Media Room Acoustics

LenWhite

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Feb 11, 2011
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The media room acoustics are officially completed as of today! I now have an acoustically designed optimized music room.

Thanks to Nyal (Acoustic Frontiers) for both the foundation design and interior room acoustic design.


I can clearly hear the room's reverberation time has been significantly lowered, voice and instrument articulation and soundstage definition has improved, the low end is tighter and more pronounced.

 

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Ron Resnick

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Jan 24, 2015
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Congratulations! It looks great!

What treatment products are on the side walls?
 

LenWhite

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Feb 11, 2011
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LenWhite

Well-Known Member
Feb 11, 2011
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Florida
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Very nice! The ceiling looks custom.

I should get a better picture of the ceiling panels. They were originally part of a Rives Audio design in 2010 when my stereo system was in our FR. The (4) frames are custom, each frame holding (4) RPG BAD templates also in custom frames with fiberglass backing.
 

LenWhite

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Feb 11, 2011
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Also congrats Len. Isn't it a great feeling when everything comes together.

Thanks Steve. The entire project including the house addition and moving all the equipment from the FR to the new media room took over 1-1/2 years to complete. I'm glad it's over and I can just enjoy the music.:)
 

sbo6

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May 18, 2014
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Beautiful spacious room, congrats! Can I ask - For the first reflection points, are those polys diffusers, absorbers or a combo?
 

LenWhite

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Feb 11, 2011
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Florida
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Beautiful spacious room, congrats! Can I ask - For the first reflection points, are those polys diffusers, absorbers or a combo?

The first reflection points use RPG BAD ARC panels which are curved combination diffuser/absorbers. My profile contains a description and pictures of the room creation.
 

dallasjustice

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Apr 12, 2011
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The first reflection points use RPG BAD ARC panels which are curved combination diffuser/absorbers. My profile contains a description and pictures of the room creation.

I also use the BAD ARC. I used to have them at POFR sidewalls. I moved them back closer to the listening position and use Modex plates there instead. The ARC is a very neutral treatment. RPG is the best. FWIW, you could extend the LF absorption even more by attaching a fiberglass panel onto the backside of the ARC, if you think it could help. I did that with my ARCs.
 

amirm

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Apr 2, 2010
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Congratulations! Looks great. Would be fantastic if we could Nyal here to walk us through his strategy and solutions. Nyal? :)
 

Nyal Mellor

Industry Expert
Jul 14, 2010
590
4
330
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
From the walls outward we had concrete, then furring strips with rockwool in between, then Kinetics Isomax, then hat channel, then single layer 5/8" damped drywall. The shell acts as a "floppy wall" to provide damped low frequency absorption. Ceiling construction is the same. The room dimensions were optimized to prevent modal stacking.

Acoustic treatment wise Len moved his RPG BAD ceiling cloud in from the previous room. I believe we added some additional absorption above it...Len can confirm.

Then we took a break whilst deliberating the best approach to finish out the room. We already had a concept involving floor-to-ceiling columns all around the room but we decided to change it to reduce construction complexity.

I like to use a "light" touch with respect to acoustic treatment, and to try and keep the room as live as possible.

We added 6ft tall Listen Audio diffuser columns. These are an interesting product, offering some absorption and some diffusion. These cover the opposite sidewall reflection points and prevent left/right flutter echos across the seating area. The immediate lateral reflection points are treated with RPG BAD ARC, which is a curved version of the BAD.

The wall behind the speakers has four Modex Plates. Two are broadband (the center two) and the other two are Type 1. I specified some broadband to provide absorption of any diffracted sound wrapping round speaker baffle and also to manage the mid/high frequency decay times in the room.

The wall behind the listener is a custom made box fronted by RPG BAD panels with a 10" pink fluffy insulation fill.

About the only thing left to do is to cancel the longest axial length mode with a subwoofer or two.
 

sbo6

VIP/Donor
May 18, 2014
1,660
594
480
Round Rock, TX
The first reflection points use RPG BAD ARC panels which are curved combination diffuser/absorbers. My profile contains a description and pictures of the room creation.

Thanks, I have a DIY version of the RPG BAD panel front wall center in my room. Can I also ask - how far is your listening seat to your back wall? I'm pleasantly surprised you're able to use an absorber/diffusor so close to the listening seat, looks like ~4 feet away.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
From the walls outward we had concrete, then furring strips with rockwool in between, then Kinetics Isomax, then hat channel, then single layer 5/8" damped drywall. The shell acts as a "floppy wall" to provide damped low frequency absorption. Ceiling construction is the same. The room dimensions were optimized to prevent modal stacking.

Acoustic treatment wise Len moved his RPG BAD ceiling cloud in from the previous room. I believe we added some additional absorption above it...Len can confirm.

