Are new homes in HK too small for HiFi use?

CKKeung

"Are new homes (in UK) too small for real HiFi use?"  http://www.tnt-audio.com/edcorner/july11.html
I think the situation in HK may be worse!

chinovince

乜嘢黎架? 我年紀大落後囉!!

hahayanyan

206... as the average for Au..haha

tamm

  HK , 10 only ,maybe

hahayanyan

10 meter square...is ok for a good bookshelf

lovefancy

new apartments like "The Wing"(天晉), with rectangular shaped living rooms with 2.9 - 3.2 meters depth(8xx ft - 1100 ft apartments)...You cant even get a naturally formed soundstage from a pair of bookshelf speaker like Dynaudio C1...

小Ga

10 would be pretty good already for the case of hk. It can be better than average already.

t1174

10 一般已經是好了，好多重要 share usage, 比好食飯，小魔頭的playgound, tv room......

odysseyhk

Small living room is a "given" for most of us. So knowing how to make hifi sound good given the constraint is important. I think Japan have very similar problem. I have seen quite a few Japanese audiophiles using speakers with large woofer and stick it to the wall. One c-hing shared with me the benefit of such set-up.

1/ With large woofer, one can get good quality bass response even it is in low listening volume in a small room.
2/ Avoid use of bass reflex design speakers which is more easy to cause booming. For bass reflex design, bass is enhanced but not evenly. Certain bass frequency will be boosted which may interact with the room and cause booming. That limit the choice of speakers placement in a small living.
3/ In a small room, you may want to place speakers further away from your listening position if possible to allow good sound stage to form. Also, it is more comfortable to listen to music if speakers are at least 5-6 feet away.  Therefore, with small living room, better select speakers which sound good even place next to the wall. Move a booming speakers closer to the wall will get worse (that is probably the reason why some Japanese audiophiles use large sealed cabinet speakers in small living room).