Atrias in a very small room?

tboooe · Dec 8, 2013

I super excited to audition the Atrias at my local dealer here in SoCal. I have read so many wonderful things about the Rockports that I figure I would be doing myself and injustice by not checking them out. So a little about my system and my listening preferences. I have a very small room (9x10x9) with the back wall being about 1/3 height opening up to my family room and kitchen. I have Vicoustic room treatments. I am a huge Sonus Faber fanboy and was pretty much set to upgrade my Auditor monitors to the Mementos or Evolution monitors. I listen to mainly female vocals and acoustic folk/jazz music. Think Halie Loren, Hem, Erin Boheme, Sara Cahoone, etc. For me, a beautiful, organic midrange is critical. I also prefer acoustic guitar and the sax. I don't really care too much about getting every last bit of air or detail out of the music. I do however want the music to be presented in a very natural and emotionally involving manner.

Anyway, I am looking forward to this audition. I wonder if the Atrias would work in my very small space. I don't listen much over 72db most of the time. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Tommy

AMP · Dec 8, 2013

That's a very small room indeed! You shouldn't have any issues with the Atria in that space as they are considerably smaller than the Avior and will have less of a tendency to excite the room. When you say that the back wall opens up to your family room and kitchen do you mean that there's an actual opening to constantly connect the two spaces? If that's the case then I would be even less concerned as what would look like an almost square room on a floor plan wouldn't be in acoustic terms.

Another option would be the Alya, which is Andy's "statement two-way" design intended for small spaces. It would lack the bottom-end weight of the Atria, but is a much smaller package and would likely drop into your room with no issues whatsoever. These may be hard to audition as I don't know of any dealer with a pair on display... Given the consistency in sonic presentation between the various Rockport models if you really like the Atria, but are concerned about the size (once you see them in person), then the Alya would be very much worth considering. Unfortunately, the Alya is priced above the Atria and is closer to the Avior in terms of dollars.

tboooe · Dec 8, 2013

Amp, thank you very much for your reply. I followed your Rockport upgrade thread with great interest.

And yes, the wall behind the listening position is about 3 ft high, above that there are very large openings leading to my family room and kitchen.

So regarding the sound do you think the Rockports can give me what I am looking for?

AMP · Dec 8, 2013

tboooe said:
So regarding the sound do you think the Rockports can give me what I am looking for?

That's such a hard question given just how subjective all of this happens to be.... one man's warm is another man's syrupy...

In this case I can pretty much guarantee that they will be different than what you're used to (in a very good way).

Based on the types of music that you list and the constraints of your room I think you'll find that the Atria are exceedingly good. In fact, there's a very good chance that you'll discover some new details on your favorite recordings that will really draw you in. One nice thing about Rockports is that they aren't the type of speaker that blows you away in the demo and then disappoints over long-term ownership. If you're given an opportunity to put them through their paces in your dealer's showroom and like what they do then you'll likely be very pleased with them over the long term.

Also, be sure to demo with some less-than-stellar recordings of music you really enjoy. This is a great test to see whether or not they'll give you long-term satisfaction. This has become one of my favorite tests after I get through the typical audiophile checklist. Rockports are especially good at letting the music come through without forcing you to pay attention to the deficiencies in the recording.

jfrech · Dec 8, 2013

First glad you are getting to hear the Rockports, exploring high end audio allows you really open the aperture and decide what's best for you. I don't know If I'd call your room small...the opening is going to leak out a lot of bass...as well as change how things are reflected etc. You might like a little bit bigger speaker in there...And I'm with AMP, I think on your music choices, the Rockports are a great speaker for your list...Good luck, let us know...

tboooe · Dec 8, 2013

Thank you jfrech, I have followed your virtual system on the other forum. With regards to getting the larger speaker my concern would be the width I have of only 9 feet. I am already worried that I may not have enough space to get the speakers wide enough apart. I think the most I can do is 5.5ft apart assuming I want to keep about 2 ft from the side wall to the tweeter center. Do you think my 9ft width will be a problem?

mep · Dec 8, 2013

tboooe said:
Thank you jfrech, I have followed your virtual system on the other forum. With regards to getting the larger speaker my concern would be the width I have of only 9 feet. I am already worried that I may not have enough space to get the speakers wide enough apart. I think the most I can do is 5.5ft apart assuming I want to keep about 2 ft from the side wall to the tweeter center. Do you think my 9ft width will be a problem?

What else is in your system?

