Thanks in advance to everyone who takes time to read this. I'm obviously new to the forums.
About a decade ago, I made a big move for work, which necessitated living in a smaller apartment rather than a small house. I had to sell my stereo system when I moved, and in the intervening decade I've mainly listened to music on headphones. At the moment I have a pair of Neumann NH20s (with some minor eq-ing) powered by an RME-ADI2 FME DAC. My music is mostly redbook or higher res.
I'm looking forward to putting together a two channel system again, but I am a decade out of date on how people are thinking about getting good results with speakers in medium-ish rooms. To give a measurement, the room is roughly 5.5 metres x 4.25 metres with a roughly 2.5 metre ceiling. It's a rectangle with no irregular features. It will have a set of bookshelves. It has wood floors, although we'll put down a carpet over it that will cover maybe 1/2 the total area. It seems to me like it's going to be difficult with all the reflections.
I'm not sure how it's best to handle a room like that. I can probably pay up to $6000 for a pair of speakers, although I would be very happy to pay less. I do not listen at high volumes and do some low volume listening – but mostly I listen at 'normal' volumes. For the most part I listen to classical music and jazz of various types. I would like to be able to reproduce sound across the full dynamic spectrum. I listen to a lot of organ music, for example, and appreciate being able to get a response down to 20hz. I'm not trying to shake the house down, however.
What I'd like to figure out is what sort of set up might work well – dipoles vs. directional speakers, using a sub-woofer vs using a full-range speaker, etc. I can say more about my preferences if that helps. But I should at least say that I can listen from a sweet spot much of the time, but it is important to put something together that sounds pretty good off-axis. I'm totally open minded, but totally lost. Advice would be much appreciated.
About a decade ago, I made a big move for work, which necessitated living in a smaller apartment rather than a small house. I had to sell my stereo system when I moved, and in the intervening decade I've mainly listened to music on headphones. At the moment I have a pair of Neumann NH20s (with some minor eq-ing) powered by an RME-ADI2 FME DAC. My music is mostly redbook or higher res.
I'm looking forward to putting together a two channel system again, but I am a decade out of date on how people are thinking about getting good results with speakers in medium-ish rooms. To give a measurement, the room is roughly 5.5 metres x 4.25 metres with a roughly 2.5 metre ceiling. It's a rectangle with no irregular features. It will have a set of bookshelves. It has wood floors, although we'll put down a carpet over it that will cover maybe 1/2 the total area. It seems to me like it's going to be difficult with all the reflections.
I'm not sure how it's best to handle a room like that. I can probably pay up to $6000 for a pair of speakers, although I would be very happy to pay less. I do not listen at high volumes and do some low volume listening – but mostly I listen at 'normal' volumes. For the most part I listen to classical music and jazz of various types. I would like to be able to reproduce sound across the full dynamic spectrum. I listen to a lot of organ music, for example, and appreciate being able to get a response down to 20hz. I'm not trying to shake the house down, however.
What I'd like to figure out is what sort of set up might work well – dipoles vs. directional speakers, using a sub-woofer vs using a full-range speaker, etc. I can say more about my preferences if that helps. But I should at least say that I can listen from a sweet spot much of the time, but it is important to put something together that sounds pretty good off-axis. I'm totally open minded, but totally lost. Advice would be much appreciated.