Vintage Advents too big for small room?


In my current house, where I'll be for at least another 5 years, my listening room is only 12' by 12'. I have New Advents, owned since new in 1978, tweeters replaced under warranty by the better ferrofluid ones, woofers replaced about 10 years ago with OEMs from Jensen, who owned Advent at the time. They're still beautiful and do everything they've always done, but they completely overwhelm this smaller room. I have no real choice but to place them in the corners. I've moved them out 6 inches, but that didn't help appreciably.

I've thought of two options: 1) buy some stands for the Advents in the hope of decoupling them from the room a little more, or 2) go with some much smaller monitors and stands that, just because of their size, would be farther from the corners of the room. Are there any other options?

Monitors would probably be something like Epos ELS-3, Ascend CBM-170, Triangle Titus - I would need to keep monitors+stands at $500 or less for now. Also, I've had trouble locating stands for the Advents - any reasonably priced suggestions?

David
armstrod

Showing 2 responses by phasecorrect

I agree...try to find a monitor that doesnt sound thin or bright....Castle RIchmonds are very rich, musical, spacious, and fairly easy to drive...the B&W 601 is also a good choice...both at around $500 new...well below used...another good choice used is the PSB minis which are around 1k new...very good bass and mellow top end...
ALso...one has to except that truly deep bass such as the advents will not be the strenght of a small monitor...however...a small speaker will image better, have improved transparency, and can be very involving in a more "audiophile" way...vs. "visceral" bass,etc...at any rate...I would go the monitor route myself...and in my humble o...you can easily better the sound you are accustomed to...another sleeper...Monitor AUdio studio 2...about 4-$500 used...these are unreal with vocals, etc...