Speaker upgrade my AE109s, but to what?

[Gazjam]

Hi, first post in a long time.

I'm thnking of changing (upgrading hopefully) my 109's to £500 floorstanders

The 109s were great speakers in their day and still are, its just that in my new room they sound bit dull at low volumes and I have to turn the wick up a fair bit in my new room to get them shifting. I've never been able to get them at their best.

Also, the 109's need to be to least 2 feet off the back wall and its not the biggest of rooms I have (5 x 4). So not good.

Bass can sound boomy and a bit indistinct in my room, despite having a stone floor and trying Asda chopping boards, squash balls, voodoo whatever.
Also, I've never managed to get the kind of pinpoint soundstaging I've heard from them in a hifi shop.
I'd like far better soundstaging and more "realism" from my new speakers, more involvement.

I've shortlisted Rega R3's and JmLab Chorus 714s with the Regas ticking all the right boxes so far. Any others I've missed? (got to be floorstanders)

* Are these in fact much of an upgrade?
* I know the Rega's can be used close to the back wall, can the Focals?

I have the Cambridge Audio 640 A/C combo and will be replacing the CDP with a Squeezebox played through my *B* DAC.

* Does the Cambridge Amp play nice with the Regas?

Speaker cable wise, I'm using Paul Speltz Anti-Cables which I found opened up the dark boomy sound of the 109s a lot. I have Van Damme black 4 x 4mm stuff lying around as well, so it will be interesting to see which is best for the new speakers.




Lots of questions, thanks!

 

[defride]

Floorstanders for £500 in a smallish room that don't boom? Would you not be better off with a good set of Stand Mounts? Look forward to hearing you're thoughts on the anticables. Astonisingly good in my system.

 

[shrink]

I would suggest some competent standmounts, where you will also get more value for your money. Less drivers, less cabinet colourations etc makes for a better budget speaker.

Some good second hand bookshelf models in the £500 range from the likes of JM labs, Dynaudio, Mission,

 

[Gazjam]

Thanks for all the replies.

After experimenting with all the suggestions given, (room placement etc) I've hit the sweet spot with these speakers in my room.

Guess, what?
The bass bloom is totally gone, replaced by a very clear, very projected dynamic sound. The OPPOSITE of how they sounded set up the way they were.

Sounds like a different system.
I'm keeping the 109s.
Why? I didn't know they could sound so bloody good.

All the stuff I thought was missing is now all there - in spades. I never gave Room Treatment stuff a second thought - its made all the difference in my system in my room.

Heres what I did, and I'd recommend ALL of these steps to someone with the same problems I was having.

1. Put them back on 1" granite slabs
(Reduced bass boom through the floor I guess?)

2. Biwired them
(Anticables and Van damme seperate runs for the + and - (NOT Bass and treble bizzarly - tried that and this way sounded MUCH better - two seperate A and B speaker sockets on my amp feeding speakers - is this a kind of poor mans biamping? I dunno. Just sounds better.)

3. Moved my sofa 4 inches (yes FOUR inches) off the back wall
(The muddyness seemed to be gone. Is this a case of Reduced room reflections of bass messing up the imaging?)

4. Moved speakers closer to back wall.
(No more boom through the floor, so no need to have them so far out. Moving them closer "locked" the sound better, and imaging is now wide of the speakers, front to back and has real height.

With these slight changes, my sytem has completely lost is boominess and dull charactaristics.
Theres a physicality now to what I'm hearing. Everything has real weight and sounds far more realistic.
Music is so more "direct" sounding now - the point of the song, the inflections in way the guy plays a sax, the aggression in piano notes....its all there. I've never heard this stuff before in my system. Never.

And I never spent a penny.

Now I know my upcoming squeezebox is gonna sound at its best and I dont need to fix problems elsewhere.

Thanks very much guys for all your advice.