Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Small room - speaker choice?

The 10 foot ceiling height will help, but, as others have stated, the natural room gain in the bass region is going to be at a high frequency, roughly 90 - 100 Hz. The good news is that bass traps are effective in this range. The lower bass will be overpowering as well, but boundary and tone controls in M electronics can help here.

Perhaps a satellite/subwoofer model might work best here. I think it will be very difficult to optimally place two full range speakers (8Ks or otherwise) where they are good for stereo and bass response at the same time. The 3200s are very good performers. I am putting a pair in a TV room that is smaller than yours. I hope to provide some feedback on them next week.

How many people will be listening at a time?

May depend on how thick the walls are....

My room has the same dimensions, except that I have a very low ceiling. Leaving a 1 metre space behind the speakers means that I am closer to the rear wall than I would like, but a heavy pair of curtains behind me helps.

I would recommend the 5200s, but if you could demo something bigger, this may help you decide.

Happy hunting

I put in my 3200s last night. While they are not yet optimally placed, they do fill the room quite nicely and the bass extension is surprisingly good for speakers their size. Your wallet may thank you if you try these out.

All,

Many thanks for the advice, I belatedly realised I never reported back on the solution.

In the end, I went with DSP8ks and have no regrets at all. The room is treated with bass traps (corners and back wall) and has a lot of soft furnishings (including black out curtains for movie nights). The DSP8ks just sing, their poise and control on well recorded music is incredible.

They sound fantastic at normal listening levels and can be cranked to a reasonably high level without overpowering the room. My experience is that when the bass is overwhelming, it generally reflects poor recording/mastering rather than a deficiency in the speakers (garbage in, garbage out).

This of course leads to a search for the best mastering of favourite albums which adds to the fun/expense...

Ecoutez