off With Limited Low Frequency Speaker In A Small Room?

In my 12'x12'x11' room, am I better off with limited low frequency speakers, such as those which only extend down to 40-50hz, or will the mere introduction of a speaker that extends down to 35hz be potential for trouble (The extent of my knowledge is that lower frequencies need larger spaces to truly breathe, and the wavelength goes up exponentially). My listening space is my living room, and there's not a lot of space for room treament. I'm auditioning a single GIK Soffit bass trap. I'm not sure how much it will help. 

analogj
fynnegan
88 posts
 

Material of the walls play a big role. Concrete? Huge problem. Wood? Not so.

seanheis1
591 posts
 

It has nothing to do with the size of the room, but the limited placement options due to size. Extended low is not inherently bad in a small room, but bad placement is bad in all rooms. A small room forces bad placement. Go subs. The more the merrier.

Actually a small room has inherent challenges because the room dimensions are shorter than the sound waves.

So what happens? Bass builds up unevenly so treatment is required...Treat what you can and then use PEQ (like in ROON) to knock down peaks...

multiple subwoofers are tricky unless you have DSP bass management. Subwoofers don’t help much for problems above 80-100hz...room treatment is best above subwoofer crossover point.

Good news is that a 12x12x12 room CAN sound good. You have front wall and sidewall symmetry. Rooms that have an open sidewall can't really be fixed and IMO have much bigger problems in that they can't create a realistic stereo image. 

deecee's avatar
deecee
96 posts
 

If your cubical room is a problem you may want to try a diagonal setup in your listening room.

It helped a lot when I was in  borg-like 10x10x10 (although it did not do much for Soundstage depth.

Good luck!

DeeCee 

soix
8,634 posts
 

If your cubical room is a problem you may want to try a diagonal setup in your listening room.

I completely agree and I believe the OP is already doing this.  At a show in NYC Jeff Joseph was showing hiswonderful Pulsars in a very small room and had them set up like this to great effect and definitely made the most of it. 
 

 

analogj OP
104 posts
 

Yes, I do listen diagonally (or kitty-corner as I call it).

 

I'm auditioning Harbeth C7 XD over this weekend. Interesting speaker. It sounds wide open. Bass is fairly deep and tight, no bloat. Images are large. The speaker is easy to listen to. With smale scale music, it's quite good. These speakers seem to fit into my room quite well. 

 

Downside is that the speaker can sound bright but at the same time, not all that airy in the soundstage. And tonally, it sounds a bit gray. Nothing is so harmonically fleshed out that I believe it's real. It also. never feels like it really lets loose. 

 

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