maybe a floorstander?


should I be looking for a floorstanding speaker instead of my two-way stand mounts?  here's why I've been thinking this way, my room is 20'X14'X10' ceiling where I sit and listen and on one side is a 6' wide hallway (which in essence makes the room 20'X20'X10') that continues another 20' down to our front door.  also have open walkways that lead to kitchen and living room.  listening area has acoustic treatments behind speakers, full thick carpet, two chairs and a couch which is 6' from the back wall where we sit.  speakers front baffle are 5' out from front wall and one speaker is  2' from side wall and the other is open next to the hallway.  I do have one 12" sub.  don't get me wrong it sounds pretty good but I think I'm wanting more of a larger scale sound.  I'm thinking the room area is just to big for my set up. if you count the open hallway with the regular size of the room my calculations are 5200 cu. ft.  I imagine that the kitchen and living room areas come in to play also because of the open walkways into them from the listening room.  sorry for being longwinded, just trying to explain best I can. 
radiomanjh

Showing 1 response by millercarbon

don't get me wrong it sounds pretty good but I think I'm wanting more of a larger scale sound.


Quite often the increase in scale of floor standers comes at the cost of imaging. No speaker after all can make the performance sound bigger than what was recorded. If it does then it is by definition some kind of distortion. Another factor is a lot of our sense of scale comes from the lowest frequencies, and floor standers tend to have better low bass. 

The very best low bass however is from a swarm or distributed bass array subwoofer system. Adding three subs to the one you have will bring you deep articulate tuneful bass like you never heard before.

It takes this kind of really deep clean bass to recreate the sensation of being in a large space. When you have it the room disappears in a way that is hard to explain. Its not like the presentation itself gets bigger the way it does with some big tall floor standers. Its more like everything gets bigger and you have a greater feeling of being enveloped in it. Its just fantastic and something I have never heard with any combination of monster floor standers and a single sub. With 4 though it just happens.

Another thing that will help and cost a lot less, the Synergistic Research Speaker Kit and HFT for the room. Combine those with a Swarm, its just crazy how much envelopment you can get.