Big speakers in small room at moderate volume levels

Wow I wrote a lot here. Sorry about that.

Before anyone starts getting upset with Audiotroy understand that I, the OP, appreciate his feedback. I actually spoke with Audiotroy (Dave) on the phone a month or 2 before I moved and he told me that the KEF Reference 1 and Micromega sound great in a small space (I did not know room dimensions then). His feedback on the Micromega gave me incentive to look into the Lyngdorf because I have trouble with the idea of a Micromega cooling fan in a small space (as mentioned in the beginning of this thread). In my space I have 3 computers that are dead silent; five computer screens now and at one time 7. I also have made holes in the walls to get access to noisy computer servers that I have in other rooms (so I cannot hear them in the office). I have gone to great pains to make this room very quiet and I would be real upset if I were to hear a fan come on. Maybe it would be drowned out in the music but I got strong hearing and I would likely notice the slightest fan noise.

If I went to my safe fall back plan, I would be buying the KEF Ref1 from Audiotroy. I have heard it so many times at shows I do not need a store demo. I would say the chances of me eventually getting the KEF Ref1 are still about 50% because I know it will fit the room, relative cost, and I know I will like it. However, as I mentioned in the beginning of this thread. I am trying not to eventually have 3 KEF speakers in my home. If the Lyngdorf is not an ideal match for the KEF, as Audiotroy is stating (same thing also nagging me), the Luxman 509x would be a good candidate because it is warmish sounding and it has tone controls. I know that tone controls are a non-starter for a lot of people here but I think in my situation they have a place. The KEF Ref1 will likely not have that much issues in my space after treatments so maybe DSP is not needed. Another integrated amp that may work is the new Mark Levinson 5805 (no tone controls though). It is cheaper (MSRP $8500) and has a built-in DAC.

Saying all of this. Now that Dave has given the TAD ME1 such a glowing endorsement, even over his own speaker, I will definitely give it strong consideration when I go to audition it in Los Angeles. My audiophile buddy was also raving about the TAD ME1 along with pokey77. When I looked at photos of the ME1, I was thinking how much better can it be over the KEF Ref1. Both speakers have a concentric driver combo (which I like a lot) and a separate bass driver, with the TAD costing a heck of a lot more. However, with so many people coming to the same conclusion, that it is better then the KEF Ref1, I will give it serious consideration.

@audiotroy I appreciate the advice. I have learned from A’gon posters, especially you, that the synergy between components in a system is paramount. Some of the posters on this thread have spoken glowingly on the Harbeth SHL5+. That speaker is supposed to sound a little warmer than my traditional cup of tea. However, that is OK, maybe I need to expand my horizons. I will know soon enough after I demo them at a store and then at home (if I like them). The Lyngdorf is likely a good match for the Harbeth. I actually got feedback that this is indeed a good synergistic match. The A3 concerns me being paired with the Lyngdorf. I am not so sure if they are a good match because the A3 has been described by many posters on A’gon as requiring warmer sounding electronics. However, I know the A3 won’t fit into my room without some sort of DSP or similar sort of adjustments. The A3 is a Hail Mary pass with my room.

I was looking into big speakers with active room bass correction. The 2 I know are the Persona 9H and the Vandersteen Quattro Wood CT that was discussed on this thread. I got an email from Vandersteen company about the Quattro Wood CT in my small room and they said MAYBE and they did not sound too confident.

@tomic601 I have a Sonnare MicroRendu so I could in theory move my music server running ROON to another room. I have a few super powerful hardware servers (noisy) in other parts of the house. However the current machine in the office is silent with most default operating services turned off. I will play with the ROON equalization to see what it can do.

@mr_m I heard the Vandersteen Treo CT within 1/2 hour after listening to the A3 (at a different store) and I thought it was good but it would have the same issues as the A3 in my room. Your room has a little bit of extra space that makes all the difference in the world. Take a look at the photos I have posted of my room and you will see that it is small. I have 0 space between me and the wall directly behind me.

Dear Yyzstanabarbera, 

I really enjoyed our conversation, in the time that has elasped I forgot that this post is from you. 

