Speaker Placement/Setup (and room treatment) Cannot be Overrstated!

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WGH

Audio Check will help you guys set up those Spatial speakers. Every test on the site is free but donate $5 for uncompressed .wav files downloads of every test, increased durations and sample rates up to 192 kHz in the Tone Gen section.

https://www.audiocheck.net/

The MATT Test will assist in speaker and room treatment placement. The MATT test signal is the brainchild of acoustical engineer Art Noxon, president and founder of Acoustic Sciences Corporation (ASC) and the inventor of the Tube Trap. The Matt Test was copyrighted in 1986 and converted to freeware on April 10, 2018.

MATT stands for Musical Articulation Test Tones. It was created to help the listener of an audio system to hear and measure the degrading effects of room acoustics on the audio signal. Later, after making some acoustic adjustments in the room, the improved listen-ability of the room can also be heard and measured. By recording the Before and After sound of the test at the listening position the A/B comparison is memorialized.

The original test is made up of a frequency sweep which ascends from 28 Hz to 780 Hz and descends back down to 28 Hz. The sweep signal is gated, turned on and off (50% duty cycle), at a rate of 8 times per second. Between each 1/16th second tone burst is a 1/16th second period of silence which is about 40 dB quieter than the tone burst in the test signal.

The basis of the test signal is a very slow sine wave sweep that is turned on and off rapidly, as to produce a train of tone bursts at increasing and then decreasing frequencies, each burst being followed by silence. If you listen to the test signal over headphones you will hear what the fully articulated or dynamic signal sounds like. Playing that same signal in a room will sound different. And, how different depends on the quality of your listening room.

As the frequency changes the MATT signal excites various reflections and resonant modes in your room that linger long enough that they fill sound into the silent portions of the MATT signal. This unwanted sonic lingering translates into a loss of articulation that is audible in poor rooms. A more detailed explanation on how the test works is available here.


Additional Audio Check tests:

Frequency Response Tests
    Low Frequency Response and Subwoofer Audio Test (10-200 Hz)
    Subwoofer Kick Test
    Subwoofer Midrange Frequency Test
    High Frequency Response and Hearing Audio Test (22-8 kHz)
    Aliasing Test
    Mosquito Tone Audibility Test (17.4 kHz)
    Audiometric (Hearing Loss) Test (125-8,000Hz)

Stereo Imaging Tests
    Left/Right Stereo Audio Test
    Loudspeakers Polarity Audio Test
    LEDR Imaging Audio Test
    Stereo Perception and Sound Localization
    Low Frequency Sound Localization and Subwoofer Imaging Test

Dynamic Range Test
    16-bit Dynamic Audio Test
    Dynamic Range, Dithering and Noise Shaping

Room Tests
    Musical Articulation Test Tones (MATT)
    MATT as a Listening Test NEW

Distortion Tests
    Low Frequency Extension and Subwoofer Harmonic Distortion Test (THD)
    Total Harmonic Distortion (<1kHz) NEW

Pure (Sine) Tones
    Full Sine Sweep (20-20,000 Hz)
    Low End Sine Sweep (20-200 Hz)
    Perceptual Sine Sweep (20-20,000 Hz)
    Sine Bursts (20-200 Hz)

Distortion
    Total Harmonic Distortion NEW
    Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) Test Tone

Noises
    White Noise
    Pink Noise
    Brown (Red) Noise
    Blue (Azure) Noise
    Violet (Purple) Noise
    Grey (Perceptual) Noise

Impulse
    Impulse Tone

Dynamic
    Dynamic Test Noises

Higher Sample Rates (up to 192 kHz)
    High Definition Audio Tests

Others
For the curious mind...
    Brown Note
    Shepard Tone Illusion

Pure Tone Generators
    Single Sine Tone Generator
    Dual Sine Tone Generator
    Sweep Tone Generator

Other Audio Generators
    Audiocheck's SpectroTyper
    DTMF Tone Generator

Blind Tests

AllanS

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 519
... why are these recordings only an issue as volume increases a certain level? 

Many thanks for kicking off this thread Forky.  I'm just beginning my treatment journey and am finding all the information and references here to be a real gold mine.
I have pair of M4s and a GIK order coming the end of the month that includes corner bass traps that add some diffusion.  My room has some bass resonance problems so it will be interesting to see how it responds to treatments compared to others described here.

It's only a WAG and someone who knows better may shoot this theory full of holes but it's possible the increased energy at higher volumes is overloading the treatments.

Audio Check will help you guys set up those Spatial speakers.

This is definitely going to cost me some sleep.  Thanks much!

forky

Thanks all. I bought a microphone to take measurements and just need to make it a higher priority. I have 0.00 idea how it all works but will try to get to it during the holidays and will also look at audiocheck.net.

Allan, yes I have the same thought as you which is the room is still getting overloaded as the treatment I have put up so far DID help some of my other "trouble makers" - and quite a bit. Which to me mean that more is needed but also need to be aware not to go over the edge to deaden the room. I do acknowledge that the recording has to to w/ it but it may just be just as much that it is the music itself is overpowering those frequencies in my room but hopefully not the low crossed tweeter. I have plenty of crappy recordings/pressings but haven't given up on these others yet. I'll report back once I've measured the room and also purchased more treatment.

But yes, coming back to the purpose of this thread - chair and speaker placement. I'm STILL in awe of how good my system sounds - esp since the Saturday jam session. From reading all the post here, audiogon and reading reviews, etc. I knew there was another "dimension"  :green: out there and I'm still very excited that I found it - and it was worth the time and effor to do so. Even if my wife thought I was more crazy than I am with all those measurements. I can't wait until she leaves the house again so I can listen (otherwise I'm bound to my headphones).

Getting my speakers to disapper, which means the sound stage is huge, almost engulfing also improved the bass a LOT. It's like the difference between a street car Porsche 911 and then taking that same street car and making a racecar 911 (something I have experience with) and adding race tires. Same car - completley different experience.

DaveWin88

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 208
I thought this was good advice. You more experienced guys can weight in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd2jA5iUvbk