Can speakers be too big for a room?

[JustAnAudioLover]

Hi there!

Given I saw opposite opinions on various websites, I wanted to a question here regarding speakers vs room size.

For instance, let's say we have a 20 m² (so 65 foot) room. And we put some big speakers, like Triangle's Australe EZ in it (pictures below). 5 front baffles + 1 tweeter on the back. 20 (w) x 37 (d) x 113 (h) cm. A big chunky boy. Or another big speaker, like Focal's Evo X N°4 for instance.

And let's say speakers are like 2m apart and you're 2m away from the speakers. My question is:

Would these speakers be too big for the room?

Obviously not aesthetically, but in terms of "would the sound be worse than in a bigger room?"
Especially if you're listening at low ~ moderate volume.

Very curious to hear your opinions about this!

 

[JustJones]

Here's review of the Triangle esprit EZ. If the ones you're looking at are similar you might need to tilt the speaker or sit high enough to be on axis as it's vertical is narrow.
Especially sitting close.

The Focal has a similar narrow vertical dispersion.

Triangle Esprit Antal Ez Review (Tower Speaker)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Triangle Esprit Antal Ez Floor Standing speaker. It was kindly loaned to me by a local member and costs US $2,400 (pair). The overall fit and finish is nice: The tweeter though looks odd and takes away from the clean look as does that...

audiosciencereview.com

Focal Aria Evo X No.4 Loudspeaker Review

We reviewed the Focal Aria Evo X No.4 ($6k/pair) 3-way floorstanding speaker with dual 8" flax bass drivers, a 6.5" midrange, and 1” aluminum-magnesium tweeter to see if its performance matched its looks.

www.audioholics.com

 

[JustAnAudioLover]

I just took these two speakers as an example, I could have taken any other "big" floorstanding for the sake of the argument.

Does that mean the minimum required listening distance depends on the vertical directivity, and that room size itself doesn't matter?

 

[Spkrdctr]

Yes, you can get speakers too big for a room. I listened to a guys setup who had bought some BIG Legacy speakers and had them in a relatively small room. It didn't sound good to me at all but he liked it. I think it was his mental bias as he paid the big bucks for them. Money=Better.

 

[izeek]

imo, noh sahj ting az tu beeg.

personal preference plays the bigger part. no one is turning down la scalas because their room is too small from what ive seen.

there are probably reasons but those of us with smaller rooms and big ass speakers don't care. we bought what we wanted. it's sounding good to us and thats what matters.

ive got jbl towers and 2 subs in a 14x16ft room. working for me.

i think low volume listening depends more on your speaker specs. the lower it can hit, the better at low volume, as well as speaker sensitivity. jme. as im writing this, im listening at 30-35db and hoping the low end doesnt wake anyone. when i had smaller speakers, this wasnt a problem.

 

[Thomas_A]

Mostly related to listening distance. Multiple drivers need some distance to blend the wavefront.

 

[Multicore]

I have never lived in a home with a room in which I'd tolerate a Genelec 7382A, even if someone gifted it to me. So yes, speakers can be too big.

 

[JustJones]

Does that mean the minimum required listening distance depends on the vertical directivity, and that room size itself doesn't matter

It plays a role, did you read the reviews of the two speakers? With narrow vertical dispersion ideally you want the tweeter be on axis so distance from the speaker and your sitting height matters in that regard. You can use EQ to help with bass, distance to side walls and listening distance matter if you have wide or narrow horizontal dispersion

 

[DoctorRobert]

My angle: In general, soundwise, a bigger room is better independent of speaker size. A smaller room will have room modes higher up the frequency spectrum. And in a small room the distance between two walls is more likely to be similar to the distance to the floor and the ceiling. Together this will create more issues with room modes. Large speakers that go down deeper with more energy will make these issues even more obvious. So if you do not do anything about room correction you are probably better off with smaller stand-mount speakers. Once you start to invest in room correction (DSP) and room treatment, you can probably fix a lot and a larger speaker will work as well. This still assumes that you are not so close to the speakers that difference in distance beween the different speaker-units in the box in relation to your ears start to matter.
In a smallish room with not too many options to correct room modes, I would go for the smaller speaker.

