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Input on speaker sizing for a lively room.

My listening area is a 34x22x8 open floor area of our home. It is comprised of both a great room and the kitchen/dining area. Flooring is hardwood with typical rugs where appropriate as well as having some large windows. My listening is two channel audio only and often while casually doing daily routines with the family.

My system has evolved to a point where I feel a plateau has been reached. Listed as fallow:

Herron M1A mono amps
Herron VTSP-1A-166 pre
Arcam CD23T CDP
Morrows Mid level cabling
Dunlavy Cantata

My current speakers are Dunlavy Cantata's located on the interior long wall. These speakers perform quite nicely at mid level volume. Where I would like improvement is both at low volume listening and some shear gusto above mid volume with a smooth top end. I realize the Cantata's are being unfairly critiqued here as they certainly are out of their design element.

Some personal speaker criteria. While my listening area is large, I would prefer to stay with a slightly undersize full range floor stander speaker for WAF. We have a quitar and piano player in the family so those traits are strongly admired. My budget would be 15K. A few speakers I have on a short for a demo are as fallows:

Silverline Boleros
Vandersteen Quatro
Verity Sarastro

General comments: Everything I read about Silverline sounds like utopia. Having talked with Alan Yun several times, his passion is inspiring. I have listened to the Vandy's briefly in a studio as they are local. It was that event that made me stop and decide to take my time with this decision. I could listen more if the sound was acceptable to more attuned ears in the household...

Feel free to offer up any input. Like many, I am at an age where this opportunity won't likely be repeated and would like explore possibilities I likely would never have known about. Thank you



mlo97

Showing 2 responses by mlo97

mlo97 OP
31 posts
 
Some very good information to digest and then reevaluate my goals. Thank you to all who offered up there time for my benefit.

Goose...I would have to agree with your Vandy assessment. I was ready to purchase but was just not drawn in like I had hoped.

Some other room specifics. While the 34' x 22' room is basically open, there is a 10' long pony wall with base cabinets (kitchen side) dividing the total room in half. The ceiling also is not flat and has three separate 8" lowered perimeter soffits outlining the sitting area, dinning area, and sink island. The speakers are located in a 17'x 22' area segmented by the pony wall. The build design and interior settings are what had me aiming for an undersized speaker according to total room volume. I have no experience in what role the design elements actually add or subtract if any.
mlo97 OP
31 posts
 
Over the last couple months, I have spent a fair amount of time scouring the local audio shops and their inventories. While I live very near a major city that experience was an eye opener and not a good one. So in looking for a more diversified product information, I started calling manufacturers, many of whom used to have a presence in this market. Not having the funds and time to literally fly around and demo product, I am relegated to doing what research I can on my own. This forum is a tremendous resource in that endeavor and as time allows I use it.

My goal is to narrow down a short list of speaker candidates then do what it takes to listen to them. I am becoming more focused on the speakers being quality built highly efficient full range floor standers. They should also be able to be driven well with my current Herron amps.

Again, Thanks for everyone's input.
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