Small room dilemma - I have seen the future !

[Gerry D]

Hi All.
Helpful advice wanted please:
I am contemplating moving my system into a very small room that would allow me to enjoy extended listening on a regular basis.
3 lads getting bigger, piano in "my room", frequent interruptions, etc., etc. ....
Not decided yet but it seems to me that this might be our best solution.

Room measures 3700 mm X 2800 mm. Listening across the shortest distance.

My problem is that it's a small space with some furniture/cabinets that run floor to ceiling and won't be removed/replaced.
I can alter these to suit hi fi and speakers.
Simple drawing attached to help illustrate situation.

Any suggestions for suitable loudspeakers ? Need to be small, emulate large floorstanders sound quality as much as possible, and cost no more than, say, €1,750.00

Synergistic with 300B integrated amp [i.e. low output].
Size matters [!] but appearance not an issue.
Must perform within the confines of the cabinets - rear ports are probably out ?

And there's a TV to stay between them !!!!!

This isn't definite, but as I say it could solve problems ahead.

Any help much appreciated.
Many Thanks,
Gerry

[Gerry D]

Another consideration ye may have thoughts on:

If I go into the smaller room I will still want to have speakers in the main living room for general listening.
Is it OK to run approx. 16 metres of speaker cable from an amp such as mine ?
Would need to exit the house through an external wall, run along the outside, and re enter adjacent to my current speakers set up.
Would use something like the LIDL speaker wire probably, unprotected from elements.

Would signal degrade or diminish over that length and in such conditions ?

Is there a really good speaker swithcing unit around ?
I don't wish to get into swapping cables on the amp if I can avoid it.

Thanks again,
Gerry

[tony]

QED have a range of switches ss20 40 etc .I got one secondhand you can get them on ebay reasonably cheaply, few for auction at the moment. You can switch between speakers or have both sets on. It works fine. In relation to the length of speaker cable dont know the technicals but I would have thought that the amp would need to be turned up if you have very long runs of cable.I felt the need to do that when I had a 30ft run to my kitchen. Somebody more technical is going to give you a definitive answer to that part of the question.

[Diapason]

It's a tricky one, isn't it. There's no doubt that it can be difficult to get really good sounds in such a small room (believe me, I know all about it) but you might get lucky. Actually, the various cabinets and even the TV will probably help, because what you want to do is break up the reflected soundwaves as much as possible, and any kind of large-scale "stuff" helps in this regard.

Matching will of course be tricky. I was originally going to suggest some (older?) Sonus Fabers, as they work very well in my fairly small living room with a valve amp and I'm quite taken with their sheer gorgeousness, but I really don't think 300B level output would be enough to drive most of them. Then I was going to suggest getting your hands on some Living Voice speakers, but I think that might be floorstanding only. Contrary to popular belief, I think the vast majority of small speakers require MORE power rather than less, but I know there are bits and bobs of esoterica that might just work. Certainly I'd agree that infinite baffle, or at the very least front-ported, is the way to go. You *could* try the PMC DB-1s, as some have reported good results with low-powered valves.

Before you do anything, how does the room cope with the clap test? Wanter round clapping and listen out for hollow echoes and/or a kind of ringing sound.

[Fran]

Eh, better make sure everyeveryone is out and extremely unlikely to return before you go around clapping - else you might be more concerned with making your way out of a straight jacket!

Fran

[cybot]

Eh, better make sure everyeveryone is out and extremely unlikely to return before you go around clapping - else you might be more concerned with making your way out of a straight jacket!

Fran

L O L :))

I remember Guy Sargent doing just that during one Hi Fi exhibition up North. Needless to say he was carried out and would you believe, he was still clapping :-)))))))

[Diapason]

When we were house-hunting I used to absolutely mortify Hazel by doing this in every house we viewed.

I needn't have bothered: I still ended up with a horrible room!

[JFK]

Hi - Have you thought about the possibility of using a sub to compliment the small speakers ,
If you have being used to Floor standers you will struggle to match that sort of bass response from stand mounts . You should try A good pair of Mini Monitors and a dedicated Sub also . You might be surprised at what you hear ! Cheers John .

[cybot]

When we were house-hunting I used to absolutely mortify Hazel by doing this in every house we viewed.

I needn't have bothered: I still ended up with a horrible room!

I did exactly the same and I'd be on my knees looking for and counting sockets and what you!
Took me exactly 4 months to get the sound I knew the system was capable of. What a friggin' nightmare and sleepless nights.... I pity anyone familiar with their system who have to move house for whatever reason :(

[Rocker]

Is there any way that you could arrange the speakers to fire diagonally across the room - each speaker 'backs' on to a different wall and you are seated facing a corner. Sorry for the terrible description, a sketch would simplify this. There is an article on this idea somewhere on the web, it might be worth Googling for it.