Bedroom in need of acoustic help

bluemike · « **on:** 16 Aug 2005, 06:05 pm »

HI Guys

My system is located in my bedroom
I have spent a fair bit of money getting it to sound it's best

to get it to the next level I need some help treating my room

The room dimensions are 14x11 my speakers face the long wall
my bed is my listening postion
The floors are hardwood and my equpment is on a resonant audio stand
The speakers are monitors and they are on stands 24 inches high
My bed is approx 22 inches high
When sitting in my listneing postion i'm about 7 feet from the speakers

I have no room treatments whats so ever and need some suggestions on what to do first

Any input on the subject is very much appreciated

woodsyi · « **Reply #1 on:** 16 Aug 2005, 07:42 pm »

Mike,

Pictures or more description would help.
Is the bed against the wall and are you backed aginst a wall/headboard in your listening position?
What walls do you have: Drywall, plaster, stone, log, mirror, etc.?
How far away from the front and side walls are your monitors?
Do you use a subwoofer?
Source and amp?

Cheers.

bluemike · « **Reply #2 on:** 16 Aug 2005, 08:52 pm »

Sorry at this time unable to provide pictures
I hope you can still help

To answer your questions as best as possible

The bed is up against the wall
yes I am backed against my headboard at listening position
The walls are somewhat bare and they are drywall
8 foot ceilings
The room is sort of shaped Like an L where the washroom (seperate wall ) is behind my speakers
my Speakers face the long wall
i have a window 4x6 on one side of the wall the other side is bare
My monitors are roughly 1 foot away from the wall and 2 feet from the side walls

I don't have a subwoofer
My setup is amp preamp cdp
BC 24 HYBRID Exemplar 2900 Audioprism Mantissa pre amp

I hope I answered all of your questions

Sorry I'm a newbie at this

Pat

woodsyi · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Aug 2005, 02:47 pm »

Pat,

Assuming your monitors go down to ~40Hz, I am going to guess that you are more interested in cleaning up your mid/highs than fixing boomy bass. I think your listening position against the wall is an issue. Can you go long way and put the bed out off the wall a little? If you have a high solid wood headboard, you may have to use a lot of pillows or lose the headboard.

Heavy drapes or custom blind as diffusor on the window and early reflection point treatment seems to be in order here. I would call either Ethan at RealTrap or Nathan at 8th Nerve and see what they can do for you. You can still do DIY but they should be able to give pointers.

Ethan Winer · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Aug 2005, 04:41 pm »

Mike,

> The room dimensions are 14x11 my speakers face the long wall <

If possible, you'd do well to rotate the setup so the speakers fire the long way down the room. And as Woodsyi said, you don't want to be close to the wall behind you. This article called How to Set Up a Room on my company's site explains the basics:

www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

--Ethan

JohninCR · « **Reply #5 on:** 17 Aug 2005, 07:58 pm »

Another possibility is to stay there against that back wall, and when listening, move the speakers much closer to your listening position. I've read about people having good success with that kind of listening setup. I think the primary benefit of it is the nearfield listening takes the room pretty much out of the equation and you pick up some extra bass reinforcement at the wall.

MaxCast · « **Reply #6 on:** 17 Aug 2005, 08:42 pm »

You may want to try raising your speakers to ear level and see how that sounds. Won't help the back wall issue tho. Add a couple Real Traps behind your head board and first reflection points.

Option 2: Get a set of cans.

bluemike · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Aug 2005, 04:05 pm »

Thx guys for your informative suggestions

Max what size of bass traps do you suggest for my room
10x15

michaelv · « **Reply #8 on:** 19 Aug 2005, 05:30 am »

Ethan,
By reading the article, i see 38% rule is really interesting. Now i have question related to my room (12'x14') . By calculation , i'm about 5.6 ft from front wall. And my speaker is 2ft from side wall and 2 ft from back wall. Two speakers are 8 ft apart and i sit about 9ft away from the speaker. That leave about 3ft from back wall to listening position.

Do you think this setup works well? Or if i use this rule but for the backwall, i will have to sit 5 ft away from backwall and 9ft from front wall. That means , with my speaker setup ( unfortunately, i won't be able to move speaker around anymore), i have to sit around 7ft away from the speakers. Do you think it's too close?

thanks.

bpape · « **Reply #9 on:** 19 Aug 2005, 11:39 am »

Blue.

In that size room (espcecially with a bed and everything else in there), you don't have a lot of floorspace to give up.

