Speaker Help Required


I have a 12'x14' living room with a cathedral ceiling.

My 2-channel audio system is along the 12' back wall. I have a 6.5' audio / video rack which houses all my audio gear (mostly Linn) with a bookshelf speaker (Linn Katan) at each side of this rack (roughly 7.5' apart) sitting on stands (Linn Katan stands). The left speaker is about 3' from the side wall and 2' from the back wall with a powered subwoofer (Linn Sizmik 10.25) between the left speaker and the side wall in the corner. The right speaker is also 2' from the back wall but no side wall since it is an opening to my hallway.

Because of this setup, I’m hearing more of the left speaker than the right speaker. I tried different amounts of toe-in, which seems to help a little but I’m still not 100% satisfied. Some people have suggested that since the Katan are very small speakers, the subwoofer is not only providing the added bass but may be participating in some midrange too which is why I’m hearing more of the left channel.

Since I cannot move things around in my living room nor add a door to the hallway opening, I’m looking for a pair of “full range” floorstanding speakers to replace my bookshelves / subwoofer combo in hopes of rectifying this problem. Also, my wife is totally opposed to any “room insulation / sound proofing” idea since we use this room for entertaining friends and family and the décor is her territory.

What floorstanding speakers would you recommend for a $2000-$2500 budget that will help with my issue?
agiaccio
Sub woofers crossed over at 80hz, assuming that the cross over slope is at 12bd per octave will still have significant output at 160hz and some at 320 hz the result of which will be an enriched sound from the left speaker in that range and will skew the balance a bit. IF, your problem is NOT related to the left speakers placement near the corner then floor standers might help because the woofer on the left will be operating 3db lower than the sub to get a balanced response with the other floorstander.

As mentioned, for reference only, move your sub to the right side and see what happens to the balance. If you have a SPL meter and a test disc it will be much easier for you and you can run the system in mono on each side to cee the difference in db's between having the woofer on the left or the right, IF there is one.

I'll mention my set up experience experience with floorstanders only to give you an idea of the things you can effect with a little time, an open mind (sonically speaking) and without having to buy any audio acoustic materiels (as opposed to domestically approved stuff). I have the same issue in my room. Wall on the left side, big double door opening on the right side at the speaker location. Room is a bit bigger than yours. Two things have helped me get an excellent sense of width, depth, and balance. The speaker on the 'wall' side is aprox 30" from the side wall and 65" from the back wall. The speaker on the right side is about 12 inches (measured at the tweeter) from the opening where the wall would be, and also 65" from the back wall. The speakers are about 9' apart and I sit about 11 ft from the plane of the speakers. I toe the speakers in so that their axis' cross in front of my listening chair. This minimizes reflections from the left wall, and I believe changes the reflection pattern from the ceiling and helps decouple it from the direct signal. The result is flat +/- 3db except for a small node at 32hz of about 5db. This location took a lot of work and time to find, but it was worth it. BTW, I have pocket doors in the opening and open v closed had little effect on my results.

FWIW. No charge! :-)
For a room like this with more difficult issues in locating speakers, clearly either Ohm Micro Walsh Talls ($1000) or 100s ($1700).

The wide dispersion, more omnidirectional dispersion pattern on these help make speaker placement with good results easier than most conventional box or planar designs.
My guess is that you're getting bass reinforcement between 80ish and 150ish cycles from the left corner and none on the other side since there is no corner. This may well be audible since it can generate lots (app 12db in my room, relative to 80db) of excess energy in this frequency range which is vaguely directional. Any floorstander with enough bass output will create the same frequency response hump, so if this is indeed your problem, that's not the answer.

A $350 bass buster (or app$450 ATC bass trap) is the best solution. These are hemholtz resonators tuned to absorb energy in the octave above 80hz (this is a very common problem). I'm told the ATC version allows some "fine tuning" of the active range. BTW, even if this doesn't solve your stated problem (left leaning sound) you'll probably be very happy with the overall improvement in sound. I sure was.

Good Luck,

Marty
BTW the bass buster is 4' tall and -in cross section - is shaped like 1/4 of a circle (fat wedge of pie). The flat sides are each 9" deep and they snug up to the walls forming the corner. There are about 100 colors available - so you may want to check the echo buster web site before concluding that the wife wil nix the idea.

Marty
Maybe try placing a plant stand or some other item in the corner first to see if damping the corner solves the problem before dropping $350 on a high priced sonic obstacle.