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Speakers and rooms...

RunOutGroove

RunOutGroove

Addicted Member
I'm realizing just how much the room colors the sound of the speakers. I bought a new pair of them, Jamo c103 (which sound great!) that I'm using in my living room, which meant that the Elac Debut 6.2 speakers that I had there moved into my bedroom/office and I sold the pair of Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 speakers that I had in there previously. I liked the sound of my Elacs more than the Wharfedales (as nice as they are) so I got rid of the Wharfedales, but now I'm feeling that the Elacs don't sound nearly as good in the smaller room as they did the big one. The smaller, punchier sounding Wharfedales may have been a better match for the smaller room than the larger, less punchy but more spacious sounding Elacs. The Elacs seem to loose a lot of the imaging that they had in the larger room in the smaller room, arranged closer together on stands, on either side of my computer desk. The Wharfedales may have been more ideal for a small room/near-field listening.

All this being said, I don't have too much complaints with the sound and with getting rid of the Wharfedales. Even if those speakers might have been a bit more ideal for the room, I would have had a much harder time getting rid of the Elacs, which I attribute to getting me into a higher fidelity zone with my audio system. There isn't really much that I can do with placement either as the room is small and I want the speakers around my computer desk.... anywhere else and they'd be in the way anyway. Just an observation is all...
 
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If a room's not good for music it's probably an abrasive room to be in for any kind of sound. Noise pollution is not limited to high level sound bombardment.
It's amazing how annoying the echo of a ticking clock can be.
 
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I remember hearing stories .. back in my early audio blog reading days .. of people who loved the speakers they were using.
Eventually .. moving to another house and not being able to get back the sound they had enjoyed previously.

That's one thing you don't have to worry about w/ headphones.
 
quiet said:
If the room's not good for music it's probably an abrasive room to be in for any kind of sound. Noise pollution is not limited to high level sound bombardment.
It's amazing how annoying the echo of a ticking clock can be.
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I didn't say that the room has some kind of evil "no good for music" quality to it (or that I'm dealing with some kind of noise pollution), merely that speakers which sounded very good in one room sound less good in another and smaller, somewhat cheaper speakers which sounded overall less good to me sounded better than my favored speakers in one particular room. Even in a more acoustically perfect room, I suspect that certain speakers just tend to sound better for near-field listening and in a smaller space where they have less room to really open up...
 
Aaron Hayman said:
I'm realizing just how much the room colors the sound of the speakers. I bought a new pair of them, Jamo c103 (which sound great!) that I'm using in my living room, which meant that the Elac Debut 6.2 speakers that I had there moved into my bedroom/office and I sold the pair of Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 speakers that I had in there previously. I liked the sound of my Elacs more than the Wharfedales (as nice as they are) so I got rid of the Wharfedales, but now I'm feeling that the Elacs don't sound nearly as good in the smaller room as they did the big one. The smaller, punchier sounding Wharfedales may have been a better match for the smaller room than the larger, less punchy but more spacious sounding Elacs. The Elacs seem to loose a lot of the imaging that they had in the larger room in the smaller room, arranged closer together on stands, on either side of my computer desk. The Wharfedales may have been more ideal for a small room/near-field listening.

All this being said, I don't have too much complaints with the sound and with getting rid of the Wharfedales. Even if those speakers might have been a bit more ideal for the room, I would have had a much harder time getting rid of the Elacs, which I attribute to getting me into a higher fidelity zone with my audio system. There isn't really much that I can do with placement either as the room is small and I want the speakers around my computer desk.... anywhere else and they'd be in the way anyway. Just an observation is all...
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So, how are you liking the Jamos? And if I might ask, am I to blame for the purchase lol?
 
Grenadeslio said:
So, how are you liking the Jamos? And if I might ask, am I to blame for the purchase lol?
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Yes, you are partially to blame! I combed this site here and there wasn't a lot to be said about them. I suppose that they're still kind of an obscure brand, in North America anyway. I really dig 'em! I liked the smooth, non fatiguing quality of the Elacs, but I was beginning to feel that they were a bit too laid back. The Jamos are much more lively sounding. I initially thought that the treble was a little too much but as they've broken in (and maybe as I've gotten used to them) I'm liking even that part of it more. The bass on 'em always sounded good to me and not only is the sound fat, but it seems to be faster than the Elacs... so that a bass guitar or upright bass not only sounds full, but also has plenty of attack. This seems like something maybe kind of rare, at least in cheaper speakers; good bass extension but also with fast attack. Also, I like the Elacs imaging as they sounded really spacious to me but the Jamos have even more of that. One of the first things that I put on with the new speakers was Herbie Hancock's album Thrust and partway into the first tune, Palm Grease a shaker part starts and that really seemed to jump out of the mix in a way that I've never heard it. Good stuff!

