Floor standers or Bookshelves for 18 X 18 room

[samsailo]

Hi

Looking to set up a music system in my living room. Mainly for music and occasionally for movies. Preferred source is portable player, hard/thumb drive and PC(all FLAC). So, considering my space, which one do i go for..floorstanders or a standmount?

 

[koushik]

For room of that size one would prefer floorstander. But the main concern should the room dimension. A square room is nightmare for music because of standing waves. So, what have you thought on that issue?

 

[magma]

if you are going to use a portable palyer as source always
and will never be goingfr serious audio with DACS etc etc
and you music listening is only casual off a pen drive etc

it doesnt matter too much

what is budget

if its going to be under 50k and you dont have much of an upgrade path ( i.e this will be probably your last purchase till something conks )
just get a floorstander

if its more you can get into somes serious audio and consider higher end bookshelves

 

[jagdish_p]

What is the Budget?
Also pls provide more details about your Transport/Source and Amp.

 

[samsailo]

Thanks guys. Planing on using a DAC in the near future, considering the Audioengine D1. Budget goes to 1 lakh for speakers, i can add 50K more for the amp.

 

[elangoas]

I have a huge collection of FLAC & WAV files (Close to 2,000 Songs) on my WD Media Player, along with Sonodyne Sonus 2605 FS in a room size of 14 x 11...I don't use a sub for stereo listening.....No issues so far..

 

[apk]

Your room is big enough that a moderately sized floorstander can work in it and small enough that a decently propotioned bookshelf (say one with a 6 - 7 inch woofer) will also work.

So you can tap into both the areas - bookshelves and floorstanders. My suggestion is to hear as many speakers as you can - do not restrict yourself to one kind or the other. And then buy what you like!

At your budget (Rs 1 Lac - which I assume are for speakers only), you will get lots of very good options both in floorstanders and bookshelves.

Do post your music preferences...

Best,
APK

 

[afj]

@ that price range and room size floorstanders would definitely work. the speakers to beat at that price range imo are the monitor audio rx6 (infact under a lakh). if you up your budget you could go with the usher be 718

 

[mshifi]

along with FS, you need to budget a subwoofer also if you are looking at a AVR

 

[sdurani]

A square room is nightmare for music because of standing waves. So, what have you thought on that issue?

The 18 foot dimension will result in standing waves (room modes) at 31Hz, 63Hz and 94Hz. The first two modes can be eliminated by placing a pair of subwoofers 4.5 feet away from the centre line of the room.

Placing the listening position 6 feet from the back wall will result in even smoother sound, because that's where the standing waves have the least frequency response variation (location where peaks & dips are smallest).

Square rooms can be more problematic than rectangular rooms, but a couple of simple placement tricks can keep them from being a "nightmare". Room treatments and equalization (if the listener is willing to use them) can address the problems that placement alone couldn't.

 

[sdurani]

along with FS, you need to budget a subwoofer also if you are looking at a AVR

That's what I would do as well, budget for a subwoofer or two. For a mostly music system, the subs don't have to be expensive or reproduce very low bass, just go as low as good floorstanders would.

There will still be some major advantages to using a subwoofer/speaker based system rather than floorstanders:

• with subwoofers handling the low frequencies, the speakers don't have to be large and expensive, so good quality bookshelf speakers will work well (and save some money too).
  
  
• since the subwoofers have amps built-in, that means that ALL the power of the main amps will be used for the speakers alone (since those amps won't have to reproduce low frequencies, the speakers will have much better dynamics).
  
  
• the subs can be placed at the room locations that result in best bass, which will free up the speakers to be placed where ever they give best soundstage and imaging (can't do that with floorstanders - unless you're handy with a saw).

 

[yahoo0212]

The 18 foot dimension will result in standing waves (room modes) at 31Hz, 63Hz and 94Hz. The first two modes can be eliminated by placing a pair of subwoofers 4.5 feet away from the centre line of the room.

Placing the listening position 6 feet from the back wall will result in even smoother sound, because that's where the standing waves have the least frequency response variation (location where peaks & dips are smallest).

Square rooms can be more problematic than rectangular rooms, but a couple of simple placement tricks can keep them from being a "nightmare". Room treatments and equalization (if the listener is willing to use them) can address the problems that placement alone couldn't.

1. Subwoofer placement of 4.5 feet away from center channel...>>> Is it applicable for all dimensions of rooms or just square room. My proposed HT room is about 14feet depth-listener to screen, 10.5 wide-left to right and ~8.5 feet high..

2.What placement tricks are you talking about .. please elaborate

Thanks

 

[sdurani]

What placement tricks are you talking about ..

The two in my previous post: placing subs/speakers where they cancel room modes (usually at even divisions of room width) and placing the seating where there is least frequency response variation (usually at odd divisions of room length).

If you have a single subwoofer, put it at the midpoint of room width (under your centre speaker). For your 10.5-foot wide room, that placement will cancel a resonance at 54Hz.

Are you using 2 speakers or 3 speakers up front?

 

[samsailo]

Thanks a lot guys for your valuable opinion.. So , then would I go for a 2.1 set up with bookshelfs or a 2.0 floor standers. Regarding room acoustics I m planing to use bass trap and so on for the corners. Can anyone suggest me with a good amp with a sub woofer output and preferably with a room equalization inbuilt? Budget stands at 50K. Music of all genre like pop, rock, classic, blues and very rarely RAP..all english

 

[yahoo0212]

The two in my previous post: placing subs/speakers where they cancel room modes (usually at even divisions of room width) and placing the seating where there is least frequency response variation (usually at odd divisions of room length).

If you have a single subwoofer, put it at the midpoint of room width (under your centre speaker). For your 10.5-foot wide room, that placement will cancel a resonance at 54Hz.

Are you using 2 speakers or 3 speakers up front?

Even nd odd division means ??
M going to use 2 Fronts (L+R) and Center and Sub in the front

 

[sdurani]

Even nd odd division means ??

Even divisions = halves, quarters, sixths, etc.
Odd divisions = thirds, fifths, etc.

M going to use 2 Fronts (L+R) and Center and Sub in the front

If you blow across a Coke bottle, you can get that small chamber to resonate (make that boooooooommm sound). Enlarge the Coke bottle to the size of your room and that large chamber will still resonate. With your 10.5-foot room width, the resonances/standing waves/room modes (whatever you want to call them) will be at 54Hz and 108Hz.

You can eliminate the nasty peaks & dips at 54Hz by placing your subwoofer at the centre line of the room. You can eliminate the peaks & dips at 108Hz by placing your L/R speakers 31.5 inches in from the side walls. Sub at 1/2 room width, speakers at 1/4 and 3/4 of room width. Even divisions.