Tuning room
- Thread starter Hoosr1
- Start date
Don't bother. Aftermarket room acoustic treatments are completely unnecessary - provided you've carpeting/pad and minimal room furnishings and you're prepared to spend time attempting to find an optimal location for your speakers in order to establish a superior acoustic-coupling of sorts between the speaker and the room. Then again, you must make the time for this effort regardless of anything you do / don't do to the room. But if you really hunker down and invest the time now, you just might realize you've no need for aftermarket acoustic treatments. If you're concerned get yourself a couple of bookcases to strategically place if you think you have need. Otherwise, you should be fine.
BTW, with your stated room dimensions you have the opportunity to do quite well. I've had 3 rooms and my prior room was 13.5' x 18' x 10.5ft ceiling where the wall behind the listening chair also had a 3' deep x 5' wide cove so that part of the room was 21' deep. It took 9 months of moving the speakers on average maybe once per week before I finally got them dialed in to that room. And it was worth it. Just wish I dedicated more time to getting it done soooner.
BTW, with your stated room dimensions you have the opportunity to do quite well. I've had 3 rooms and my prior room was 13.5' x 18' x 10.5ft ceiling where the wall behind the listening chair also had a 3' deep x 5' wide cove so that part of the room was 21' deep. It took 9 months of moving the speakers on average maybe once per week before I finally got them dialed in to that room. And it was worth it. Just wish I dedicated more time to getting it done soooner.
Appreciate the advice. The vocals, jazz and anything acoustic sounds dialed in. Rock or pop (good recordings) seem to overload the room a bit. I’ll try the bookcase in the back and maybe something for the first reflection.
thanks!
thanks!
If you have room overload with rock ot pop you may have a typical 60-70 Hz node. ASC TubeTraps (16 inch diameter) are an excellent solution for that. See first what the bookcase does.
By "overload the room a bit", are you referring to excessive bass? Have you tried to move your listening seat up or back a couple of inches at a time? Listen for smoothest bass response. Once that is found, then experiment with moving speakers a bit more into the room.
EDIT: If not excessive bass, then try moving the speakers back/forth, left right, toe-in, etc, after seat location is found. To cut reflections, consider furniture, carpet, paintings, window treatments (curtains/blinds), plants in corners or side walls, normal stuff first. Have fun experimenting.
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It’s not the bass, seems to be a bit too much echo and general reflections. I have the speakers 77.5 inches from the back wall (measured from the front of the speaker).
Hello Hoosr1! Welcome to WBF!
stehno was characteristically dogmatic and confident based only on your room dimensions.
Is there any glass in your room? Sliding patio doors? Windows? Large picture frames?
Do you have a TV screen in the room?
Of what material are the walls made?
stehno was characteristically dogmatic and confident based only on your room dimensions.
Is there any glass in your room? Sliding patio doors? Windows? Large picture frames?
Do you have a TV screen in the room?
Of what material are the walls made?
Ok, if it's not the bass then maybe a bookcase will help and other furniture as well -- or more, or more absorbing (wool), carpets. If there remains a problem, TubeTraps in the corners may still be useful, but then you don't want ones that suck up the bass if it's not excessive, i.e., thinner ones, 13 inches diameter or less.
The distance of speakers from the back wall *) seems good. Fortunately you have high ceilings; echo from these should be less of an issue (I needed ceiling diffusers for my 8.5 feet high ceilings, but not all lower ones need them either).
Ron's questions are good ones.
_______________
*) or what most would call the front wall, the one you are looking at; I know, the nomenclature is confusing and there is no full consensus
Ron, double dry wall with green glue in between and lots of insulation. There are 2 windows and those could be causing an issue. Thought they were high enough up to be fine, but maybe not. See picture of the room and thanks for the help.
...it looks like a room that might bounce a bit, but that's natural. For me, I would get a diffusion panel at each first reflection location on the side walls. And listen. Maybe a couple of diffusion panels at the rear. And listen. Modern panels are easy to place and can look good, IMO.
The walls are probably good, and handling the big stuff from what you described; maybe just a little bit of management for the slap/bounce.
If you enjoy the natural light, perhaps go for the windows last, after you see how it goes. They're up pretty high, looks like.
Hard to tell from the lens effect, but is the sofa mid-room? If so, that may be causing a negative impact for you.
Good Luck! Enjoy the process.
The walls are probably good, and handling the big stuff from what you described; maybe just a little bit of management for the slap/bounce.
If you enjoy the natural light, perhaps go for the windows last, after you see how it goes. They're up pretty high, looks like.
Hard to tell from the lens effect, but is the sofa mid-room? If so, that may be causing a negative impact for you.
Good Luck! Enjoy the process.
Thanks the diffusion panels make a lot of sense. Sofa is about 5.5 feet from the back of the room/wall.
...cheap experiment, if you like their patterns. I have several of them.
www.gikacoustics.com
GIK 2" Impression Series Panel Diffusor/Absorber
The Impression Series is the perfect marriage: high-quality absorption with diffusion using 11 beautiful patterns for both superior sound absorption and sound diffusion to improve the sound within a space. In our standard Impression Series 2" acoustic foam panel, the acoustic foam used is...
www.gikacoustics.com
I live in France so can not help you with names but let me just tell you, that if you don’t have the technical skills as I don’t have to analyse and mesure a room, I recommend you to get one specialist, a good one, and follow their advices. For me it was very well spent money for two reasons. First the improvements of sound and the learning. After the 4 hours spent in my house I understood how acoustics work.
Gunnar
Gunnar
What a great-looking, dedicated room! I love the wood floor!
No amount of speaker position tweaking or home furnishings placement can effectively mitigate room acoustical issues in a room with these dimensions. Note that 5.5 feet behind the listening position would typically not be enough distance for diffusion to work well (I've seen acoustic consultants recommend twice that). Your room appears to be too small for diffusion to work optimally, with every surface untreated and therefore reflective. At a minimum you need absorption or combination absorption/scatter panels (or something more exotic-see link below). An inexpensive approach would be GIK panels with scatter plates - 244 panels behind the speakers and between them (below the windows with one edge in the corner) and on the wall behind the listening position, with 242 panels on the side walls. The center panel could be a GIK "Art Panel". The scatter plates prevent over-damping the room. RPG's "BAD" combination panels are superior to GIK but also more expensive. I would also put an ASI "Sugar Cube" in each ceiling corner no matter what else you do, and a couple on the glass of each window. If you use "Sugar Cubes" on the glass surfaces there will be no need to cover them. "Sugar Cubes" also work very well in lieu of panels on the ceiling.
FYI: https://www.stereophile.com/content/fifth-element-90
FYI: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/trying-the-zr-acoustics-panels.31846/page-12#post-871291
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These are absorbers with scatter plates, which simply reduce the amount of absorption by reflecting some of the sound back - useful but not true diffuers like quadratics....cheap experiment, if you like their patterns. I have several of them.
GIK 2" Impression Series Panel Diffusor/Absorber
The Impression Series is the perfect marriage: high-quality absorption with diffusion using 11 beautiful patterns for both superior sound absorption and sound diffusion to improve the sound within a space. In our standard Impression Series 2" acoustic foam panel, the acoustic foam used is...
...well, not quadratic diffusors. Deflectors. Scatterers. Reflectors. But perhaps more practical than quads on the sidewalls to get some of the primary effect.
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