Beyond that, even though these things are rated just one db more efficient than the Elacs, probably in part because they're all around more lively sounding, they seem a fair bit louder and sound better really cranked (though maybe they'd be even better loud with a more powerful amp, who knows?). Then there's how these things look. I was iffy on the odd bulging shape and the curricular grills on 'em but I've kind of gotten used to that and the real walnut veneer looks great!

Those Jamos are good enough to satisfy me and now with just a few small upgrades on the input gear I really think that I'll be done, at least for a really long time, with upgrades to the stereo... I got a new stylus for the turntable which I'll do a setup on when I put that thing on it. For the digital side (almost entirely CDs for me), I'll eventually be buying some kind of DAC... and then I think that I'll be done!
 
Aaron Hayman said:
I didn't say that the room has some kind of evil "no good for music" quality to it (or that I'm dealing with some kind of noise pollution), merely that speakers which sounded very good in one room sound less good in another and smaller, somewhat cheaper speakers which sounded overall less good to me sounded better than my favored speakers in one particular room. Even in a more acoustically perfect room, I suspect that certain speakers just tend to sound better for near-field listening and in a smaller space where they have less room to really open up...
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My bad, I was referring to annoying room acoustics in general. Sorry.
I was in a waiting room last month where every little sound bounced around for days. Conversation was not worth the effort.
 
quiet said:
My bad, I was referring to annoying room acoustics in general. Sorry.
I was in a waiting room last month where every little sound bounced around for days. Conversation was not worth the effort.
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I get that. I was visiting some old friends in MD (I live on the West coast) and we went to see a jazz jam at a local bar. I was there really for the hang and not the music but I couldn't help notice how bad the music music sounded in that room. I play some jazz drums and my buddy signed me up to play and I tell ya... the sound was bouncing around in there so incoherently that I didn't feel like I was really even playing with band... more just chasing some reflected sounds that I was making my best attempt to react to. A nightmare really! I've played my share of gigs just for beer and a meal, but I wouldn't even play for money at that place... too much of a headache (and it didn't sound good from the audience either!)
 
Aaron Hayman said:
Yes, you are partially to blame! I combed this site here and there wasn't a lot to be said about them. I suppose that they're still kind of an obscure brand, in North America anyway. I really dig 'em! I liked the smooth, non fatiguing quality of the Elacs, but I was beginning to feel that they were a bit too laid back. The Jamos are much more lively sounding. I initially thought that the treble was a little too much but as they've broken in (and maybe as I've gotten used to them) I'm liking even that part of it more. The bass on 'em always sounded good to me and not only is the sound fat, but it seems to be faster than the Elacs... so that a bass guitar or upright bass not only sounds full, but also has plenty of attack. This seems like something maybe kind of rare, at least in cheaper speakers; good bass extension but also with fast attack. Also, I like the Elacs imaging as they sounded really spacious to me but the Jamos have even more of that. One of the first things that I put on with the new speakers was Herbie Hancock's album Thrust and partway into the first tune, Palm Grease a shaker part starts and that really seemed to jump out of the mix in a way that I've never heard it. Good stuff!

Beyond that, even though these things are rated just one db more efficient than the Elacs, probably in part because they're all around more lively sounding, they seem a fair bit louder and sound better really cranked (though maybe they'd be even better loud with a more powerful amp, who knows?). Then there's how these things look. I was iffy on the odd bulging shape and the curricular grills on 'em but I've kind of gotten used to that and the real walnut veneer looks great!

Those Jamos are good enough to satisfy me and now with just a few small upgrades on the input gear I really think that I'll be done, at least for a really long time, with upgrades to the stereo... I got a new stylus for the turntable which I'll do a setup on when I put that thing on it. For the digital side (almost entirely CDs for me), I'll eventually be buying some kind of DAC... and then I think that I'll be done!
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The Jamos take a minimum of 100hrs to break in. Glad to hear you're liking them. That's awesome you got the real wood veneer, mine are black. And yes they like power, mine are connected to a 400watt/channel amp lol. They're the mains in my surround system, with the matching C-10 as the center, with a pair of Definitive Technology Studiomonitor 450's as the surrounds.

I've used a lot of different speakers as surrounds, really liked the Optimus Pro LX5 with the Linaeum tweeter, but these are waaaay better.
 
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Condorsat said:
Eventually .. moving to another house and not being able to get back the sound they had enjoyed previously.
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Then there's the fortuitous reverse scenario. My current home's listening room has nearly Golden Ratio room dimensions with measurably more linear response in the bottom octaves than my previous digs :)
 
Grenadeslio said:
The Jamos take a minimum of 100hrs to break in. Glad to hear you're liking them. That's awesome you got the real wood veneer, mine are black. And yes they like power, mine are connected to a 400watt/channel amp lol. They're the mains in my surround system, with the matching C-10 as the center, with a pair of Definitive Technology Studiomonitor 450's as the surrounds.

