As some of you know, we have moved to the South Okanagan (just a few miles from the U.S. border). The entire house has laminate flooring so the acoustics are quite live.
Back at our other place I was having great success with the AudioEngine D1 DAC, N22 amp and Super 3i speakers on the desktop, but had never heard this combo in a room setting, let alone a large one. The Super 3i has always performed well on the desktop, in a small room, and in a large room shooting across one end (which is not like playing in a large room shooting down its length).
I decided to set the aforementioned system up in our living room with my gutted 1950s Phillips record player/radio cabinet to contain my audio gear and computer. The lowest cost room system I ever remember setting up as a dealer. A fun experiment.
The room is 13' wide x 26' long x 8' high with the speakers shooting down its length. Note in the picture how the speakers are close to the walls behind (6") and somewhat into the corners. The speakers are 10' apart and 10' from the listeners ears. In some cases all this could be the recipe for disaster. Having no Omega sub on hand, I added our old (pre dealer days) Klipsch RPW-10 sub just in case things were a little thin.
It was ready at about midnight and I was tired, but I had to try it out. The speakers being new sounded good but a tad thin in this big space, and when I am tired I don't enjoy listening. The next day a customer was to show up at about noon to hear this system, so I started playing it in the morning getting things dialed in. As it played the speakers started loosening up and by the time the customer showed up the system was filling the room beautifully with incredible imaging.
Most of the listening was done without the sub, and the guy was blown away making comments about the room filling sound and imaging (no hole in the middle even 10' apart). The detail and the way this system unravels complicated music is amazing.
Next, the customer asked if he could bring his speakers in to hear. They are one of the top rated (2 way) stand mount speakers today and are getting rave reviews around the globe. They are also more than twice the price of the 3i. We put them on the stands where the Omegas were. I was not ready for what I heard, and I don't think the customer was either. Half way through the first song we played on them, he told me to turn them off and put the Omegas back in. It wasn't even a contest, the Super 3i being the clear winner.
The synergy between the D1/N22 and Super 3i is wonderful, and in all fairness to the other speaker maybe the synergy wasn't there with it and my 22w/ch amp. 60+ watts high current would be a nice match. The other speaker would also have benefitted being out in the room more (where people can trip over them). I still don't think those changes would have closed the gap to the point they would be equals. The Super 3i gave them a real mauling. Live vs HiFi was how the Omegas sounded compared to the speakers my customer brought.
Looking at my picture one can see how the Super 3i is out of the way of traffic making them (and almost all Omegas) a great lifestyle product.
Please note, the right corner in the room is a true right angle corner. Lens distortion is causing it not to look that way.