Question What size speakers will be adequate?

[Shrek4t]

I live in an apartment and have a living room space of 3.2m(10.5ft) length and 4.4m(14.5ft) wide. The entire living room is 3.2m length by 7.1m width but tv area is 3.2m by 4.4m.
I’m contemplating (in order of preference) between Dali, Focal, Monitor Audio and Klipsch. For the given space, the front surrounds, which speaker is adequate? I’m assuming imaging will be bad with too powerful speakers for such small space. Please advise.
1. Dali Oberon 5 or 7?
2. Focal Chora 816 or 826?
3. Monitor Audio Silver (7G) 200, 300 or 500?
4. Klipsch RP 6000 or 8000?

 

[kanewolf]

I live in an apartment and have a living room space of 3.2m(10.5ft) length and 4.4m(14.5ft) wide. The entire living room is 3.2m length by 7.1m width but tv area is 3.2m by 4.4m.
I’m contemplating (in order of preference) between Dali, Focal, Monitor Audio and Klipsch. For the given space, the front surrounds, which speaker is adequate? I’m assuming imaging will be bad with too powerful speakers for such small space. Please advise.
1. Dali Oberon 5 or 7?
2. Focal Chora 816 or 826?
3. Monitor Audio Silver (7G) 200, 300 or 500?
4. Klipsch RP 6000 or 8000?

First go LISTEN to each speaker. Your ears are unique. Take your own source material that you know VERY well. Vocals and acoustic instruments are very good. I used some big band music with lots of brass as part of my evaluation media.
"Too powerful" just means you can turn DOWN your amp. Speakers can't overwhelm.
If you are doing a surround sound set, then getting speakers that have matched center channel and surround is best. That way sounds don't change as they move from speaker to speaker. Some people like all 5 base surround sound speakers to be the exact same speaker.

 

[Shrek4t]

First go LISTEN to each speaker. Your ears are unique. Take your own source material that you know VERY well. Vocals and acoustic instruments are very good. I used some big band music with lots of brass as part of my evaluation media.
"Too powerful" just means you can turn DOWN your amp. Speakers can't overwhelm.
If you are doing a surround sound set, then getting speakers that have matched center channel and surround is best. That way sounds don't change as they move from speaker to speaker. Some people like all 5 base surround sound speakers to be the exact same speaker.

I will timbre match the surrounds with the fronts and center. Read somewhere that too powerful a speaker for small space will affect imaging, and also read that some large speakers require a large room to shine. I got a little lost, not knowing how to work around. As suggested I shall audition with my own source before getting them.

 

[kanewolf]

I will timbre match the surrounds with the fronts and center. Read somewhere that too powerful a speaker for small space will affect imaging, and also read that some large speakers require a large room to shine. I got a little lost, not knowing how to work around. As suggested I shall audition with my own source before getting them.

I use midsize speakers (Paradigm) with a large sub (SVS). I auditioned Klipsch before I bought the Paradigm. Klipsch are typically very bright because of the horn mid range or tweeter. I didn't like them.
If you want to add Paradigm to your possible solution set, the Paradigm Premier series is in the same price range. Four of the premier 200Bs, the 500c center and a SUB make an excellent setup.

 

[Shrek4t]

Paradigm moved out of Singapore. Their sound bars were the last of them. Here I can audition most others, MA, Dali, Focal, Bowers, Klipsch, Triangle, Tannoy and a few others. Klipsch are too sharp for my ears and I fatigued easily. Definitely getting an SVS sub. Are you using the PB or the SB?

 

[kanewolf]

Paradigm moved out of Singapore. Their sound bars were the last of them. Here I can audition most others, MA, Dali, Focal, Bowers, Klipsch, Triangle, Tannoy and a few others. Klipsch are too sharp for my ears and I fatigued easily. Definitely getting an SVS sub. Are you using the PB or the SB?

I have a PB 13 sub.

 

[kerberos_20]

speaker size depends on listening volume, higher volume you want bigger they should be, but on the other hand big speakers has no issues playing at low volume

for your room size, something around 6.5" woofers should be fine, subwoofer can be bigger if you like bass

also if you get speakers with back firing bass reflex, they gonna need room, you cant slap them near wall, like klipsch needs about 1 meter space from wall to breathe, front firing speakers have no space issues

 

[ien2222]

I'll point out the the RP line of Klipsch has a much more controlled tweeter than the rest of their lower lines, not so much "in your face", so I wouldn't summarily dismiss those options.

 

[BFG-9000]

When people say that too large speakers for a room messes up the imaging, what they really mean are the drivers on the cabinets are too far apart from each other so you need to sit further away for them to coherently blend in. Therefore if you found huge floorstanding speakers with their drivers located just as closely together as on a bookshelf speaker (or even coaxially mounted with the tweeter directly in front of the woofer to be a point source), the imaging should be just as good. In a small room, the more directional the speakers are, the better--although that will necessarily also make the sweet spot smaller.

The problem with a small room is the early reflections, particularly from the side walls, and applying dampening materials there to counter this can sometimes make the sound feel strangely dead. MartinLogan has an unusual solution to this by mounting electrostatic panels directly to the walls--if the sound comes from the wall then there is no chance for a reflection with too short of a delay, is there? Anyway their dealer in Singapore is Norman Audio so it may be worth a listen.

Electrostatic panels are line sources (so the imaging should sound the same whether standing or sitting) and are dipoles so traditionally are considered more suited for larger rooms, but I have some in a small bedroom and they sound great to me. Their usual weaknesses of not getting very loud or not having much bass aren't much of a problem in a small room. And my hearing is good enough that those traditional Klipsch horn or JBL titanium dome tweeters sound like things made for people with high-frequency hearing loss.

But as mentioned, what they sound like to your ears in your space is what matters. A good dealer will let you audition them at home.

 

[dwd999]

How much are you budgeting for a total system? I use a Sennheiser Ambeo Max soundbar in a room that's 4.2m by 5m and it provides excellent surround sound plus atmos that makes it sound like special effects are coming from the ceiling. Depending on how your apartment is constructed you can use it without a subwoofer if a subwoofer would be too much for your neighbors. I don't know what the Singapore price would be for this and they're been having a lot of sales this year. They also have a smaller model (and a 3rd even smaller model that will soon be available).