Sq ft recommendations for speakers

[richieb1971]

If your room is alot smaller than the recommended square footage that the speakers were designed for, how does this affect sound quality in HT?

Will the sound just sound boomier and "too in your face"?

The reason I ask is because I like large-ish floor standers for my front L+R speakers but they are designed with a large room in mind (2000-6000 sq ft). My room is about 196sq ft.

My friend told me it wouldnt be a problem, at least not as bad as having smaller speakers in a large environment anyway. I assume using an SPL meter will balance out any david and goliath setups?

thanks for any feedback..

[Bryan]

Are you certain it is for square feet and not cubic feet? If it is the later, assuming your room is 19.5' x 10' x 8' you will have 1,560 cubic feet. If it is the former, the room they are looking at is roughly 40' x 50' x 8' equally 16,000 cubic feet, in which case the speakers are much too big for your room.

[This Guy]

speakers are you looking at? We could give you specific answers if we knew what speakers they are. I really think you read it wrong, they probably mean cubic feet, cuz I don't know any speakers that work their greatest in 2000 square foot room (maybe DJ speakers), and 6000 is tremendous.I've got floorstanders in my 10 by 12' room with 8' ceilings and they sound fine.
-Joey

[topspeed]

If your room is alot smaller than the recommended square footage that the speakers were designed for, how does this affect sound quality in HT?

Will the sound just sound boomier and "too in your face"?

The reason I ask is because I like large-ish floor standers for my front L+R speakers but they are designed with a large room in mind (2000-6000 sq ft). My room is about 196sq ft.

My friend told me it wouldnt be a problem, at least not as bad as having smaller speakers in a large environment anyway. I assume using an SPL meter will balance out any david and goliath setups?

thanks for any feedback..

First, I'm postive Bryan and Joey are right; you're reading that wrong. Those floorstanders would have to be JM Lab Grand Utopia Be's to even come close to filling that much space.

In addition, an spl meter won't fix bad sound. It'll just make sure the bad sound is uniform :). If you find you're getting too many weird relections just put up some treatments or corner/bass traps to tame the room. Your room, while certainly not sprawling, is not that small and I've heard some terrific nearfield set-ups in much closer confines.

Bottom line, don't sweat it.

[Willow]

I think it was not written properly 3000-6000 sq ft is huge thats at least a 4-6 bedroom house HUGE !! I wouldn't worry about it you may need to adjust your system a bit more

[TinHere]

Here's a link for ya:

http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

[richieb]

http://www.axiomaudio.com/epic60.html

Your right it is cubic feet.

My room is about 1728 cubic feet.


Surely if my volume control is set to a lower volume it is the same as having smaller speakers?

Anyway, thanks very much for all your replies, I hope you lot can sort out this little query..