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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
blindjim
2,837 posts
 
Magfan makes a valid point... use a test CD.

Having your sub set to cover a higher range than it needs to will give the effect of fuller sound. However in so doing you might be masking a portion of the bandwidth and losing detail. I've done exactly this same thing, and enjoyed the effect... for a while. when it was revealed to me this was a possibility I checked it out and they were right.

I made the changes needed by getting the components which would provide that fuller sound without overemphasis of some other portion of the freq range. Ultimately, it was a better sub… and better sub placement. I would play with position, x over, phase, and cut off first. A lot.... as tedious as it may be, it'll pay off.

Until you resolve that issue getting other speakers will still leave you in the same boat. I did that too. Bought other speakers before I bought the sub, so I'm not talking out of my hat here.

....if you gotta have floorstanders though... Silverline does a pretty good job, Vienna Acoustic seem to have a good rep, Paradigm and Phase tech too offer great value and very good performance. $2K - $2.5K puts you right into the hot bed of many, many, many good speakers.

Good luck.
johnk's avatar
johnk
1,490 posts
 
Fostex fe138esr in Trasmission line cabinet. Isnt as affected by back wall as most conventional loudspeakers. Drivers are near $1000 pair, a pair of complete TLS is up on audiogon for $2000. Best deal in this range on the gon.
sbank's avatar
sbank
2,038 posts
 
A good way to understand what's happening is play test tones from a test CD, and record the values measured on an spl meter(located where you ears normally are), change the sub settings and/or move the sub & repeat. If you need more details on how to do this, ask.
agiaccio OP
147 posts
 
I finally got around to doing some more tests with my "left" imaging issue.

It turns out that my subwoofer's Internal Low Pass Frequency was set to 120Hz. The three possible settings are: 50Hz, 80Hz and 120Hz. I've changed the value to 80Hz since my bookshelves are rated at 60Hz-20kHz +/- 3dB (Aktiv configuration). After this change the imaging was more centered but still not perfect. Next I moved the subwoofer from the left corner (facing forward) to the left side wall at about 4' from the back wall (facing right). This has resulted in a perfectly centered image (using a Test CD from Stereophile) however the subwoofer placement has resulted in reconfiguring my sofas in a non-ideal setup.

Therefore, I'm still interested in upgrading my bookshelves / sub combo to a pair of floorstanding speakers.
newbee
4,093 posts
 
Before you buy floorstanders try moving the low pass to 50hz and move the sub woofer out of the corner as much as you can, towards the left speaker, if possible until it is nearly behind your left speaker, and see what happens. With a sub XO at 50hz and speakers rolling off at 60hz it might be more seamless that the numbers suggest. I assume your sub also has a volume control - using the tet disc you might try reducing the sub output until you get a match.

FWIW.
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