I assumed I'd set up the speakers on the narrow end
I think that with your size room it would be better to place your speakers along the 11' wall. This will allow you to place both your speakers and your listening chair closer to the center of the room and away from the walls. You should try and keep a few feet if possible between your chair and the wall behind it.
The room will always be your biggest obstacle in achieving great sound. I would put most of my energy into learning how to either tune your room to your system (room treatments) or tune your system to your room (equalization) or a combination of both.
My room is 14' 4" x 10' 6" x 9'. I'm pairing small bookshelf speakers with 4) 12" subs. I play very loud aggressive music and I feel the highs are very clear and distinct, the mids are warm and natural and the lows thump but are not boomy.
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continued excellent advice. I've got a lot to think about prior to the amp purchase, but the research and learning is a big part of the fun for me. Thanks to all who have contributed helpful advice.
@audiorusty - I'm curious to know what you consider "very loud aggressive music." Do tell. And 4X 12" subs? What is your crossover? Are you feeding them with sub-outs or speaker-level? It must thump, indeed.
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I’ve owned the special 40’s. They work quite well with Jazz, classical, and most vocal instrumentation.
Electronic, rock, hip hop. Yes. They will play. Though they do not accelerate well with that style of music. At least that was my experience. Pass labs xa25, Herron vtsp line stage. I have zero treatment in my room, with the exception of wall to wall office carpet for my entire apartment. Maybe it helps. Maybe it hinders. Went back to my old speakers. My little part of the world is good now.
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I heard the Dynaudio Special 40 with Moon electronics at Quintessence Audio in Chicago, and man that was some music/sound. Immediately grabbed my attention and I could not just NOT sit down and listen. That was some special pairing. But the room also made a big difference.
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I'm curious to know what you consider "very loud aggressive music.
Lately I have been listening quite a bit to Fear Inoculum by Tool. I also like Orbital, NIN, Ministry, Big Black, Moon Duo, The Black Angels, Foo Fighters just to name a very small sampling, along with other genres like Folk, Jazz and classic Country.
And 4X 12" subs? What is your crossover
My main speakers are book shelf speakers, so two of the subs are slightly behind but in line with those, and those subs are low passed at 161 Hz using a 24 db Butterworth slope while the mains are high passed at 191 Hz using a 24 db Link/Riley slope which gives me a 6 db down point a little under 200 Hz. The actual down point and frequency will vary somewhat depending on the gain settings for the front subs and mains which varies from recording to recording. The other two subs are placed in an asynchronous (not the word I want but the only one I can think of right now) pattern in the room and are high passed at 79 Hz using a 48 db Butterworth slope. All four subs are high passed at 34 Hz using a 24 db Butterworth slope.
Are you feeding them with sub-outs or speaker-level?
My preamp connects to a XTA DP448 speaker management unit that handles the crossover duties, time alignment, gain setting, driver protection, and per channel input and output equalization if desired. I will never again use a speaker level sub connection.
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Tool has been a fave of mine since Opiate. Big fan of RATM too.
Your sub setup seems quite impressive, even if I only understood about 25% of what you described. I’m sure that processor handles everything amazingly well, but that stuff is WAY over my head at this point. I can’t even decide on what base gear is best for me. The journey continues.
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I would tell you my listening room is dominated by my wife who puts all her crap everywhere causing my listening experience to vary wildly. not at all sure that wool is the best choice, my wife suggested a blend of polyester and cotton, she says it is stretchable, which I had not realized was and audiophile thing,, any suggestions?
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Understanding how to operate a speaker management system which is a fancy term for a DSP unit, is really not that difficult. Their functions are pretty straight forward. The hardest part is training your ear so you can distinguish what you like from what you don't like and that just takes practice.
The biggest take away from all of this in my opinion is to figure out how to get your room under control. Once you do, your audio possibilities pretty much become, endless.
If you want to take a deeper dive into some of this stuff send me a PM. I would be more that happy to help.
