[Gopher]

I finally got my own dedicated listening space in my basement and hoped for some treatment/setup advice.  I'm placing this home on the market soon and don't plan to be here more then 6 months to a year, so I don't want to spend a lot making structural alterations, but I'm working with a basement approximately 11.5 feet wide by 25.5 feet deep.  Behind the rear wall is my boiler room and laundry room.  I've broken the room into 1/3rds for placement of speakers then listening position and I've got a big open sound but with some glare and hardness. 

I have a buddy with some additional treatments he can loan me, including some large diffusion panels I was thinking of trying on the rear wall (behind gear) and moving the Gik bass panels to the rear of the room, but I'm very much a room acoustic rookie. 

[rollo]

   Gopher first treat the first reflection points at walls and ceiling. You have a hard floor and hard ceiling. Lots of reflections. You may consider trying a dead front wall.
    You have a tough challenge with the Zu speakers as the tweeters are just hot. It may not be room acoustics. Can you get access to a spectrum analyzer ? Phone App ?
    That would help to determine what needs to be dealt with. measure first before throwing  any money at it. if it were me I would try a Duelund CAST resistor on the tweeters first after measurement.


charles

[guf]

There are many people WAY more experienced than me that will be offering suggestions but i wanted to mention what i would try. i'd try putting the sofa behind the listening position to contain the sound and bass. turn the area rug 90 degrees.  and borrow as many treatments as you can. Then with borrowed treatments i'd try the diffusion behind the sofa and make the rest dead as possible to balance out the hot tweeter, glare and hardness. i think it looks like an awesome space.

[Gopher]

Charles,

I've got the first reflection points on the walls covered and I guess its time to figure out a solution for mounting panels to the ceiling.  You are not kidding about the reflections and the slap echo is significant.  I was kind of trying for a dead front wall with the GIK 244s and Vimak bass traps.

Yeah the Zu tweeters can seem hot if everything is not optimal--no question about it.  They are very finicky speakers to set up and very easy to 'throw off' but when done right I think they can sound great.  You heard some pretty good sound from Zus at my old condo.  Interesting idea on the resistor...  I already have upgraded Clarity CapMRs on the super tweeter...

Guf,

That is what I would be doing but the couch won't be staying.  I owned this house as a rental before moving into it and the tenants left it behind--salvation army will be picking it up shortly.  Yeah, definitely on the treatments!  I think loaners to bridge the gap will be a great way to go. 

Thanks for the enthusiasm regarding the space.  Its nice to have a man cave again.  My wife and I both have been without our own "zones" since we became parents.  Now my son calls the basement "daddy's playroom."

[Mmaxed]

My space is similar to yours.  Basement room 11'x20'x6'8".  I have many home made panels and am getting it decent.  Need more bass trapping.

At one time I tried getting my Altecs up high enough that the horns were at ear level.  At first I thought it was OK, but after a bit I knew it wasn't, something wasn't right.  Dropped them back to the floor and it was better.  What I noticed was that the raised position the horn was about midway between the floor and the low ceiling.  I think that even with some panels on the ceiling I was getting some strange echoes with that equal spacing.  Might have been exciting the metal HVAC ducts more also.  Not sure what the answer is, but looking at your pic, it seems that your ceiling is somewhat low also.

Nice looking room, hope you get it sorted.   

[WireNut]

Gopher,

I like the placement of your loudspeakers out into the room and away from the side walls. Perfect setup for imaging IMO.

[Gopher]

I had somewhat of a development last night.  For the last few days my sound has been pretty uninspiring and I haven't much cared to listen to my rig.  I couldn't quite put a finger on what was off, just that it wasn't jelling right--there was some glare and hardness but it was more then just that and stuff which was focused on the mid/lower end weren't sounding very good either.

I removed the two 244 bass panels behind my audio rack and placed them behind my listening position and things seemed to open up nicely.  I lost a little of the "bite" on the top end which I actually like, but other then that I have engaging sound again. 

I am thinking of trying again behind the rack with regular 242 panels I'm borrowing from a buddy or doubling up the 242s on the side walls and possible borrowing some diffusion.

Any thoughts?

[Big Red Machine]

Fred. I have 2 boxes of 703 cut into 18x18x24 triangles that I have no place to set up incase you want to trap the corners the old fashioned way.

I much prefer diffusion on my side walls and ceiling these days.  Working pretty well in this rental.

[bpape]

The wall behind the seating can be a significant source of both high frequency reflections as well as anomalies in the bottom end - usually cancellations which make the rest of the spectrum sound even leaner.

[Gopher]

Fred. I have 2 boxes of 703 cut into 18x18x24 triangles that I have no place to set up incase you want to trap the corners the old fashioned way.

I much prefer diffusion on my side walls and ceiling these days.  Working pretty well in this rental.

Pete,

I may be interested indeed!  I haven't investigated the DIY route much, would I just need cotton canvas to wrap it?  I assume the triangles would be fore the top corners in the front and top and bottom in the rear? 

Brian,

So I am seeing.  Is there any particular configuration of your panels you believe would work well for a setup like this?  I have four 242s, two 242s and a square 2x2 diffusor from GIK along with two vimak tube bass traps.  I'm not opposed to picking up a few more GIK panels if you think it would be of significant benefit.

Wirenut,

Thanks! I have the space finally, I figure I may as well use it.   The room is 305 inches from rear wall to stairway upstairs (basically end of room, I'll take pics) and the speakers come in at 100inches and my head position another 100 inches from there.  I've been playing with the speaker spread and toe though.

Mmaxed,

Very similar indeed.  Do you have any pictures of what you did with your room?  The acoustics world is sort of new to me.

[shadowlight]

I am going to have to keep track of how you make out Fred.  Since, my room is similar in size (just a bit longer at 30') and potentially the same issues.

[Gopher]

Update:

I've gotten that couch out of my basement, moved the 244s behind my seating position and lined the side walls between the speakers and listening position with 3 242/equivalent traps per side.  I have also put a GIK 2x2 Diffusor in front of my audio rack and in the 15 minutes I had to listen last night, it seemed like things took a big step in the right direction.

What are my inexpensive options for diffusion?  Is the auralex stuff any good?

Deepak,

So far I like traps in the front corner but seem to hate any absorption on the wall in between the corners.  Experiment with that as a place to start, although you had a bit more hotness in your room then I had, even untreated.  Perhaps the Clarity CapMR upgrade for your supertweeters may be in order?

[oneinthepipe]

GIK et al industry participants have reasonably priced diffusors, although some listeners DIY, but building diffusors appears to be very time-intensive, and perhaps some DIY builders will chime in.  I haven't heard many praises of Auralex products.


Nonetheless, if you decide to increase your absorption, OC703 and OC705 can be purchased much less expensively from building wholesalers, such as KAMCO, and building DIY absorption panels is an easy project.  For a semi-DIY project, Acoustimac sells a 24"X48"X4" panel kit, for example, with a wood frame, "acoustic" fabric, and the requisite OC703 for $52.99 plus shipping. 


http://www.acoustimac.com/acoustimac-do-it-yourself-424/