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Room and speaker size

otso, modified 10 Years ago.

Room and speaker size

Youngling Posts: 3 Join Date: 12/27/12 Recent Posts
I see recommendations that one should select larger speaker for larger rooms (and larger speakers for larger listening distances). In what way does the room size affect the speaker sound other than that you need more power to fill the space?

I am considering to buy two 8030B (front), two 8020C (rear) and a 5051A. These will be placed in our livining room for music and video. The room is ~45m² (8.1m x 5.6m) with a total volume of 209m³ (walls going from 3.2m to 6.0m). And actually, the space is even larger, about the double, since it extends with large openings, without any doors, to other rooms connected to the living room. The listening distance would mostly be around 4m (speakers on the long wall and listening position on the opposite long wall), which is also much further than the recommendation for the 8030.

The recommendations I see would recommend something much heavier, and totally over my budget, than I intended to buy for this room. I have a pair of 8030A in another room that I tested in the living room. The two 8030A can produce way more volume than I will every need, and I think they sounded really good in the living room.

I understand that larger speakers can produce better sound, but where does the room volume and listening distance come into the equation, if not sound power is taken into consideration?
ilkka-rissanen, modified 9 Years ago.

Re: Room and speaker size

Yoda Posts: 2564 Join Date: 3/23/09 Recent Posts
Hi Otso,

Listening distance is more related to speakers and room volume is more related to subwoofers. The further away from the speaker you go, the less direct sound and more reflected sound you will hear. This will naturally degrade sound quality more and more. A speaker with larger front panel, DCW and drivers will have larger directivity, meaning that it can produce better sound quality at larger distance. This has nothing to do with the SPL capability but happens even at low listening levels.

The recommendations we provide are targeted for professional environments where sound quality requirements are much higher than in typical home audio environment. Also typically used sound pressure levels are much higher and the amount of compression is lower during the mixing stage which will put more demand on the speakers.

In the end it's mostly about the required sound quality and maximum SPL capability. Of course the sound quality doesn't suddenly degrade at any given distance but it's a somewhat linear phenomenon within a reasonable listening range. Your own ears are the best judge. If you feel that the 8030 sounds good enough and provides enough maximum SPL at your listening distance and space, no spreadsheet should tell you otherwise.
biknoise, modified 8 Years ago.

Re: Room and speaker size

Youngling Posts: 1 Join Date: 5/4/15 Recent Posts
Hi!
I also have question. My room is a "perfect" parallelepiped about 18 mq (and 2,40 meter height).....please can you suggest wich models are better? I mean big GENELEC speakers or smaller? :)
thanx a lot for your answer...

I mean, if I can save some money in smaller speakers, would be better, as my budget is not sooo high... :mrgreen: :oops: thx again
ilkka-rissanen, modified 8 Years ago.

Re: Room and speaker size

Yoda Posts: 2564 Join Date: 3/23/09 Recent Posts
Hi,

18 sqmtr room is large enough for quite a few Genelec speakers because they have room response controls (advanced series have DSP control) which can help to tame the bass boost often found in smaller and acoustically challenging rooms. I would recommend any model up to 1238A, depending on your budget. Naturally larger speakers will provide you better sound quality so it's up to you where you want to set the limit. :)