Affects of smaller speakers placed in large rooms

[Grayson Dere]

I was recently reading some of the speaker recommendations from Stereophile magazine and of course it is no surprise that the 'A' class full-range speakers also fall into the category of
not really affordable for most listeners. On the other hand their recommendations for smaller sized speakers that may still offer similar sound fidelity with restricted LF performance is much more reasonable in cost.

My question is, if you only have a large listening space but want to enjoy the SQ of a smaller footprint speaker such as the Harbeth P3ESR speakers, will you still be hearing them in all its glory? Or will the acoustics of a large room completely swallow up the dynamics of the small speaker? Maybe you just have to sit really close to the speakers almost in near-field to really enjoy them?

Thanks for everyone's thoughts!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

For starters, dynamics and low frequency extension are not the same thing.

A relevant issue with room size is “cabin gain,” which affects perceived low frequency output in relation to the high frequencies. A small room has more cabin gain than a large room, so any speaker in a small room will sound like it has better bass output compared to the same speaker in a large room.

So, a small speaker can perform quite well in a small room, but may seem “bass shy” in a large room. Conversely, a large speaker that sounds bass-heavy in a small room will sound more balanced in a large room.

Near-field listening will not compensate for perceived bass loss in a large room.

I’d say that you can get satisfactory performance from a small first-class speaker in a large room, but you might need to add a subwoofer provide the low frequencies that it lacks. The only caveat is that the speaker needs to have adequate extension to blend in with the sub: If it’s dropping like a brick at 150 Hz, that would suggest a different choice of speaker would be in order. (Actually, adding a sub might not be a bad idea for a large speaker either, as very few have prodigious output down to 20 Hz.)

Regards,
Wayne

 

[Grayson Dere]

Thank you for your thoughts, Wayne! I like how you explained the effects of room size/speaker size through 'cabin gain.' It's a very good and concise way of visualizing their interactions.