 

[JustAnAudioLover]

It plays a role, did you read the reviews of the two speakers? With narrow vertical dispersion ideally you want the tweeter be on axis so distance from the speaker and your sitting height matters in that regard. You can use EQ to help with bass, distance to side walls and listening distance matter if you have wide or narrow horizontal dispersion

Nope, as I said, these two speakers are just for the sake of the example, I don't intend on purchasing them. It was really just to illustrate.

 

[DVDdoug]

I'm going to say no. A better speaker will sound better in any room. Size is one of many factors. The bigger speaker may sound better or worse.

Bigger speakers usually have more and better bass. A lot of people doing production at home like to use small monitors with tiny woofers because it's hard to get accurate bass in a small room. No bass is better than bad bass? Maybe... but if you are doing production you're just sticking your head in the sand. And, you can always turn-down the bass if it "sounds bad".


...I have crazy-huge DIY "speaker stacks" with a pair of large-box 5-inch subs on the bottom in my average-size living room. The tweeters are higher than ear-height (angled down) which some people wouldn't like. I NEVER take full advantage of these speakers but I can "rattle the walls" when I want to.

 

[JustAnAudioLover]

I'm going to say no. A better speaker will sound better in any room. Size is one of many factors. The bigger speaker may sound better or worse.

Bigger speakers usually have more and better bass. A lot of people doing production at home like to use small monitors with tiny woofers because it's hard to get accurate bass in a small room. No bass is better than bad bass? Maybe... but if you are doing production you're just sticking your head in the sand. And, you can always turn-down the bass if it "sounds bad".


...I have crazy-huge DIY "speaker stacks" with a pair of large-box 5-inch subs on the bottom in my average-size living room. The tweeters are higher than ear-height (angled down) which some people wouldn't like. I NEVER take full advantage of these speakers but I can "rattle the walls" when I want to.

So for you there's no problem with the drivers' blending distance?

 

[Jim Taylor]

Let's be somewhat practical here, OK? Yes, I think there's a limit ...

 

[Dimitri]

Yes, I think there's a limit ...

ok,ok, if you can bring them into the room, they are not too big for the room. Bonus points if you can fully swing the door open

 

[Mojo Warrior]

Yes

 

[Mikig]

almost all speakers need an ideal placement in space. So they will perform best when they have a given distance from the walls and when the listening point is in the right position. So, if you have a room too small for the size of the speakers, you may have the problem of having them too close to each other, too close to the walls and with a listening point too close to the speakers. Does it sound better or worse? objectively ask the measurements, subjectively, it could also be…

 

[Old_School_Brad]

A larger speaker comes with a larger enclosure. What is that needed for?

• The mid-range? No.
• The tweeter? No.
• The bass? Yes.

So, in very general terms, a bigger speaker will tend to produce deeper bass.

Deep bass in small rooms can be problematic due to room modes, as others have mentioned. This isn’t an issue because the speaker is large, but because its extended bass response can excite room modes more than a speaker with less low-end reach.

Additionally, larger speakers typically position the mid-range and tweeter drivers higher than smaller ones.

What does that mean?

• Large speakers often require room correction to prevent excessive bass in small rooms.
• Their greater height may create listening position challenges if you can't align properly with the drivers, and vertical dispersion becomes a factor.

 

[JustAnAudioLover]

That means you'd get the same "room excitement" problem due to deep bass if you're going the bookshelf + subwoofer route, right? No matter what, if you want deep bass, you're going to get more acoustic problems than with systems that don't extend deep in the lows?

 

[Purité Audio]

Yes but easily rectified with EQ.
Keith

 

[JustAnAudioLover]

Yes but easily rectified with EQ.
Keith

What do you mean? From what I understand, deep bass = room mode excitement problems. How would you solve that with EQ without removing the bass?