Small bookshelf speaker with wide dispersion for filling living area, need advice

[Wavez]

I'm looking for a pair of bookshelf size speakers (think 5-6" woofer size roughly. 8" max), active or passive, with some specific needs.

• Budget: Less than $700 - ok maaaybe I can stretch to $1,000 if there's a stellar choice
• Speakers will be either wall mounted, or put on shelves against the wall, by necessity of the room being crowded with furniture.
• Used in a living room with multiple seating areas, but no proper equilateral triangle listening position.
  • So, I think I want wide dispersion/wide sweet spot.
• Living room is aprox 15ft x 15ft, but the far side is open to an additional dining room aprox 15ft wide x 20ft long - so I would like the sound to fill the dining room as well, as much as possible.
  • So, midfield & farfield listening position. TOTAL space = 15ft wide x 35ft long
• Listening type: To be honest this setup will be used basically for background music at low to mid volume, not critical listening. All types of music. I could definitely live without subbass on this system, so not super concerned with LF rolloff. Of course sometimes we'll turn the volume up, but I have a serious system in another room for when I really want to listen to something.
• Goal: Fill the entire two rooms with detailed sound, as much as possible - sound good no matter where you are sitting.

Curious what people will recommend for this application! Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Perhaps the passive KEF Q4 Meta loudspeaker could be an option if you decide on mounting on a wall.

Q4 Meta

Discover the Q4 Meta HiFi Speaker from KEF. With a 5.25” Uni-Q driver with MAT™, this 2-way on-wall speaker delivers precise, high-fidelity sound.

us.kef.com

 

[Timcognito]

Elac Carina BS243.4 Review (Bookshelf Speaker)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Elac Carina BS243.4 stand-mount speaker. It is on kind loan from a member and sells for US $999. Even though this is a speaker designed by Andrew Jones, it is a continuation of the line traditionally designed in Germany with much higher sales...

www.audiosciencereview.com

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/used/1502438/

 

[Steve Dallas]

Look at the Mini Monitor from Philharmonic, the Luna series from Ascend, Arendal 1961 series, Revel M16.

I wouldn't call them 'wide dispersion,' but KEF speakers are famous for not punishing you too much for standing up and moving around the room. They also have a bass shelf that allows them to be placed close to the front wall with less boomy-ness. KEF Q1 or Q3 would be in your budget and happen to be on sale in the US right now. I use the old Q100 for the same application you describe.

 

[tw 2022]

I'd go with the ceramic minis from Philharmonic audio Or the Sierra 1v2 from ascend... Both have great dispersion... Take a look at the new cbm 170 v2 from ascend as well..

 

[williamr]

For the type of listening you describe, "...background music at low to mid volume, not critical listening...", I use SONOS speakers. The sound is not at all bad and the convenience is exceptional because of all the ways you can send sound to the speakers (Roon, SONOS, airplay, etc).

There is even a loudness setting that helps accommodate the apparent lower frequency drop off as shown by the Fletcher-Munson curves. This will be useful if you mostly listen at low volumes.

 

[Wavez]

This will actually be integrated into a multi room wiim setup, so sonos is out

 

[Marc v E]

Doesn't Wiim have speakers?
That would be the first thing to check out if you've already decided to go the Wiim route.

The challenge I see is that it's quite a large space, placement not suitable to stereo. So that's why I would choose multiple small speakers all outputting the same (not stereo) or back and front wall speakers mirroring the sound.

 

[Marc v E]

One other option to consider is samsung speakers. They acquired Harman and I have good reason to believe they have developed and tested their speakers accordingly.

The 990 soundbar has a very good frequency response. Speaker sets from last year can be found at great discounts.

This 930 for instance:

Cinematic Q-series Q930F Wireless Soundbar | Samsung NL

Droom weg bij het dynamische geluid van de Cinematic Q-Series Draadloze Dolby Soundbar met True 9.1.4ch Full Surround en SpaceFit Sound Pro. Koop nu!

www.samsung.com

 

[Redacted]

Almost any good brand speakers will do the job. Everybody has their pet favourites, usually based on no A-B testing in their rooms, and based on internet hearsay!

If wall mounting on brackets etc., avoid rear-ported designs (you can't tune the bass on brackets), or block the ports and add subs. Worked out well for me.

 

[Head_Unit]

sound good no matter where you are sitting

My advice is avoid ribbons like the Wharfedale EVO-very narrowing dispersion, sound great in the sweet spot only.

maaaybe I can stretch to $1,000 if there's a stellar choice

Well there is this https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dal-1961-center-monitor-speaker-review.43190/ or the smaller version I just got used oh wow they are SO solid https://arendalsound.com/product/1961-bookshelf/ The two woofer version would be better for output in the midbass. They are not very sensitive but "Hofmann's Iron Law" plus physical realities of driver design dictate that small woofers in small boxes will have small output per watt.

There are some nice not-crazy-expensive not-huge 8" bookshelf with the big waveguides (which technically speaking are really the only way to go for 2-way design) however they are all powered monitors.