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Questions about room size and speaker choice

I have two unrelated questions regarding speaker choice:

1) I am moving to a new, bigger apartment, which is great as I will have a dedicated listening room, but at the same time somewhat of a problem as the dedicated room is rather small measuring 9 x 11 feet. (It's the master bedroom and the shorter wall behind the listening chair has an opening into the bathroom so it's open in a sense.)

I am in the process of upgrading my speakers from the Totem Acoustic Hawk and the smaller room now has thrown another twist into the selection process. Some of the floorstanders I have been considering, such as the Acoustic Zen Adagio or the Silverline Sonatina, might now just overpower the room, or it might simply be not possible to set them up optimally given the distance of 9 feet between the side walls.

I wanted to ask whether anyone has tackled a similar problem and what the results were. Should I forgo full range floorstanders for a pair of monitors, perhaps? Harbeth comes to mind and I have been wanting to audition a pair of the 7es-3.

2) I have seen some incredible deals here on Audiogon on used speakers, and was curious what the opinions were on the age of the used speakers. Assuming a speaker is in a great condition and there are no flaws beyond cosmetic blemishes and simple age, at which point would you say a speaker has been used for simply too long to bother with it? Since it's a mechanical transducer with moving parts, years of use might exert more wear-and-tear on it than might be visible with a naked eye. The rubber surround might not be as pliable as it was and slowly start to crack; the voice coil might be pretty stressed and more prone to breaking; screws loosening; you get the idea.

I'd appreciate any input and opinions. Thank you.
actusreus

Showing 8 responses by actusreus

actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Thanks for the replies and suggestions above. I'm sharing the apartment with my fiancee who's understanding enough of my passion for great sound to let me use the master bedroom as my listening room. The compromise is that I have to live with two of her cats and, even though the living room is nice and big, I cannot deal with moving my speakers every time I want to listen to music to avoid any damage to the woofers by leaving the speakers unattended. I did it for two years now and I'm really tired of it. So it's a smaller room for the peace of mind kind of thing. There are of course neighbors above and below to be mindful of, as is always the case in an apartment building.

I listen almost exclusively to jazz, but also some classic rock here and there. The room would be pretty much empty with the exception of record and book shelves, possibly a plant in the corner, a desk along the longer wall and of course a small couch or armchair for listening. It is carpeted and the closets are in the wall so don't take away from the square footage.

I will be using my Hawks for a while as I'm still recovering financially from my analog front upgrade, but the Hawks are about 7 years old now, a little beaten up and I'd like to upgrade to something that offers more of everything. That said, the Hawk is a great speaker, and I have enjoyed it tremendously.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
The phono preamp is the Camelot Technology Lancelot (solid state, battery powered), and the amplification is Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum tube amp.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Ok, here's an update: after the move-in I measured the room and it's actually 11.4 x 11.11 feet. The bathroom and walk-in closet are on the half of the longer wall (after 5 feet of solid wall, it extends at an angle for the bathroom door and provides about 3 extra feet of depth). The window wall is the opposite wall. My first inclination was to put the speakers against the window wall so that they'd be facing the bathroom/walk-in closet wall since it'd provide a little more open space behind, but I decided to set up along the solid shorter wall with the window and closet wall on the sides. I'm hoping with some acoustic treatment it will be possible to get good results.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Thanks for all of your responses.
The system is already there so holding off on buying new equipment, or getting a set of headphones is really not an option, with the exception of speakers, but a pair of Harbeths or De Vore Gibbon Super 8s, for example, could still work and be a great long term upgrade I believe. I will be in the apt for at least 2 years (unless we hit the lottery), which is a chunk of time so I'd like to get the best out of the room.

The room is not really square since it has extensions on sides and in one of the corners. The listening space is however, pretty much (the speaker placement in terms of effective space, if that makes sense). I placed a queen size mattress topper foam on the wall behind the speakers and behind the listening chair to minimize reflections and deaden the room a little. I'm also hoping this will help with vibrations reaching the neighbors to some extent.

The speakers are currently 7 feet apart and I placed the listening chair about the same distance form the speakers. That leaves about 2 feet to the wall behind the chair. Any other suggestions?
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Thanks James for your wise advice! Just so I understand correctly: the speakers are currently 3.2 feet from the front wall (measured from the front baffle) and a little less than 2 feet from the side wall (measured from the center of the speaker). Are you suggesting that I put them more into the room and move my chair back?
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Last question I wanted to ask: there are many acoustic treatment products available for reasonable and ridiculous prices on the Internet. However, I find it all rather confusing; absorption vs. diffusion vs. bass traps vs. soundproofing and combination of any of the above. Does anyone have any experience with acoustic treatment and could give me some advice as to what would work best in my listening room? Thank you.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Inpieces, for instance most Acoustic Fields products retail for about $2000. That's ridiculous to me.

The good news is that there are really no aesthetic considerations for the room so I'm pretty flexible. We can take this conversation private so I can email you the pictures, if you're willing to do that. Let me know. Thanks.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Thank you for your advice and all the information Kevin.

Here's a link to the Acoustic Fields website:
http://www.acousticfields.com/
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