Then we took a break whilst deliberating the best approach to finish out the room. We already had a concept involving floor-to-ceiling columns all around the room but we decided to change it to reduce construction complexity.

I like to use a "light" touch with respect to acoustic treatment, and to try and keep the room as live as possible.

We added 6ft tall Listen Audio diffuser columns. These are an interesting product, offering some absorption and some diffusion. These cover the opposite sidewall reflection points and prevent left/right flutter echos across the seating area. The immediate lateral reflection points are treated with RPG BAD ARC, which is a curved version of the BAD.

The wall behind the speakers has four Modex Plates. Two are broadband (the center two) and the other two are Type 1. I specified some broadband to provide absorption of any diffracted sound wrapping round speaker baffle and also to manage the mid/high frequency decay times in the room.

The wall behind the listener is a custom made box fronted by RPG BAD panels with a 10" pink fluffy insulation fill.

About the only thing left to do is to cancel the longest axial length mode with a subwoofer or two.

Really well thought out Nyal. Congrats to you and Len. I love it when one gets to that first listening session and the smile makes it all worth it
 

Ron Resnick

Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Jan 24, 2015
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Beverly Hills, CA
The immediate lateral reflection points are treated with RPG BAD ARC, which is a curved version of the BAD.

Thank you for this detailed explanation, Nyal! (I wish I could do implement that great "walls within walls" technique.)

Why did you choose the curved RPG BAD ARC, rather than than the plain, rectangular version of the RPG BAD?
 

Nyal Mellor

Industry Expert
Jul 14, 2010
590
4
330
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Thanks, I have a DIY version of the RPG BAD panel front wall center in my room. Can I also ask - how far is your listening seat to your back wall? I'm pleasantly surprised you're able to use an absorber/diffusor so close to the listening seat, looks like ~4 feet away.

You can pretty much sit on top of any amplitude based diffuser without issues. It's the phase based diffusers (QRD types) that can sound "wonky".
 

Nyal Mellor

Industry Expert
Jul 14, 2010
590
4
330
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Thank you for this detailed explanation, Nyal! (I wish I could do implement that great "walls within walls" technique.)

Why did you choose the curved RPG BAD ARC, rather than than the plain, rectangular version of the RPG BAD?

I've got plenty of data showing the benefits of using damped drywall over regular, whether that is two layers with a constrained layer damping medium in between or factory made product. Basically it results in more consistent low frequency decay times.

The BAD ARC does better than the BAD with acute (high) angle reflections like those from lateral side walls.

IMO the best approach for lateral side wall reflections is a vertically oriented slat diffuser. Problem is nobody makes those as a commercial product (yet). I am working on one that will have a modulated diffusion sequence so it can be ganged in larger arrays.
 

Violetmachan

Well-Known Member
Feb 25, 2012
87
25
923
hello Len

Your room finally looking stunning, congrats

I presume the sound must be divine!!

noticed your are using you USB port of your emm labs v2

do you feel you are happy and content with what you hear?

enjoy listening to music

Sam
 

LenWhite

Well-Known Member
Feb 11, 2011
424
72
375
Florida
systems.audiogon.com
hello Len

Your room finally looking stunning, congrats

I presume the sound must be divine!!

noticed your are using you USB port of your emm labs v2

do you feel you are happy and content with what you hear?

enjoy listening to music

Sam

Thanks Sam - good to hear from you.

The 1-1/2 year effort was worth it in the end, although there were tense moments during the construction phase:) The room and acoustics allow hearing more of whats recorded on the source. The room is still lively with great inner clarity, wide/deep soundstaging, and palpable imaging. With well recorded and mastered recordings the instruments sound suspended in air with a soundstage only constrained by the room size. Instruments and voices project further into the room, and are more dynamic.

Digital downloads are a mixed bag IMO. Some of them sound very good and others not so much. It's almost impossible to find the provenance of many digital downloads and IMO all are not sourced and/or remastered very well. There are a few music providers I trust using either original masters (Analogue Recordings, Mobile Fidelity) or actually doing high resolution original recordings such (Blue Coast Records, Pentatone, Channel Classics).

I've optimized my laptop as a music server and with well recorded and mastered recordings via the USB port the sound can be close to the few SACD's I have for comparison. I also think the EMM Labs v2 DAC is arguably one of the best available, and sounds pretty close to analog. Although I could likely improve the digital download sound with a purposed music server like the Aurender. But I still think I'm a physical media guy. I'll only buy the digital download if I can't find what I'm looking for on SACD.

And YES I am very much enjoying listening to music on average 25 hours/week in my dedicated room unhampered by noise or interruptions. Live is good:)
 

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