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Impossible? Small towers, efficient, musical, loud

I've been reading on threads here for different speakers that sound good with rock, which is my primary pleasure. But I am also a lover of high fidelity and do not want to compromise on sound quality, so this isn't necessarily about speakers that just sound good with rock. My situation may be a paradox or impossible, but I'm hoping I can be enlightened favorably. I'm looking for smallish floorstanders that are tube friendly, placement friendly, and can still sound nice and full at reasonable to loud levels.

Room is an open design roughly 23' wide, 12' deep and vaulted ceilings 8-12' high. Listening area is 15' wide as opposed to the 23'. Speakers must go along the wide wall at 10' apart, one speaker is in a corner. Listening position is 10' from the speakers. I can pull the speakers out at most 2' away from the walls, depending on how large the cabinets are.

Associated gear:
Cary Rocket 88R (30w triode/60w ultralinear)
Promitheus passive TVC Ref 4
Eastern Electric minimax cd

The amp and the TVC are new, haven't yet received them yet in fact but will be replacing my current gear.

Current speakers are Usher 6381, large speakers that I believe are too big for my room. With the tiny amount I can pull them away from the walls, staging is pretty flat, though surprisingly I haven't had any issues with bass boom. Hoping to put them up for sale/trade soon and wanted some feedback on what I should be looking at.

I was considering something like the smaller Silverlines (though they may not be good enough) or perhaps some Devore's. Above all I value musical speakers that emanate a sense of realism. I don't require subterranean bass, just a natural, full sound that doesn't sound wanting without a sub. Musicality is key.

Thanks in advance
tholt
jax2
3,031 posts
 
You mentioned that your ceiling is vaulted. Is the listening position under the short side or the tall side?

It sounds like you have absorption panels behind the speakers. Have you tried diffusion instead?

In my room I am 8 feet from the speakers and they are about 7 feet apart by necessity. My soundstage is very focused and can sound deep, but doesn't go that wide. I've experimented quite a bit with speaker positioning and that is where I ended up in my 12 foot span. Your soundstage issues may largely (though not necessarily completely) be around the positioning of the speakers in the room.

I also want to try tubes and am afraid the Ushers won't like them, though I have yet to experiment.

I thought you already were using the Cary, but I see you are not. What is the rest of your system that you're forming these impressions by?
tholt OP
545 posts
 
Jax2 - listening position is under the short side. Can't change it.

Have not tried diffusion, no. I went with absorption because there was a ton of room boom and slap echo

I've had various components throughout my system. The only constant was the Ushers. I agree 100% about speaker placement in the room affecting soundstaging, hence one of the points of this thread. I feel if I could get smaller cabinets and thus get them away from the walls more, I could get a more dimensional soundstage. The Ushers are 18" away from the back wall, the one in the corner is roughly 2' away from the side wall. Width isn't the problem as speakers are 10' apart and fill in the space between nicely.
queg
55 posts
 
Considering the room, have you considered speakers that are actually designed to go against the wall/corners? Thinking Audio Note AN/E or J.. maybe Klipsch? I have Silverline Sonatina 1st generation.. they're laid back and throw a wide & deep soundstage when out from the walls.. against the walls they're kinda boring.
jax2
3,031 posts
 
Another very positive change would be to move your cabinet to the short wall and leave the speakers on the long wall. That may not be possible, but it would be ideal to have nothing in between your speakers. I still feel 10' apart in that room dimension is too much. I could not imagine it sitting here looking at my own room. An asymmetric corner arrangement might work also, but could be challenging to make work depending on the contents of your room.
tholt OP
545 posts
 
Either my last post got lost in space or Audiogon hates me (they didn't like the last swear word I slipped in another post). Appreciate all the room correction suggestions (those never go out of style) but I've tweaked my room about as much as I can within my workable parameters.

Getting back on topic, are there any more suggestions for tube/placement friendly floorstanders? If i can get smaller speakers away from the walls more I think it has a good chance of helping with soundstaging.

What about Totem Hawks or Forest? Devore 8's? Living Voice?
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