How can I fool speakers into thinking they are in a bigger room?

[hal55]

For many years I have had the luxury of a 6x4 meter dedicated listeningy room, and very nice it has sounded to. Very soon though, with semi retirement around the corner, there will be a substantial downsizing to a bedroom 5x3.6, and being a bedroom that has to include a bed!
I'm building a small speaker using a seas 5.5 in midbass and fountek neo x 2 ribbon tweeters, which should be a good match for this space. I'm reluctant though to mothball totally the World Audio Design 25t excels that I built several years back. Problem, as far as I can work out these will have to be only, ballpark, 60cm from woofer centre to the side walls. I'm listening to them now with one speaker at this distance but the other has plenty of free space around it, and seating is at the distance I'll be using in the new room. Frankly it sounds amazingly good, but of course this isnt quite what the new room will be. Since there will be a bed, recliner chair and some small tables for the stereo equipment the room will be very well damped, but how can I fool the speakers into thinking they are further out from the side walls than they are? Expensive Pro grade room treatments are out of the budget, so any suggestions for affordable solutions would be very welcome.

[RothwellAudio]

...how can I fool the speakers into thinking they are further out from the side walls than they are? Expensive Pro grade room treatments are out of the budget, so any suggestions for affordable solutions would be very welcome.

"Pro grade" room treatment is the only way, though it doesn't have to be terribly expensive. The expensive way is to buy some "acoustic panels" which are likely to be of limited use, at least at low frequencies. The very expensive way is to hire an expert who will do a good job - but finding someone is really is an expert would worry me.
The cheaper option, and probably better, is to gain some understanding of acoustics and do your own room treatment with high density rockwool and helmholtz resonators etc.
This sort of thing is a reasonable introduction though there are lots and lots of websites on the subject - some better than others.
https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/bass-traps/

[agk]

The new room doesn't sound drastically smaller and I think you'll be surprised how much bass that bed will suck out of the room.
Try it and see how you go me old china.

[RothwellAudio]

The new room doesn't sound drastically smaller and I think you'll be surprised how much bass that bed will suck out of the room.
Try it and see how you go me old china.

Yes, I agree - just try them first before doing anything else. I wouldn't take Hi-Fi World's advice too seriously and you may pleasantly surprised to find the old speakers sound good in the new room.

[hal55]

Thanks to all, I'm a bit more confident now that I can make the current speakers work in the new space. Been looking at acoustic tiles, which are far cheaper than I thought, and I may need some behind where I'm sitting, which will be pretty close to the rear wall, far closer than I'm sitting now. Hoping that the heavy damping in the room will make up for the reduction in space, it should work okay.

[RothwellAudio]

Been looking at acoustic tiles, which are far cheaper than I thought...

These are the convenient "solution" to room acoustics problems - just buy a few, stick them up, job done.
But can it really be so simple? No. Just bear in mind that acoustic tiles are usually pretty useless below about 1kHz. That's ok if the problem is above 1kHz, but useless if it's below 1kHz.

[Yomanze]

DSP is the way to go here IMHO, like a miniDSP, this way you can get the room interactions out of the way to create the illusion of a bigger room.

[Stereosane]

I've got a system in a small room about 4.3m x 3.3m and I'm very impressed with the acoustics, I've also got a double bed in there.

My knowleadge is limit on room acoustics but from my experience using absorption will most probably make the room sound a bit smaller, I think Diffusors will do a better job of creating the sense of more space. Maybe treat the first reflections with absorbtion and the roof and rear wall with Diffusors. Sometimes a bit of reflection can create the sense of a wider soundstage. You can also toe your speakers in directly at your ears to avoid some of the side wall reflections. I also find sitting right back against the backwall maybe 10cm from it seems to create a sense of a deeper soundstage but slightly narrower and moving closer I loose the depth but gain width.

[Macca]

The new room is 16 x 12 in the old money* so it is hardly a shoe box. Most speakers should work fine. I suppose when moving from a larger room you are more acutely aware of the compromise.

* Don't forget after Brexit there will be no more of this metric nonsense