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Best Speaker Choice for my very "non-audio-friendly" Living Room

New to A-Gon, and looking for advise on purchasing a set of speakers.
My room is about as sound stage unfriendly as you can imagine (Hard to describe) as the center of the room is a huge fireplace with speaker placement options limited to about 25' apart from each other on each side of the fireplace. The room is approx 30' by 14' so my listening distance from each speaker is 15' & 16' from my center chair.
With that said, I have always (maybe wrongly) been inclined to buy big powerful speakers in an attempt to fill the room with good sound.
Up til now I have been running an Anthem 540 Amp, and running my fronts through a Peachtree 500 from the Pre-Outs on the Anthem to a set of Cerwin Vega Twin 15's. I actually liked the sound of this setup, but the twin 15s were just huge and honestly obnoxious on the living room (my wife had a stronger opinion on that than I did lol) 
So, I have moved the big Vega's down to the shop / pool room  and thats where they will live with a modest emotiva amp/pre amp combo that works well. 
I like the option of a Klipsch Cornwall (old school look, but much shorter and more esthetically appealing than the Vega's or maybe a set of Focal 948's which I listened to at the local shop. Both of these options are in my price range, and I "think" would give me the sound / performance I loved with my Old Vega's but look much better in the room. 
Any advice from the experts on this forum would be greatly appreciated. 
 
carzmaguy88
motokokusanagi
189 posts
 
An open baffle is a strong choice as it directly seeks to address the acoustic problems with the directivity of box speakers in a problematic room.

Here’s the late, great Siegfried Linkwitz discussing the same https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxwudn7C4w

My concern is audition/demo is more important than anything else, so you’d want to be able to listen/return anything you are seriously shortlisting; especially for this price.
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
2,016 posts
 
Tekton speakers may be the route to take. They have  a lot of good reviews. Not a fanboy but they have a lot of good reviews. Gotta count for something IMO
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
Wilson made a pair of speakers with stands (Duette) for a number of years that they recently discontinued. They were supposedly made to be less room dependent than the other speakers in their line. I own Wilson speakers & like them a lot but never heard the "duette's", so can't comment on their performance. Others seem to like them though, & they come up used in your price range occasionally.  
sryeager
125 posts
 
My room is also audio unfriendly.  Narrow and very deep. With no coherent back wall . One 40 something foot side wall is mostly glass.  The other side wall opens into a hallway and kitchen.  There is basically a floor to ceiling “island” in the middle that is a closet and staircase.  I bought a used pair of Ohm Walsh 4s and haven’t looked any further.  Two small REL subwoofers in the front corners.  They fill the space with sound. Talk to John at Ohm Acoustics and see if he thinks 25 feet apart is too much.
tom6897's avatar
tom6897
1,484 posts
 
Look at the higher quality in wall and in ceiling speakers. With your requirements I would forego worrying about imaging and just concentrate on clean, clear, dynamic sound that let's you enjoy your music in more of a club like atmosphere where you hear the music regardless of where you are physically. 

You could also have a set of monitors on stands that you set up occasionally when you want to listen in a 2 channel stereo setting. I have a friend with a very large/expensive home that presents like a beautiful model, but no unsitely wires anywhere to be seen. All lighting is from above or built in wall sconces. He brings in his speakers (Tidal "Piano"), which are in a hidden wall cavity and hooks them up to a killer hidden system. He may leave them there all weekend or if he plans to listen during the week. 
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