Hi now I have retired…the work area has been removed…and my better half has reclaimed the room…which was modest 2.6m x 3.4m…doh.
So I have been banished to the smaller room..2.5mx2.5m that does have a 750mmx900mm alcove…. I have moved and improved the sound deadening…and have mounted the hifi in alcove which is neat..
Long and short hey….it actually sounds better…when I have time I will.pist some pics. Spoiler alert I replaced the Super Lumina speaker cable with Sarum (original but terminated with new ohmic plugs)… these are fantastic cables.
It’s tiny…I use S12 Vivids away from front wall..in fairly close monitoring arrangement…here is my room so far…top is alcove where stack goes I made a bass trap with cut outs in to allow for sockets and power strip, below back wall, bottom wall is one of the flanking walls…..I will send some more pics…soon. I will also measure room with REW.
I did try my vinyl last night…sounded great no boom…and room does not appear overdamped..all 4 corners are bass trapped. The ceiling slopes … on one side … I thing this helps with standing waves between floor and wall.
Is there a reason why your system cannot be in one of the main reception rooms? Maybe you just like channeling your inner Harry Potter. Have you thought of just living under the stairs, to preempt the time your new space gets reclaimed? It all sounds very odd. You’d think someone with a £100,000 stereo would have plenty of space.
I could but I don’t want a big stack stereo in my lounge….I don’t even have a TV in my lounge…my lounge is a chill place. I have always had stereos in small rooms….if you have small good quality speakers you get great results. I was thinking about this…and there is allot to be said for the Devulait Phantom Extreme approach…which might tempt me one day…in the lounge. It’s interesting as I had a demo about 18 months ago of the giant Beolab speakers retailing at 90k…they sounded fabulous but amazingly no better than my small speakers/sub and good front end….in a small room. With a small space ultimately you do hit a physics barrier….turn it up too loud and you can over pressurise…and the acoustic panels start loosing the battle….but it has to be very loud…. By way I spent nowhere near 100k…my 500 is over 20 years old…but updated all equipment s/h but reconditioned or updated where required. The 500 was a bargain got it for around 4.5k….happy days…
It wasn’t meant to be narky, if you read a post with ‘reclaimed’ and ‘banished’ it’s inevitably going to raise questions. It’s a very strange thing to do.
Yeah it’s a small space but it works brilliantly the 500 and ND555 produce beautiful detail…with great finesse….it’s not all about driving big speakers. I have auditioned isobariks tri amped in 5mx 5m rooms and to be honest …yes they have clout…but they don’t have integration and yes finesse…having a small space is all about getting speaker size just right…the Vivids are stunning….I will send some more pictures soon….
This is an interesting thread for me as I contemplate moving back to the UK and a smaller property without the ceiling heights and room volumes. I have thought about the changes that may be necessary and would envisage the major change being speakers rather than electronics. I may not need the 300 if speakers to suit room size could use something less, but I’d be reluctant to let the 552 go, or the source kit.
Hi Bruss just revise your speakers to suit….nothing too bass heavy….I am sat here having literally just connected up the streamer….and wow amazing… In answer to another intesting comment…re chill…in our lounge we use a couple of very descrete sonos speakers they are great…for casual listening. But my hifi is for really getting into the tracks trying to get the most out of the signal…and enjoying it….I love tweaks and messing around….I never set out to get a 500 system it kinda evolved…as for banishment…that’s harsh no I always promised my wife the other room.. I used to use a 272 in this room I knew it could work with some treatment….
That is interesting because I will be making a similar move soon, not envsaged even 3 months ago. Room certain to be smaller, but no way will my speakers - or any other part of my system - be going, rather if initial room s smaller than my desired minimum I’ll first look at potential for room enlargement, otherwise whatever treatment may be necessary. I have used similarly fullrange speakers in smaller rooms before, so I have no doubt it will work with my present ones.
If you use a little Roon dsp…you can pull the bass down to suit….if you don’t use Roon you might be able to use speaker/seating positioning to mitigate….try and use speakers firing down the long dimension….
I don’t use Roon, but there are other options fr DSP, some more sophisticated than others. However, as you allude, often speaker - and, equally importantly, listener - positioning can solve issues. Beyond that, physical room treatment can also be appropriate, and indeed I note you have aken that on board. I see DSP as the finishing touch after doing whatever physical treatment is achievable/acceptable (and physical is the only way for bass cancellations and early reflections, and early reflections are more likely to be an issue in a small room.
Yes some form of bass trapping will be required….I use traps with high frequency deflectors….try not using broadband traps as these will soak up the high frequencies too much…amd make the room dead which is not good. Let us know how you get on..
