Room Size and B&W Speakers

[CountDeMoney]

My listening room isn't large, around 10 feet by 22 feet. Some people say there is no relation between speakers and room size. Others say don't buy speakers that are too large for the room.

My question is, is 802d3 too large for my room? If so, is 803d3 appropriate then? What happens if I buy speakers that are too large? Is there such a thing as speakers that are too large for the room in the first place?

Thank you.

[Venere]

When you say large speakers we can make the assumption this means speakers with good bass extension. The issue with these in smaller rooms is that the can overload the room with bass nodes. Too many variables to predict how any speaker will interact with the room depending on placement, true bass extension, ported vs sealed, etc. Some "large" speakers have very tight bass and some "small" speakers have a mid-bass bump that might be even worse in a smaller room. Sadly, only way to know for sure is to try them. But in general larger speakers are designed for larger rooms. I recently saw some info on Focal's website about the proper room size range (in cubic meters as I recall) for some of their models that I found helpful. Might make a good rule of thumb even for other speaker designs.

[playdrv4me]

I used 802 Diamonds in a bedroom for a time. Probably 14x14 or something. They worked just fine.

However, I *had* 802Ds (D1 generation) in the exact same position in the same room at one point and the bass was horribly bloated and "tubby". It depends as much on the speaker as the room size when you get to a smaller room with a larger speaker. I mean, there are limits regardless, but I can tell you that when I thought my room was the problem, the 802 Diamonds (D2 gen with the completely revamped bass drivers) absolutely blew that perception away.

[Spinpsycho]

Have you thought about going with a bookshelf speakers like the B&W 805D and pair it with a high quality sub like JL F or E series. I use to have a floor standing speakers (683) and recently switched to a 2 way bookshelf speakers with the sub and actually prefer the sound quality over the floorstanding. My room size is 13x17 with 8 feet ceiling.

[tractng]

Originally Posted by Spinpsycho

Have you thought about going with a bookshelf speakers like the B&W 805D and pair it with a high quality sub like JL F or E series. I use to have a floor standing speakers (683) and recently switched to a 2 way bookshelf speakers with the sub and actually prefer the sound quality over the floorstanding. My room size is 13x17 with 8 feet ceiling.

Agree. I have a pair of bookshelf from another brand with JL F113 and the sound is amazing. I had floorstanding once that were huge and didn't care for them after a while.

[playdrv4me]

That's a good idea. B&W makes some of the best bookshelf speakers in the industry. In fact, the "Maserati Edition" is ONLY available in the 805s.

[SMC23]

currently use 802D2 in a room much smaller than yours (18x13) and i never had any issues on the bass nor felt the speakers were too large for the room.

I would go with which speaker sounds best to you.

[TWiiii]

It all has to do with room gain. Depending on where the woofers are placed in a room the bass will couple to the room and intensity will increase. Now the question will be is the gain uniform. Woofers placed at ear height way from any walls have very little room gain, while speakers placed on the floor in a corner will have 10 to 20 times as much bass. What you need to know from reading manuals and recommendations from B&W is how they recommend each speaker be placed in a room. The answers are there. With that understanding and reading about listening positions in a room you will come closer to success. Or you can do it the easy way and place the speakers in locations of your desire and pick a seating position that works with traffic flow and install either a Lyngdorf processor or A Mcintosh MEN220 using the same patented technology and voice your speakers for the best results in your room. I f you use subs use one for each stereo speaker. Summing LF doesn't work if you want to keep faithful reproduction of the stereo signal. If the harmonics of the bass arrive at one time and the fundamental another, the bass will never feel right. And don't pick a full range speaker that isn't faithful to 25 HZ, anything higher will be short changing you on the experience of faithful reproduction. I prefer line arrays as they negate room difficulties and increase faithful reproduction. A point source speaker spreads sound all over a room confusing imaging and giving a false impression of space that's not on the recording.

[Spinpsycho]

My SC-09TX Receiver have MCACC setting and the JL E110 have Phase control setting. And I prefer the sound quality with out turning on those features. I place the left and right main speakers 9 feet apart with very slight toe in and 2 feet apart from back wall and side wall and placed the sub next to right main speaker. I set my main speaker setting to small and the crossover for the sub at 80hz on the receiver. The Bel Canto CD2 is strictly use as a CD transporter, the six Wolfson WM8741 D/A converter from the SC-09 TX receiver is use as the main D/A Converter, the MC 452 Amp drive's the Totem Element Fire speakers. The Totem Element Fire does not have any crossover in them except for the high pass filter to protect the tweeter and everything blends in nicely. It's music to my ears. The SC-09TX have plenty of power to drive the Totem but I prefer the sound quality from the MC452. The MC452 stays cool to the touch even pro long use of 5 hrs or more.

[CountDeMoney]

Originally Posted by Spinpsycho

Have you thought about going with a bookshelf speakers like the B&W 805D and pair it with a high quality sub like JL F or E series. I use to have a floor standing speakers (683) and recently switched to a 2 way bookshelf speakers with the sub and actually prefer the sound quality over the floorstanding. My room size is 13x17 with 8 feet ceiling.

I just assume that 802D or 803D should sound better than 805D. Maybe I am wrong; would need to listen to them first. 805D certainly costs less.