Try using the wall/ceiling corners pretty much all around I'd think. Try the 2 to your sides first and then the other 2 if that's not enough.

ctviggen · « **Reply #10 on:** 19 Aug 2005, 01:31 pm »

I don't think 7 feet is too close -- I've sat closer than that to my RM40s, which are towering hulks. Although I like Ethan's products (I currently have 6 traps and am planning on buying more), 8th Nerve's products will fit a bedroom better. For space reasons, I'd consider the following:

Tube traps from

http://www.acousticsciences.com/tubetrap.htm

or

framed from

http://www.eighthnerve.com/response.html

And maybe two of Ethan's products at the first reflection points.

Ethan Winer · « **Reply #11 on:** 19 Aug 2005, 01:53 pm »

Michael,

> if i use this rule but for the backwall, i will have to sit 5 ft away from backwall and 9ft from front wall. <

Since your room is not large I'd expect better results 38% of the way back from the front wall. That puts you farther from the rear wall, which is where the peaks and nulls are worst. In a much larger room sitting 38% from the rear is not as bad. I understand you may not want to be that close though. Regardless, the real issue is the low frequency response and ringing - the more bass trapping you have, the more these problems will be reduced.

--Ethan

Ethan Winer · « **Reply #12 on:** 19 Aug 2005, 01:59 pm »

Bob,

I hope nobody minds my commenting on this:

> maybe two of Ethan's products at the first reflection points. <

That's the exact opposite of what I'd recommend.

MiniTraps and MondoTraps really shine at the lowest frequencies, so that's where I'd recommend them first.

--Ethan

ctviggen · « **Reply #13 on:** 19 Aug 2005, 03:35 pm »

Oh no, I agree with you -- traps in corners will help more than traps at the first reflection points (as all room modes terminate in the corners). I have Mondo traps in two of my corners, and will put them in another two corners, once I move my "office" upstairs. But I have a dedicated HT room. In terms of a bedroom, though, if he can fit Mondo traps in there, he should. I'm just not sure if that's going to be possible, given the amount of stuff already in the bedroom, which is why I recommended the 8th Nerve and ASC stuff instead, as they are physically smaller (though, as always, bigger = better for bass trapping). So, I agree with you about trapping in the corners, but I'm not sure whether he can physically fit Mondo traps there.

MaxCast · « **Reply #14 on:** 19 Aug 2005, 10:50 pm »

Clear the room, ditch the bed...get a nice LazyBoy

Thicker is better for trapping the lowest frequencys. Nathan is suggesting the corners before the sides. If you still will be sitting close to the wall behind your head, I'd still treat that.

bluemike · « **Reply #15 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 02:15 am »

Sure Max

I guess boot the wife out and kid ...perhaps bring in the girlfriend

JLM · « **Reply #16 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 11:05 pm »

I'll bet 99% of us have less than ideal rooms in which to listen and 99% of those have spent too much on "equipment" in light of those rooms as they're set up.

Many here make due with bedroom listening rooms, but IMO its an exercise in fustration for an audiophile. Your room ratios and size isn't all that bad, and the bed should absorb at least one bass frequency, but sitting with your back against the wall needs to be corrected. Have you considered using one of those big chair-like pillows that are meant to be used on a bed or floor? That way you can move away from the wall and maybe try moving the system to the face a short wall.

Headphones may still be your best bet. 6moons loved the Eastern Electric MiniMax CD player with cans (sorry don't have a link).

ScottMayo · « **Reply #17 on:** 21 Aug 2005, 12:39 am »

Quote from: Ethan Winer

Bob,

I hope nobody minds my commenting on this:

> maybe two of Ethan's products at the first reflection points. <

That's the exact opposite of what I'd recommend.

MiniTraps and MondoTraps really shine at the lowest frequencies, so that's where I'd recommend them first.

--Ethan

He's got a small room with a *bed* in it. Unless it's a single bed, it's possible he's already getting decent bass trapping. A mattress is going to be a moderately good absorber, it's already spaced a few inches from a reflective surface (the floor) and up against a wall, and it takes up a fair percentage of the room's total volume. Except for having his head against the back wall, it's possible he doesn't have a bass problem. Granted it's hard to have too much bass trapping, but this might be a case where the place to start is with mid and high reflections.

Try hanging a bunch of blankets (quilts are better), loosely folded 4 layers thick, at the first reflection points (side walls, front wall, and behind you.) There's not much absorption in a folded blanket but you ears will probably notice a difference, nonetheless. Give yourself an hour or two to get used to the change, and if you find you like it, that's a sure sign you want to make or invest in traps.

I offer consulting in this area, but I charge for it. If you want to spend money on a design for your room, email me. I'm absolutely not discouraging the DIY/experiment/free advice path, and there's lots of good advice to be had here if you just want to try ideas out.