[Christof]

I would like to hear if anyone has any recommendation to help me mellow my room out a bit.  My system is detailed at the bottom of my post.  I'm listening in a room that is about 45' wide x 18' deep x 12.5' high.  I've posted a pic below.  my speakers are located halfway down the 45' wall and sit about 9' apart.  I listen at about 10' away and the  rear wall is about 5' behind me.  I have hard surfaces everywhere and there is a bit of echo in my room.  I've not furnished the room yet.  Aside from a nice plush rug infront of the listening position what would you folks recommend?  I don't feel like there are bass issues bit the room does seem kind of bright to me.

Would diffusors behind the listening position on the wall help?  I can build QRD's pretty easily my shop and would like to go diy route as much as possible.

Thanks for any tips.


I sit by the wall on the left side of the picture and my system is setup on the brick wall to the right

[avahifi]

Nice room, not nice for audio.  Almost anything you could do to make it nice for audio would make it un-nice for anything else.

Suggestion, put audio in different room.  Dead room, heavy carpeted floors, sonix ceilings, acoustic fabric wallpaper, no echos, no reflections, just the audio system and nothing else.  You want to hear the source, the hall of the source, the musicians, the instruments, and if they were having a good day.  Not nasty hard walls and floors.

Save this lovely room for lovely living.  Do the audio elsewhere.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[Christof]

  Gotta make this room work until I buy another building and convert it, at which point I will dedicate a special room for audio, but I do not see that happening anytime soon.  I realize this area is not optimal by any means but there must be a few things I can do to reduce the slight echo or brightness of the room besides sell it.  I do prefer a more live sounding room over a dead room.

[Daygloworange]

Cristof,

With your skillset you could build a lot of things to tame the room. Here is link to one of the best studio designers around. If you click on the see more buttons, you'll see some very aesthetically pleasing implementations of diffusion and absorptive panels for walls and ceilings that you could use to build your own in your space and have it blend in nicely.

http://www.wsdg.com/clientlist.php5

Cheers

[warnerwh]

Maybe you could get those desk separaters used in offices and surround an area for listening.  You can get them with padding and even add some of your own. That would help alot and be pretty cheap if you get them used. Won't be much for the looks department but could make a huge difference on the sound you're hearing.

That room has to be way to reflective.  If you're going to furnish it I'd add plenty of thick rugs or carpet.  You want to add all the damping in there you can get away with.

[bpape]

Put a nice area rug on the floor between you and the system.  Hang up a few panels where you have space (at this point it's more about knocking down the decay times rather than anything else).  I don't think diffusion is your answer.

Bryan

[JoshK]

Welcome to our world.  Our as in the Europeans, the NYC dwellers, etc.  Of course, not all of us have super live rooms, but many/most of us do.   

With all due respect to Frank VA, most american hi-fi retailers has this attitude, which frankly does nothing to help a very significant portion of the population that can't opt for something else.  Audio has to be made to coexist in what you have to work with.  It isn't always practical/plausible to do something else. 

I can't say I have the answers, but I have a similar perdicament.  My room has very tall tin ceilings, huge archeways (basically two of four walls are missing) into adjacent rooms, and concrete and brick walls.  Bass is everyone's problem, because everyone has some bass problems, but like you it isn't my biggest problem.  I imagine with the exception of the floor to ceiling potential of standing waves, which are more treatable, you don't have room modes/gain till really low (like me).  This also means the bass isn't masking your other issue, that of midrange slap echo. 

Furnishings will do a lot.  If you add a lot of mass via furnishings, particularly large dense absorbtive couches, large plants, bookcases, etc, you will kill some of the decay time.  A thick rug really is your friend here.   Absorbtive panels are also going to help out quite a bit.  Be mindful of the corners and seams where your wall meets with your ceiling.  It may or may not be practical to treat them, but they are causing some of the problems. 