I will recap a few points, we have heard the TAD ME1 at two different shows, and in each show we came away very impressed by the musicallity and high resolution and slightly sweet sound of the ME1  we are so intrigued that we are considering bringing them in.

If you are interested we would bring in a pair to compare with the Kef Ref 1.

Are they that much better, personally no, they just seem to offer a different take on the dual concentric design with a different profile.

As stated before, a point source works better than almost any other design for a small room, a first order sloped loudspeaker generally needs greater distance for the overlapping frequencies to gel into a coherent sound field, a point source guarantees that all sounds arrive in time and from the same place. A dual concentric is favored in many recording studios as monitors because the design focuses sound to the listener even in off access positions, many studios use Tannoy's for this reason.

The Micromega is dead silent, we have never heard the fans come on in our demos, if the fans are noisy that was a defective unit.

We know of no other high performance integrated with suce a fantastic feature set our amazing sound quality. The MARS room correction has been lauded as a very effective way of improving less than optimal rooms and is less intrusive than many other DSP based room correction systems.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to PM us. 

You have a great post going on, one of the most important things in low level listening is lowering noise floor, which you are doing with acoustic tunning, the next is high resolution loudspeakers, KEF, TAD, Magico are all loudspeakers that will sound fanatastic at less than big volume levels, the third is room correction, which can alleviate nasty frequency response humps which obscure details.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

@audiotroy Thanks for the additional feedback.

My audio magazine research into the Harbeth SH:5+ also indicates it is a good speaker at all volume levels. It is also supposed to have good off-axis sound. I will definitely test these 2 aspects because there are very important for my situation. There is some doubt in my mind if they are high resolution enough for me but the demo will tell.

My comments on the Micromega are based on a review of it from an Australian audio mag. That guy commented on the fan. However, I will take your word for it that you guys have not heard it. Maybe the reviewer’s testing was outside the bounds of normal listening (stress testing it?). Like I said on the phone I appreciate your knowledge given here and I have learned a lot from it.

I am going to have a listen to the TAD ME1 in Los Angeles with the Luxman 509x. I have dealer, Excel Audio, who I started an email dialogue a year ago on the Luxman units and he also has been great at giving audio advice. I am thinking I may also do the Harbeth demo there because of the Luxman 509x unit. I would lose out on a home demo of an used Harbeth unit but there are other advantages.

I also have had a fantastic experience at Brooks Berden in LA, demoing the fabulous Magico A3 and Mark Levinson gear. The guys there are super knowledgeable.

Chances are I will get some gear from all 3 of these great audio folks mentioned in this post.

The GIK Acoustics room treatments are expected to arrive in about 10 days.

a few facts, look at the frequency plots for any Vandersteen speaker, they are done at 1 meter, at the wavelengths we are dealing with they get cohesive immediately! with the possible exception of the mid to midbass and in your room the wave will get crunched anyway..just physics....Next look at the impulse response, a dual concentric driver does not ensure time alignment, period. Physically aligning the driver voice coils is a good start. A steep slope filter puts all that out the window in a hurry, your ear is VERY sensitive to phase and is hardwaired to reptilian part of brain that locates threats. Time, Phase and spatial info critical to locating threats, frequency response, not so much.
But the other speakers you are considering, those are excellent also.
Different flavors , I get that as at any given time I own 7-10 pair of speakers....and I do a bit of field recording work so near field monitoring is the norm. I have heard most of the TAD line, local to you in as much as CA is ever local. You will notice I never bad mouth anything, well maybe ROON EQ is a first....ha. Sounds like you could easy host ROON core on one of your big remote servers, just lock down IP adresses so it can find and refind everything...it is a bit wonky in that department. 

Brooks, Sunny, Randy, Excel are all super fine. Good recovery!

have fun !!!!! enjoy the quest, toddler quality time, Thin Lizzy....dont ruin your hearing.....

Jim,
 Thin Lizzy. Wow, does that bring back memories! Went to one of their concerts back in the mid 70's. Totally awesome!