Small Room, Large Speakers... Help


I am moving into a new house in about a week. The good news is that I will have a dedicated listening room. I can do whatever I want with it. The bad news is that the room is only 15' by 8' by 7' high. The floor is carpeted and with nothing in the room, it is very slightly "lively" but nothing compared to a hardwood floor. There is a door opening into the room on the long wall. The worst news is that my speakers are pretty large: Cain and Cain IM BEN speakers with TWO active Bailey subwoofers. The C&C full rangers have a small, four inch full range driver and two backloaded horns stacked on top of one another. So it has two horn mouths one above, and one below the driver. The Bailey subwoofer is ported, side-firing, and has one ten-inch driver. It is designed not for the lowest of low bass, but for tight, musicality with low excursion.

My question is: will it be possible to set up this system in this room? Or must I move to the living room of the house and not have a dedicated room?

My plan is this: Set it up length-wise with the subs in the corners of the room with the driver facing out, the port facing the wall. Place bookshelves on each long wall approximately center of the wall across from one another. Set up the horns in front of the subs near the bookshelves, using the bookshelves to mitigate side reflections. Listening seat against the rear wall with the proper room treatment behind (do I use a diffuser or a damper?). This will place the full range drivers approximately 8 feet away from the listening position.

Is there any advice any experts can offer? Is there anything in particular I should definitely avoid? Any techniques that are "must-do" in a room like this? In this situation is it best to have the horns as far away as possible fro the listening position, or have the horns as far away as possible from the back wall.
tjkurita

Showing 1 response by beachdynamics

As a general rule: you can make a small room sound big but you can't make a big room sound small.

With room treatment and some experimentation, you will do fine. I would suggest a live end-dead end strategy first. But, you will find what sounds best for you, not me or anyone elses taste.