I've used a lot of different speakers as surrounds, really liked the Optimus Pro LX5 with the Linaeum tweeter, but these are waaaay better.
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Yeah, I'm just running good of fashioned stereo... though I am using a single small Energy subwoofer with those Jamo speakers. I'm stuck with a with an old Marantz 2270 receiver for power, that just has a lowly 70 watts of output though supposedly with those amps the power rating was very conservative. The combo of that amp and the new Jamo speakers sounds plenty powerful to me so I don't see myself investing in a bigger power plant. I guess if I came into a really great deal on a more powerful power amp (like at a garage sale or something), I might buy it and try using the Marantz as a preamp. I don't see myself getting rid of the Marantz and though I had some doubts about it powering my Elacs, the Jamos sound really nice with it. The Elacs as extension speakers in a smaller room never really get cranked up...
 
E-Stat said:
Then there's the fortuitous reverse scenario. My current home's listening room has nearly Golden Ratio room dimensions with measurably more linear response in the bottom octaves than my previous digs :)
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I'm not really complaining because I have my better speakers in my "main listening room " (aka, my living room) and even though I haven't done much experimentation with speaker placement or with acoustic treatments, I'm quite happy with the sound. Anything that I've used in that room seems to sound good.
 
Room treatments may only address part of the problem. Knowing the room nodes and how it fluctuates the frequency response (dips and peaks), may be produced from the rooms measurements. Many times, playing with speaker position can fix some of the problems, things like more toe-in or less, distance from front wall, even room furnishings and the position of the furnishings can make a big difference. I always try to keep the speakers symmetrical to my listening position and go from there. You have to experiment.
 
Aaron Hayman said:
Yeah, I'm just running good of fashioned stereo... though I am using a single small Energy subwoofer with those Jamo speakers. I'm stuck with a with an old Marantz 2270 receiver for power, that just has a lowly 70 watts of output though supposedly with those amps the power rating was very conservative. The combo of that amp and the new Jamo speakers sounds plenty powerful to me so I don't see myself investing in a bigger power plant. I guess if I came into a really great deal on a more powerful power amp (like at a garage sale or something), I might buy it and try using the Marantz as a preamp. I don't see myself getting rid of the Marantz and though I had some doubts about it powering my Elacs, the Jamos sound really nice with it. The Elacs as extension speakers in a smaller room never really get cranked up...
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Wasn't implying they need lots of power, only that they're fine with it. 70watts is nothing to sneeze at, drove a pair of AR12's for yrs woth a 60watt Kenwood KA7100 integrated and never felt i needed more power.

I'm sure the Jamos are singing sweetly with the Marantz driving them.

The Jamos are also set up for 2 channel listening, although I have a second dedicated 2 channel system in the same rm sharing the same preamp.
 
quiet said:
80 watts is what I have. And I was happy with that. Until a friend loaned me a 350 watt Carver for a week. I want more watts now. And the Carver was nice too.
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Yes they are, I've had 5 of their amps, currently have 2. One bridged mono to drive my center Channel, the other drives my rear surrounds in the media rm.
 
Aaron Hayman said:
Yeah, I'm just running good of fashioned stereo... though I am using a single small Energy subwoofer with those Jamo speakers. I'm stuck with a with an old Marantz 2270 receiver for power, that just has a lowly 70 watts of output though supposedly with those amps the power rating was very conservative. The combo of that amp and the new Jamo speakers sounds plenty powerful to me so I don't see myself investing in a bigger power plant. I guess if I came into a really great deal on a more powerful power amp (like at a garage sale or something), I might buy it and try using the Marantz as a preamp. I don't see myself getting rid of the Marantz and though I had some doubts about it powering my Elacs, the Jamos sound really nice with it. The Elacs as extension speakers in a smaller room never really get cranked up...
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The 2270 was in now way underrated power-wise. It put 70 watts or less into anything you connected to the output posts. That said, I'm sitting over here with a 30 watt F5 and that's all the amp I can imagine needing.

As far as my room, I've got crap all over the place to dull down the room and negate its effects. I look at pictures of people's systems where they've got a big TV between the speakers or picture frames and bare walls behind the speakers and I grimace. I've got an embroidered satin curtain between my speakers hiding a bunch of foam and carpet, I've got foam and carpet behind the speakers, and the whole wall behind me is covered with 50 12"x12"x2" acoustic foam tiles spaced about 4 inches apart. My dining room comes off my living room and I use a folding screen draped with heavy curtains to kill that room. I've even got stuff on the ceiling. It's not dead like an anechoic chamber, but it's dull enough people can tell what room I'm in when I talk on my phone. I sound much clearer in my listening room.
 
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