I think the best approach may be what I am attempting to try and that is think outside of the box.  Sigfried Linkwitz designed the Orion specifically to address such constraining domestic situations as ours.  The idea is to design a speaker that actually, contrary to what some believe minimizes the impact of the room.  That is the dipole speaker.  In Europe the dipole approach has really took off and it has gained a lot of ground here too.  I think in part because it delivers on this promise of lessened room impact. 

You have a lot less energy radiating from the dipole speakers to the sides of the room, so this is less energy that the room has to give back.  The rear radiation then needs to be dealt with appropriately, but diffussion seems to work well. 

Large rooms are good, lets keep in mind and it looks like you got that going for you.  So you just need to think towards and deal with the problems of a live room.   

Good luck!

[PhilNYC]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that asides from getting a few rugs to cover the floor (not just the area between your listening seat and the speakers) plus some reasonable amount of furniture, I bet your system is going to sound pretty darn good in this room without doing much to it.  The rugs and furniture will help reduce the brightness and any hard slap echo, and the natural decay that you'll get in a large room like this is not a bad thing IMHO...

[Karsten]

Maybe you could get those desk separaters used in offices and surround an area for listening.  You can get them with padding and even add some of your own. That would help alot and be pretty cheap if you get them used. Won't be much for the looks department but could make a huge difference on the sound you're hearing.

That room has to be way to reflective.  If you're going to furnish it I'd add plenty of thick rugs or carpet.  You want to add all the damping in there you can get away with.

That would be my suggestion as well.

Karsten

[woodsyi]

DIY oak(matching the floor) QRD diffusors, bass trapping columns (with may be bronze bust or two on top),  Yucca or bamboos, Oriental rugs, etc.  I see great possibilities in this room. 

[TomS]

Maybe you could get those desk separaters used in offices and surround an area for listening.  You can get them with padding and even add some of your own. That would help alot and be pretty cheap if you get them used. Won't be much for the looks department but could make a huge difference on the sound you're hearing.

That room has to be way to reflective.  If you're going to furnish it I'd add plenty of thick rugs or carpet.  You want to add all the damping in there you can get away with.

That would be my suggestion as well.

Karsten

We use these on rollers in our huge church meeting rooms and they work great.  Add Corning 503 and finish to suit.

[Christof]

DIY oak(matching the floor) QRD diffusors, bass trapping columns (with may be bronze bust or two on top),  Yucca or bamboos, Oriental rugs, etc.  I see great possibilities in this room. 

Woodsyi, thats 100 yr old maple flooring that I salvaged from a doomed factory and reinstalled over my existing (damaged) floor to look native   I do have some extra flooring that I could diy QRD's and make frames for absorbers.  The room will be furnished with a couple large plants which should help.

Maybe you could get those desk separaters used in offices and surround an area for listening.  You can get them with padding and even add some of your own. That would help alot and be pretty cheap if you get them used. Won't be much for the looks department but could make a huge difference on the sound you're hearing.

Great idea, I will give this a try.  I could push them out of the way when they are not needed.

Insert Quote
Welcome to our world.  Our as in the Europeans, the NYC dwellers, etc.  Of course, not all of us have super live rooms, but many/most of us do.   

With all due respect to Frank VA, most american hi-fi retailers has this attitude, which frankly does nothing to help a very significant portion of the population that can't opt for something else.  Audio has to be made to coexist in what you have to work with.  It isn't always practical/plausible to do something else.

Amen, Josh.  At this point my only option is keep the room and adapt or buy a new space, maybe something like this

[lonewolfny42]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that asides from getting a few rugs to cover the floor (not just the area between your listening seat and the speakers) plus some reasonable amount of furniture, I bet your system is going to sound pretty darn good in this room without doing much to it.  The rugs and furniture will help reduce the brightness and any hard slap echo, and the natural decay that you'll get in a large room like this is not a bad thing IMHO...

Phil....
Christof's room does remind me of Greg's downtown loft (Stereo Times)....right ?