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I have the same problem; only my speakers are Altec VOT's - big speakers small room. Room is slightly smaller than yours; I rationalize it by thinking I have the worlds largest set of headphones. Still sounds great but you don't need near as my power to become uncomfortable.
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any suggestions?
I don't want you to have any health issue. So your wife's suggestion is the best 😊
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Welcome letshearit ...
Dyns are an excellent choice for an all-arounder. Location and treating the dedicated space to them is a great start. IF you are on a learning curve, building around a beloved speaker choice, integrated amplification is a fine approach. If digital source only, tubes somewhere is a must for me. I ran similar sized, power hungry Salk Veracity loudspeakers for several years in my small, dedicated space, successfully.
Upgrading (yes) to a smaller Revolution Be (more detail in my posts) loudspeaker and adding a Rythmik L12 sealed subwoofer while rolling off my Music Reference tube amplifier at 80Hz to the monitors provides tons of dynamics and musicality. The EL84 tube 4some provide whopping thunder to the Be's, while retaining delicacy. letshearit, I suspect adding a similar subwoofer approach to the Dynaudios would yield a similar result.
Bon Chance and welcome to the worlds of even-order harmonics! Find someone nearby with whom you are comfortable as an Advisor, then trust your ears and judgement. It's a fun ride.
More Peace, Pin (bold print for old eyes)
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So I have a small music room, 11.5 x11.5 x 9.5. I have Wilson Sabrina X's, a REL s/510 sub, an MSB DAC, ARC REF 6 preamp and a Pass Labs 250.8. The Wilsons are fantastic in my room . . . very pleased. I can't say anything about the Dynaudios, but I can say that a smaller room than yours can handle a good sized floor stander like the Sabrina X's. My next move will be to do a full treatment on the room!
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moto_man
That assemblage must be terrific. Would love to hear from you after the room tuning is complete. Buckle up!
More Peace. Pin
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I’ve ran the Confidence series and Heritage Specials. My HS are in about the same size room as you’re referencing. I use the standard issued Dyn stands for the speakers, along with the HS plate. I recommend you fill whichever stands you go with. I used aquarium rocks, they come in various sizes and is rather inexpensive and not messy.
I use the Dynaudio Sub6 with the HS and it sounds fantastic. The HS are little boomers for their size, but the sub does help at with the low Hz.
I’ve ran various amps, but one thing is consistent, Dyn’s need current. I’ve ran McIntosh, Pass Labs and PS Audio amps in various flavors. I would not run McIntosh with Dyn again, sound fell apart if you got on it. The Confidence series do need room to breath off the wall, considerably. The HS seem to operate great in a traditional space/corner set up; they’re set about 2 feet from side and back.
Room acoustics are key, I’ve used both room treatment, along with a DSP and produced great results. I would get your speaker toe/placement set first, then add treatment(s), then settle if you need something like a Dirac or DEQX Premate.
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Hello forum - checking in after completing stage one of the upgrade.
I purchased a used AVM Ovation 6.2ME integrated on US Audio Mart - thanks Michael - which is an absolute beast into 4 ohms. Beautiful clarity and headroom for days. I think it's an excellent match-up to the Dynaudio 20i mains.
However, it was never my intention to run the speakers full-on - even though the extension seems clean down to low 40's - as I've always preferred to get that tight thump from a great subwoofer. The good news is that I can run a great sub from the pre-outs on the AVM. The bad news is that I have no way of setting a crossover point to take some of the low end load off the Dyns. Or do I?
I considered a daisy-chain from the amp's speaker outputs to the sub's speaker inputs, then from the sub's speaker outputs to the mains, but it seems that no sub manufacturer offers speaker-level outputs on their subs these days. Even if they did, I don't know what type of signal degradation might occur in such a setup, or if it's even a wise or feasible option.
Am I stuck with a (killer) amp running my Dyns full-on? Or is there an audio guru amongst us that has a trick they'd like to share?
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