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Listening Fatigue & Speakers in Small Room

The main components of my system are B&W N804s, a MF A300cr power amp (225 wpc), a BAT VK-3i, and a MF Nu Vista CD. All cabling is Cardas Golden Reference. I had this set up in my old, 20x24 condo dining room/living room with no problems. Now, I have a house with a dedicated listening room of approximately 10x10x8, and am experiencing listening fatigue. After a little while, the outside of my ears start to hurt. Recently, I have treated the room with GIK bass traps and spot panels which have made the quality of the sound much, much better, but my ears continue to hurt. I'm thinking that maybe the B&Ws are just too big for the room, and that I may need to go to monitors with a sub. Am I on the right track, or could another component may be the culprit? Thanks for your help.
rlb61
philb7777
401 posts
 
Best monitors I have heard for the price are the Evolution Acoustics MMMicro Ones. I think they retail for around $4500 with stands. They have ribbon tweets. I don't have any affiliation with Evolution, and don't even own their other speakers, just a fan of those monitors.
daverz
477 posts
 
I also suspect the speakers, but I'd try some tube rolling first. Maybe some current stock Gold Lion 6922s. For the 6V6, maybe some Pope NOS or the current stock Tung Sols.
rlb61 OP
362 posts
 
Currently using Platinum Grade Russian 6H23s (the BAT LOVES these) and Visseaux 6v6GT. Ordered some Pope 6v6GTs from Upscale.
truemaineiac's avatar
truemaineiac
249 posts
 
It could be a lot of things since you are in an all new place, power quality, room acoustics, hooked up differently, etc. Personally, this is how B&W sounds to me each time I have heard them so I was not surprised to see would try to audition some different speakers in the same room.
daverz
477 posts
 
I'm not familiar with the 6H23 (I use EH 6922s, which are what my 3iX came with, but I don't think they are the thing if you have "hot" tweeters). You might want to talk to Kevin Deal about mellower tubes in the 6922 family. The Genelex Gold Lions were actually a bit too stuffy in my system, but otherwise had a very nice tone and dimensionality.

Also you simply may need to damp the room even more.
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