Aspen Speakers and room size

How much does room size play into the decision of which Aspen loudspeaker to go with?

[LiveSound_Geoff]

I built my room to dimensions recommended by the Acoustics Laboratory of Salford University in the UK and it turned out very well from a sound point of view. The room needs to be accurate, although the optimum sizes have higher tolerances. There is another aspect to speaker size, and that is the visual barrier that they form In front of the sound stage, especially when they are sonically transparent. My speakers are fairly large and black, so I like them to disappear into late night darkness and set them as far apart as possible so that the stage is open and uncluttered. Small speakers are therefore preferable, especially in small to medium rooms.

[diggingattycho]

When Paul said you do not want to be too close to a speaker, it brought back a funny memory. Way back in the 1990's I hung around with a group of DJ's(some are still friends to this day). They were Techno/Trance Dj's one was a resident in one of the largest clubs in town. Of course it had one of the largest systems, one night we were all being entertained by kids sticking their heads in the woofers. That seemed to be a thing for a while.

[jozno]

Paul, this seems to apply even more when considering how a room is used. I’ve seen “listening room” photos of $100k + setups, and there’s a table between the speakers and seating, or furniture next to or behind the speakers. These are scenarios where listening is favored, but not optimized and prioritized. If getting the smaller speakers gives heightened resolution by virtue of them occupying the space best, that is the pair I would want.

[gdownz]

My living room is 18x12 and I wouldn't want anything more than the FR10S.. For me anything bigger would stick out worse than a sore thumb. The 10s would be more than enough but that's just me. Big part of audiophile stuff is mainly personal preference. That's the beauty of it. 👍

[jimdavis]

Well as the brilliant Chris Brunhaver said in a previous video, you can use large speakers in a small room if you have extensive acoustic treatment. I have proved this to be true by treating my small room with both thick porous traps and tuned limp membrane traps. I designed and built the membrane traps to absorb the standing wave frequencies which worked superbly. Okay in my room I am completely surrounded with traps which employs 50% porous and 50% tuned limp membrane types. However, I now have a deep wide sound stage and no nasty bass honks from standing waves. Prior to the acoustic treatment the room sounded absolutely dreadful.

[finscreenname]

Imho, bigger speakers need room to mix. If you use a big speaker in a small room you tend to hear the tweeter, mids or woofers a lot more. But then again there is the IRS V's that take woofers, mids and tweeters from floor to ceiling that eliminates that so I would think some of the biggest speakers made would actually work in a small room. Weird.

[cubeaceuk]

100% agree! This is why you sometimes see some speakers placed on their sides in studios at seated head height.

[ianbigsand]

Whoa boy, your description of engineers isn't fair, certainly some are like that, but so are some physicists.
Some like to babble a lot, as I do, and you do too, which is why your videos are so informative.
Keep up the good work.

[ThinkingBetter]

Bigger speakers are usually optimized for an ideal listening position further away than smaller speakers. Comb filtering effects between drivers can be worse if you are near a set of large speakers with more drivers.

[oliverbeard]

Positioning of the speakers and listener are important irrespective of the room size. As "Thinking better" has mentioned comb filtering can be an issue with multi driver systems if too close .This is somewhat dependent upon the crossover used and the proximity of their acoustic centres. Where bass is concerned it can be considered a wise move to ensure that the speaker's extension doesn't usefully exceed that of the rooms primary resonance.In the event where it does exceed that point it can be useful to have a degree of adjustability built in to flatten out any nasty peaks in the response. Having a low resonance in the design is helpful to an extent even though the room is fundamentally the dominant factor.

[robertmoi]

A super car can still be driven at 10 km/hr . Thus a big speaker can still be played at a low volume to match the size of the room. The difference between big speakers and small speakers is the upper spl limit and not the lower spl limit. The only thing that affects big speakers with multiple drivers in small rooms is the listening distance. As Chris, PS audio once said, multiple driver speakers need at least a few feet of listening distance for all the drivers sound to blend together. Sitting too close to multiple driver speakers, the multiple
drivers will have individual sounds and not blend together.

[stijnvanderlooy]

I believe that dynaudio once also did a video on this topic. They also said it does not matter. You can place a big speaker in a small room, indeed.

[patrickgeorge]

Bigger the better is the way I roll! If near field or on a desktop then size matters as Paul said unless consentric drivers where the tweeter and woofers are at same level.
I do not have small areas that I would need that nor do I want areas like that. No offense to others. The highest quality speakers are all big, just the way it is! As always this is my opinion and tastes, your mileage may vary! I also always run subwoofers as well lol.

[snakeobias]

what a coincidence. I was teaching a class on academic writing today and we were discussion "evaluation". No joke, the first example sentence I used was: "These speakers are appropriate for small to medium-sized rooms."

[centerfresh]

I think, Paul, you should've mentioned the width of the sound that has to do something with the size of the loudspeaker. Many people perceive this as sound pressure level.

[codyhuber]

The “coming on to song….” of a speaker does seem be a mix of room size, speaker size and listening position at certain levels(dB’s)

[GenevaHouston-mu]

My FR 30s are in a 15’x13’ room. They sound great.

[RudieVissenberg]

I have another question though which Paul did not address: what is the optimum volume a speaker should be playing at. The FR-5 can produce some amount of volume as the FR-30, up to a certain limit, but will a FR-30 be at its optimum volume when it can only be played very softly whereas the FR-5 will be at e.g. 50% of its capacity?

[na]

So the fr30's won't do well in a closet with a little chair lol. Still love your videos and your productsm

[rtflone]

If you "tune and damp" your room with something like Audessey, you will be fine at acceptable volume levels for the room and electronics that are well-matched to the speakers' efficiency. Just my opinion what can I say? It is a professional opinion tho, I do this for a living...