I have a medium sized great room with very high cathedral ceilings and wood floors. Sound travels up the stairs to the second floor. (We can hear the TV better upstairs than downstairs.) Looking for a pair of speakers for around $1000 for music listening. Any recommendations on speaker brand, type and the location of the speakers for better listening in this difficult room?
A pair of Ascend 340s plus Hsu STF-2 sub should do the job for $1000 (ascendacoustics.com), as long as you have a decent amp/receiver.
Or if you listen mainly to pop and rock a pair of JBL e80s, e90s, or e100s would work, as would Athena AS-F2s. There are other speakers out there too, these are just the ones that most readily come to mind.
I'm not going to recommend a particual brand, I think it's better if others do that. What I would like to offer is an idea of the type of speaker you should look for. Your room appears to suffer from excessive reflections. In this case you should look for speakers that have limited dispersion. The drawback is that they tend to have a small "sweet spot" however in a music only system this is usually not a problem. Speakers with this quality include mini line arrays, open baffle, single driver systems, and some that use "ribbon" tweeters. Perhaps the others in this thread can recommend brands that have these designs, although I think the under $1000/pr. market may be limited in this regard.
As with T8, given the information you have provided, which is very little to go on by the way, there is no point in offering a suggestion of a certain speaker. Such a suggestion made at this point can amount to no more than personal likes and dislikes on the part of the person doing the recommendation. Essentially you might as well have asked, "I have a room with a cathedral cieling; what brand of coffee should I buy?"
My suggestion would be to find an excellent audio shop that has some knowledge of dealing with the particulars of construction and decoration within your home. Most homes in any given area tend to have similar layouts and, therefore, similar problems and solutions. A shop that has helped a neighbor would be my first recommendation.
Lacking that, or in addition to that, I would recommend the service of an acoustician. Placing speakers within a difficult room and achieving good results is not an issue of "which speaker", but, instead, an issue of how that room works to make even a less expensive speaker sound good. If it means taking a portion of your budget to hire and implement the suggestion of an acoustician, that will be money that goes to help whatever speakers go intothis room now and in the future. Think of it as money spent on the house (permanent) not on the audio system (transitory).
Lacking the ability or desire to get the room in shape, I would suggest you find another room in the house for the audio system if you want good sound for your $1,000 speaker investment.
If you find the right acoustician, they will say "install a |i{decorative} cloud".
You are correct, however, that this sort of architecture presents some of the most daunting challenges next to a perfectly sqaure room or an absolutely circular space. This is not a room to be taken lightly as it will dominate what you hear from even the most expensive speakers. For that reason alone spending money now is the wisest choice, in my opinion, or moving the system to a more friendly space and forgoing the (literal) headaches of this room.
Hi Jan. Personally my recs are not related to personal likes or dislikes. Just an FYI. Of course room characteristics are critical, and folks should listen before they buy in their own setting, it's a given.
You have taken issue with how others post so I thought I'd let you know that your post seems to put down or question the validity of those of us that actually makes recs. I am not suggesting anything other than an FYI for you.
M.S. - I'm not against others making their preferences known; it just appears to me, whether you own the product or not, that is all it amounts to, just a personal preference. I do find it difficult to take the small amount of information provided in most threads and make a reasoned suggestion regarding what to consider. It is even more difficult, in my opinion, to suggest a product the person asking the question might have access to hearing. It seems less than worthwhile, to me, to say go hear this speaker and then the poster cannot get to that speaker. Recommendations are what this forum thrives on, however. So post away with a little more understanding of why I say what I say in this regard.
Could you possibly borrow an amp and speakers from a pal just to get an idea of what a setup would sound like in your room? I think you'll be ok just as long as you get a area rug down on the wooden floor, some window treatments and of course, upholstered furniture. I'd be interested in what you determine because in November, I'm moving to a house with a medium sized great room with tile floor. I have Athena AS-F2s with a NAD C370.
J.V.- thanks for the reply. My suggestions were for listening considerations-- not purchasing blind. I actually think that as a person listens to more and more speakers-- they hear differences that enable better choices.
This would seem as equally practical as, say for instance, not putting speakers in a room at all, getting acoustic consultants, or structurally re-engineering a home.
