Speakers for odd room. Please help

That's a tough one. I too have a small room, 13x8 and irregular shape at that. After many upgrades with poor results I nearly gave up. It turned out that reflected sound was the culprit. I hung curtains against the back wall (behind the speakers) Sonex on the side walls, and a Sonex panel in front of the TV, which is between and set back of the speakers. This is by far the best, most cost effective upgrade I've done so far - and it cost (only?) about $300 to do it. Make your own panels and save a bunch. I think there are DIY plans at Audioasylum.com . Also, avoid placing one speaker nearer a wall than the other for even response. Only after you take care of the room acoustics will upgrading the components do any real good.
- Bill L.

Vlad: I agree with Wlutke that a littel help w/ room might be beneficial. In theory a cube is the worst room to listen in because each dimension reinforces the same standing wave. You are not far from that . Read a little at www.silcom.com/~aludwig.com for help in room acoustics. Typically bookshelves are good as diffusers. Look at Terry Cains elaborate work at www.melhuish.org in the diy project section. Doesn't have to be anything that fancy.

I have listened to very nice sound in very small rooms. I would suggest a non ported speaker. Also generally larger speakers, that is floor standing need more room to cohere or sound good. Smaller speakers, bookshelf or monitors might be better is you can live with that. There was a recent post called "Need help with a pair of small speakers" only a week or two ago and some folks made good suggestions re specific speakers in that thread.

Cheers

Speakers are going to have the GREATEST impact(plus seating possition in that small room) on the over all sound, and youshould definitely consider upgrading them! Upgrading equip with those speakers in that room won't get you that much improvement really. You should consider doing some very very small speakers in that room. The acoustics in such a room are going to be impossible to overcome for all practical purposes with any large monitor that play's low.
I can tell you right now, that you have boomy, peaky, dippy sound in that room....from any listening/speaker placement possitions! I would strongly consider one of the sealed box(non ported) acoustic suspension speakers on the market. Speakers such as Spenders, NHT super zero's/and One's, and even better, NHT 1.5's would be perfect for the money!!! They're sealed, play down to about 55hz (the small room will makethem play flatter down to the 40hz range realistically), have great clarity and detail, and pretty decent dynamics when set-up near a room boundary.
For $600 a a pair retail, you can not go wrong! (used about half price,or $300-400 range! Yes, they don't have as deep an immage as some, but so what! They are otherwise very high end sounding...only being bettered in detail by much more expensive speakers. (actually, there's some crossover upgrades available with these on the market for about $50 if you ever needed to tweek).
Your main concern is definitely the right speaker for that small room,and proper speaker/seating placement! I've gotten good results with speakers like these, in rooms that were 10.5'X 12.5'(8ft ceiling) in the past. Even small ported monitors were a real challenge to otherwise get sounding good in that small room, unless the speakers were way close together, out in the room too much...not practical.
Anyway, good luck....and you definitely should upgrade those speakers, carefully...

Sounds like my old bedroom in Astoria (10X10.5X8.5) ...
what I did in that room was the following:
centered the bed against the long back wall; used a low boy type bookcase (30X36X12) as a nightstand, along the left adjoining wall; used a high boy style bookcase in the small niche area (60X30X16) and this bookcase housed the stereo equipment. Equipment: refurbished Marantz 2216B receiver ($95 on eBay; another $150 to bring back to spec); a Yamaha 393 CD player ($100 from J&R; and OPTIMUS PRO LX5 speakers, which were placed on top of the high boy bookcase (roughly 10" separating the speakers). The system was fun ... rich, warm, and musical sounding (I essentially re-created an old Grunding type post war mono console). The Optimus speakers were the key and I attribute that to the omni-directional nature of the top mounted tweeter assembly. Any other small speakers that I tried (B&W 302; Polk; NHT Super 0's) just did not sound good at all.

I think that replacing your speakers would make the most sense. I currently have NHT Super One's in a relatively small apartment and they sound O.K. I bought them so that I could have marginally acceptable sound while my Mission Cyrus 780 Speakers are being repaired (they've been 3 months in the shop so I think their permanently dead). Mission still sells the 780 loudspeaker without the Cyrus designation for around $600 retail (I think the Cyrus version was made in collaboration with Cyrus Electronics). IMHO my Mission Cyrus 708 speakers sound much better that the NHT super one's. It's not even close, but I have not heard the latest version of this speaker. For another opinion on the current Mission 780 speakers read the March 2002 issue of "What Hi Fi?" This U.K. magazine rated them at the top of a shootout with other speakers.

Another reason that these may be speakers to listen to in you situation is that they like to be placed next to the back wall. This reinforces their moderate bass output and they still image extremely well. I place them on 28" sand filled stands about 9" from the rear wall with very little or no toe in.

I would definitely not look at floorstanding speakers for such a small room. Also, don't overlook the importance of good stands for your "bookshelf" speakers. My stands are older Sanus Systems Reference Foundations. An improved version of this stand is available, or if you want something a little less expensive the Steel Foundations from the same company could work.

BTW - I will be selling my speakers & stands soon as I plan to upgrade.