[dragoonxp20]

Like the title says I'm completely new to room acoustics and have no idea where to start. Up until now I've been worrying only about speakers, electronics, and a little bit about cables. My speaker placement and listening position are based off what I think should be good placement given my listening room (aka bedroom). My speakers are OB so the need to get them away from the rear wall was a factor in my decision for placement.

I'd like to get some feedback about speaker placement/my listening position. Also, how do I know if I need room treatments/any suggestions? I don't have a lot to spend and can't do anything permanent to the walls/doors.

I've linked a dropbox folder with some pictures of my room. Room is estimated to be 10' wide x 16' long x 8' tall. There's also a layout picture that was posted on the apartment's website that I marked up a bit.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ei22cmpoxaucvd6/Pkhn8vZXcU

Red marks speakers
Green marks my position
Blue lines mark where external noise comes from mostly (Luckily there's a bit of external soundproofing and it's a quiet neighborhood).
      The doors are very lightweight and seem to be almost acoustically transparent.
      Obviously the HVAC unit is the loudest. It sort of resonates in my room as well.
      The other blue lines near my roommates bathroom are due to the exhaust fan which is somewhat loud and obnoxious.

PC is doubling as a media player and gaming machine so there is a small amount of noise from the fans/water pump. It's sitting behind the desk that's in between the speakers.

[bpape]

Welcome to the madness.  Is it possible to flip the room 180 degrees so you have better left to right symmetry between you and the front wall?

Bryan

[dragoonxp20]

Welcome to the madness.  Is it possible to flip the room 180 degrees so you have better left to right symmetry between you and the front wall?

Bryan

I don't think I can do that and have my bed not blocking any doors. I could do 90 degrees so that I'm sitting on the bathroom side and the speakers are way from the windows. Also added some more pictures because the other ones were kind of dark.

[Alex Reynolds]

I don't think I can do that and have my bed not blocking any doors. I could do 90 degrees so that I'm sitting on the bathroom side and the speakers are way from the windows. Also added some more pictures because the other ones were kind of dark.

I don't think this position would be any better.

Acoustic treatment will not dampen much of the noise coming into/out of the room at all unfortunately.

I would also suggest to flip your room as it makes acoustic treatment much easier and should give you the most even low end response. Your speakers might have to come a bit closer to the wall in that case so your bed has more room behind/to the side of you (if this all fits, but it should if the room is 16')

All rooms need treatment. Treating first reflections help improve imaging. Bass trapping helps clear up muddy or weak low end in a room. Diffusion can help to reduce flutter echo and help separate reflections from direct sound while preserving the high end in a room.

[milford3]

Wow, nice OB speakers.  I think you need a larger room for the OB's and take it from there.

[dragoonxp20]

I don't think this position would be any better.

Acoustic treatment will not dampen much of the noise coming into/out of the room at all unfortunately.

I would also suggest to flip your room as it makes acoustic treatment much easier and should give you the most even low end response. Your speakers might have to come a bit closer to the wall in that case so your bed has more room behind/to the side of you (if this all fits, but it should if the room is 16')

All rooms need treatment. Treating first reflections help improve imaging. Bass trapping helps clear up muddy or weak low end in a room. Diffusion can help to reduce flutter echo and help separate reflections from direct sound while preserving the high end in a room.

I guess I'll try to find a spot for my bed on the other side of the room then. I think I may have to block one of the closet doors, but I can kind of see where you guys are coming from though.

So there's not much I can do about the external noise?

Would you say that treating the first reflections would make the most difference in my situation if I had to just start with one type of treatment? I figure that the bass is probably not too bad just based off the fact that my speakers are OB and don't load the room as much. I can take some measurements when I get my new speakers as I don't know if they'll be helpful if I change my setup immediately after.

Wow, nice OB speakers.  I think you need a larger room for the OB's and take it from there.

Thanks, I built them myself. I'm actually getting GR Research Super-Vs soon to replace them. I wish I had a larger room to work with as well as I feel like I can never really get the proportion of the sound-stage right.

[Alex Reynolds]

First reflection points are pretty key spots. If bass response seems quite neutral to you at the moment, then yeah I'd focus on first reflection points. You can check out a video on how to find your first reflection points here: http://gikacoustics.com/video-early-first-reflection-points/

[Hipper]

Can you not put the speakers either side of the bed, perhaps turning your bed 90 degrees to give more room for them? Put the screen and table at the end of the bed and the glass table and keyboard to one side of your listening chair (this glass table probably causes some reflected sound in its current position).

I don't know how your speakers behave but it might not do any harm if the screen table was a bit forward of the speakers. It may also give you a bit more flexibilty for positioning your chair.

[Hipper]

I looked at the link about early reflection points. Surely this statement is muddled:

'Early reflection points or first reflection points are terms to describe direct sound which arrives at the listener’s ears before the reflected sound does'.

Shouldn't it be something like 'Early reflection points or first reflection points are terms to describe the location (usually on walls) where sound direct from the speaker is reflected to the listener.'

You can then go on to say, as it more or less does, that 'Direct sound combines with reflected sound and this causes interference at the listening position....'.

[Alex Reynolds]

I looked at the link about early reflection points. Surely this statement is muddled:

'Early reflection points or first reflection points are terms to describe direct sound which arrives at the listener’s ears before the reflected sound does'.

Shouldn't it be something like 'Early reflection points or first reflection points are terms to describe the location (usually on walls) where sound direct from the speaker is reflected to the listener.'

You can then go on to say, as it more or less does, that 'Direct sound combines with reflected sound and this causes interference at the listening position....'.

Haha, yes, thanks for spotting that. Facepalms will be had at the office..
I think the sentence was originally supposed to say "early reflections or first reflections (...)" not *points*

But in your definition there is an error also - all points on a wall can reflect sound to the listener. The early/first reflection is simply reflections that happen so soon after the initial sound that they are interpreted to be part of the original sound (and can cause polar lobing & nulling at your ears). I might have to revise the article here

Again, thanks for spotting.

[Hipper]

A deliberate error - I don't want to appear perfect.

dragoon. The only thing you can do about the external noise is to keep it out somehow. I don't know what else can be done about it except play louder or use closed headphones.

With the size of your room and presumably some speaker toe-in I'm not sure how much first reflections off the side walls will be a problem. You would need to know the shape of the cone of sound coming from your mid/high drivers - mine for example are said to be 30 degrees wide and high (I presume this refers to the main body of sound but assume some sound comes out at 40 degrees say). You will more likely get problems from reflections off the back wall to the screen and then to your ears, and also perhaps back wall to front wall to your ears, and of course that glass table and the floor.

The first thing to do is to get the bass right by moving the speakers and listening position around - at least as much as you are able. Don't worry about toe-in at this stage. You may already know this but as you move nearer or further asway from your speakers the bass gets louder or softer (do this test by sitting on your listening chair as standing can give different results). If you can't get a satisfactory bass (which is quite likely in most rooms) that's when considerations of bass traps can be made but you will need some idea of the problem frequencies. Clues can be had from your room dimensions. There should be info on this on sites that sell bass traps, and on here no doubt.

Once the bass is sorted you will get a better idea of problems in the mid and high frequencies.

I should add that I'm no expert but this is what I eventually did. My solution ended up with Auralex foam and a digital equaliser.