[thunderbrick]

Bear with me on this one; I am an on-again/off-again audiophile and am redoing what was a two-car garage for audio (2ch and HT) for my eventual bucket system.  The room does double duty as a photo studio (go figure!) on occasion.  I hate seeing wires snaking around and have removed the concrete floor so that wires can be imbedded in conduit, as well as installing radiant floor heat.  OK, here are the details.

Room size:  22' w x 26' d x 11' high  Wall of windows behind speakers on 22' wall.  Speaker wires come out of floor 4' from front wall, and 7' apart.
Listening position is 5-6 ft from rear wall or nearly 15 ft from main speakers.  Speakers are either Stacked DQ-10s with ribbon tweets, or Magnepan 1.6qr on hand for evaluation.  I had two DQ-1W subs against front wall, about 4' behind the mains, and that configuration may continue subject to others' advice.  Moscode 300 is main amp, Hafler for subs.

I can separate the main speakers 6', 7' or even 8 ft apart without having the wires show (petty, ain't it?).  Floor will eventually be carpeted throughout.  Listen to classic, celtic, folk, Broadway.  Love a wide soundstage and depth.  I will use a totally separate (cheap) system for HT.
This project will run $6K with me doing a lot of the work so I have little cash left over for improvements.  I need suggestions for budget room treatments.  My new wife is a genius with decorating (no more white walls javascript:void(0), so heavy drapes or fabrics are an option.  Will take another year to complete the project including final touches.  Any help would be most appreciated.
Bob

[markC]

I'd try to get the speaks a little farther out into the room. Say 6 or 7 ft. Also you have more room to spread the speaks apart. More details on the specific equipment may help in garnering more info. You've got a good sized space there and squishing things up would be a mistake IMO.

[thunderbrick]

Thanks for  the help.  I can certainly move them out farther with 2-3' wires when the time comes.  The speaker location as described was a compromise, considering all the other things that go on in the room, and the location for floor boxes is just right in case I flip the listening position 180 degrees as my lovely wife suggests.   Something to do with Sheng Fooey, she says.

My position guide is also based on a lot of reading that say the Maggies should be 3-4 feet from the wall.

Responses welcome.......

[Ethan Winer]

I need suggestions for budget room treatments.

All rooms need:

* Broadband (not tuned) bass traps straddling as many corners as you can manage, including the wall-ceiling corners. More bass traps on the rear wall behind helps even further. You simply cannot have too much bass trapping. Real bass trapping, that is - thin foam and thin fiberglass don't work to a low enough frequency.

* Mid/high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling.

* Some additional amount of mid/high absorption and/or diffusion on any large areas of bare parallel surfaces, such as opposing walls or the ceiling if the floor is reflective. Diffusion on the rear wall behind you is also useful in larger rooms.

For the complete story see my Acoustics FAQ.

There's a lot of additional non-sales technical information on my company's web site - articles, videos, test tones and other downloads, and much more.

As for speaker placement, the only way to know for sure where is best is to measure the low frequency response at high resolution. This is best done using software such as these popular programs:

ETF, Windows, $150

FuzzMeasure, Mac, $150

Room EQ Wizard, Windows and Mac and Linux, Freeware

This article explains how I use ETF, but the principles apply to all such programs.

--Ethan

[bpape]

I'd make darn sure you know where you want the speakers prior to putting in restrictive conduit if wiring must be hidden.

With Maggies, you might want to consider some diffusion on the wall behind the panels to minimize comb filtering in addition to what Ethan has mentioned.

Bryan

[thunderbrick]

I appreciate all the help.  My goal (maybe impossible) is to have the wires hidden (maybe coming out of the floor 12-18" behind the speakers) so that people don't trip on the wires, and I don't see them from the listening seat.  Another possibility is to have the wires coming out of the walls but rolling up the wires when not listening.  That means shutting down the amp, which I'd prefer not to do, but...........