AMP · Dec 8, 2013

tboooe said:
Thank you jfrech, I have followed your virtual system on the other forum. With regards to getting the larger speaker my concern would be the width I have of only 9 feet. I am already worried that I may not have enough space to get the speakers wide enough apart. I think the most I can do is 5.5ft apart assuming I want to keep about 2 ft from the side wall to the tweeter center. Do you think my 9ft width will be a problem?

No problem there... My Aquila tweeters are 24" from the side walls as they are currently toed in. I have GIK broadband panels at the first reflection points so the tweeters are actually 22" from the panel surface. They're quite a distance into the room from the back wall so once all is said and done I'm almost listening in a nearfield position. Absolutely zero problems to report and the speakers simply disappear into a soundstage that is considerably wider and deeper than the room dimensions. It's downright spooky at times.

AMP · Dec 8, 2013

As a side note, my room isn't much bigger than yours at 11x17 with the speakers on the short wall. I do have more room volume, but the rear of the room consists of a floor to ceiling closet (with doors removed and covered with curtains). I have a number of treatments in the room (mostly from GIK) and have gotten consistently excellent results. Due to the way the closet is setup it's like one big bass trap and aside from some lumps in the very low end the overall response is quite good. It's one of those rooms that shouldn't sound good at all, but really does.

The Aquila is considerably larger than the Atria so given the behavior I've noted in my room and the large opening in your room I imagine you'd have few problems.

tboooe · Dec 8, 2013

mep said:
What else is in your system?

My front end is a Luxman D-06 cdp/Dac as well as a PC based music server. My integrated amp is an Accustic Arts Power 1. I also have a PS Audio P3 AC regenerator. ICs and speaker cables are Tara Labs and AC cables are Synergistic Research Element series.

jfrech · Dec 8, 2013

tboooe said:
Thank you jfrech, I have followed your virtual system on the other forum. With regards to getting the larger speaker my concern would be the width I have of only 9 feet. I am already worried that I may not have enough space to get the speakers wide enough apart. I think the most I can do is 5.5ft apart assuming I want to keep about 2 ft from the side wall to the tweeter center. Do you think my 9ft width will be a problem?

Hi 9ft will pose problems but won't be a problem. Careful room treatments and speaker placement/speaker choice will all payoff. You know i love my rockports, but as a former wilson owner i'd consider the new wilson duettes also. They have been engineereed for tough areas with boundaries...Worth a listen at least is all i am sayin...in a more avg sized room the rockports are very hard to beat given your music choices

tboooe · Dec 8, 2013

Thank you for the reply guys. I am excited to be auditioning the Atrias this Wednesday. I will report back.

tboooe · Dec 9, 2013

AMP said:
As a side note, my room isn't much bigger than yours at 11x17 with the speakers on the short wall. I do have more room volume, but the rear of the room consists of a floor to ceiling closet (with doors removed and covered with curtains). I have a number of treatments in the room (mostly from GIK) and have gotten consistently excellent results. Due to the way the closet is setup it's like one big bass trap and aside from some lumps in the very low end the overall response is quite good. It's one of those rooms that shouldn't sound good at all, but really does.

The Aquila is considerably larger than the Atria so given the behavior I've noted in my room and the large opening in your room I imagine you'd have few problems.

Andrew, I just sent you a private message.

tboooe · Dec 11, 2013

I just got back from my 1 hour audition of the Atrias. I am not big on audiophile lingo so I will try my best to describe what I heard. Overall I would say the Atrias was very workman like. By that I mean they didn't have any sonic trait that jumped out at me. But I suppose this is a testament to how well balanced the Atrias are. It also tells me I could live with these speakers for a long time as they will stand the test of time and the latest audiophile speaker fad.

In terms of sound the Atrias were very pure and undistorted. Highs and mids were crisp yet not fatiguing in any way. Bass was great. Tight and seemingly very accurate. In terms of tonal character I would say the Atrias were very accurate. What impressed me most however was just how involving the music sounded. I have heard many amazingly accurate and fast speakers that have left the music sounded very sterile. The Atrias were still able to draw me into the music. The music was effortless with a natural warmth and weight. I am not sure if this was due to the tube pre and amp used though.

The best thing I can say is that these are on my short list of speakers for my next upgrade. I am still concerned about them fitting into my narrow space though and listening in almost a nearfield setup.

jfrech · Dec 11, 2013

Well, all I can say is you heard what I heard. Well said above...

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