[jqp]

Listening to my system, and really enjoying it, I wondered if it would sound as good in some other peoples houses, or other rooms in my own home.

I once packed up most of my system and moved it to a vacation house for a week. It did not sound nearly as good because I couldn't set the speakers up in an optimum location, and didn't have enough idle time to work on it. So I can't count this as a fair attempt...

Have you ever disassembled your system, packed it up and set it up somewhere else, and did it sound the same, better or worse?

[jmc207]

Yes, and it was enlightening. A number of years ago I had assembled a basic high-end system of fairly well regarded components. Yet, the sound had some glaring problems and colorations. I had worked with speaker placement, minor room treatments, cables, etc. but the system just wasn't living up to its potential. However, I couldn't pinpoint if it was my smallish (11x17) room causing the problems, the components, the combination, or what.

An older couple across the street had a large den that I always thought would be good for a stereo setup. On a whim, I asked them if I might bring over my system for a day and see how it would sound. Much to my surprise, they agreed. After spending more than an hour or so hauling floorstanding speakers, amps, preamps, turntable, CD player, cables, etc., I was ready to listen. With the older couple being almost 70 years old at the time, I was again surprised when they sat down and listened with me for almost 4 hours. To all types of music, normal and not so normal. They enjoyed it quite a bit and seemed interested an impressed overall. We actually listened again the next night as well.

To my relief, yet, slight consternation, the system sounded a good bit better, no, a lot better at the neighbors house. I felt vindicated that the components I had were not bad or to blame, and learned a lot about the importance of room acoustics and system setup and synergy. When I returned the system to my house, the problems returned but I had experienced a kind of a benchmark to shoot for when exploring more extended room treatments and setup procedures. Later, I remodeled my house and was able to make my LR/Listening Room even more stereo friendly and that room worked well for over 10 years. A friend of mine had remarked that my next system upgrade would need to be a new house, and that happened a couple of years ago. I'm still enjoying and tweaking the new space, and my system sounds better than ever.

If you can live with the consequences, I would definitely recommend trying your system in another place if you have a chance. It helped me learn a lot, and is something I should probably do again.

John 

   

[aerius]

Given that I use a headphone system, it sounds the same wherever it goes.

[sunshinedawg]

I've taken mine outside on the deck. Sounded way better. No reflections or bass issues.

[jon_010101]

When I was between apartments I took my former stereo to my parents' house for a few weeks.  Holy cow -- it sounded eleventy-billion times better there!   

I can hardly wait to get a new apartment.  My current asymmetrical setup in a nearly-cubic room is tremendously susceptible to standing waves and comb filtering due to reflections.

[konut]

I've been hauling around a portable system for 34 years. My 1st was a Sony TC152SD cassette deck (w/dolby!), to which I hung an outboard piezo tweeter, in '73. Next was a Nakamichi 350/ADS2001 powered speaker setup, intended for car, but I used with a 120V to 12V power supply. Then a Uher CR134 cassette with ADS200s. Then, the first portable CD player, a Sony D5 with powered Denon monitors. That was '86 when I got rid of that. I took a hiatus from portables till april '06. My present portable system fits in a road case and consists of; Red Wine SB3, Toshiba S105 laptop, 250gb external HD, Edirol UA-3 external DAC, Creek OBH-12, Marchand XM46 HP filters, R-DES bass EQ, Genelec 8020s, Sunfire Super Jr sub, Adcom AC515 AC treatment  I set up home brew OC insulation triangles in the corners of whatever room I'm in. Every room is different. I can always manage to dail it in to sound good!

[SET Man]

.....My current asymmetrical setup in a nearly-cubic room is tremendously susceptible to standing waves and comb filtering due to reflections.

Hey!

   Man! I think you have to find a new place ASAP! That's the worst room shape you could have... a cubic

    Anyway, with my current speaker and other components I have used them in two different locations. The second location is my current apartment. One thing I was lucky was that my current and previous location room are rectangular. But when I moved to my current location my room is now a bit larger than previous one and to my surprise the bass sound better and seem to go down lower with less bloat. Hmm... maybe my speaker over loaded the old room.

    Well,I'm very happy with my new room Too bad is a rental not my own place

Take care,
Buddy

[lonewolfny42]

Have you ever listened to your system in another location?

Matter of fact I have....three of my systems at the May 2005 Rave held at Daniel's apartment in Manhattan....
And they all sounded better there....a much bigger room than my 12 x 12 room. I couldn't hold a Rave here....its too small, and too crowded with equipment.

Here's a link to the Rave.....

And a photo taken of all the equipment.....before the Rave (photo by Carlman).



It was a lot of fun.......

[Daygloworange]

jqp,

Yes, I've had my full system set up in 3 different locations. And yes, it does sound different. My listening room at home is rather small, about 14' X 17'. I've had it at my shop during our TAAS events (17' ceiling approx 50' X 50' ,close to 40,000 cubic feet in volume). And a friends house, about 16' X 35' with a sloped ceiling of 11' to 8', along the length.

At home, I have the walls heavily covered in skyline type diffusors, with homemade 2'X4' fiberglass bass traps, along with some big traps made from R-12 fiberglass insulation batts. I haven't measured the room response, but just by ear, it's pretty nice. The biggest(readily noticeable) impact was the large fiberglass batts. It really tightened up the bass, and it's much cleaner now.

In my shop, we surround the listening space with (24) 30" X 72" Eckel acoustic panels with a perforated metal face, with 2" rigid insulation, and put carpet down on the floor.

In the third location, there was no treatment at all, and the room was pretty bare. It's not really worth discussing. It was too live a room, with a long decay rate.

The difference in the large room is that the mid range is a bit fuller, and has a little more weight. We can space the speakers quite a bit wider, the sweet spot grows a little, but the center (phantom) image is really, really good. It's like there is a center channel.
Room loading effects are( I'm going to say), not there. The overall effect seems to be a more effortless presentation. The system still gets plenty loud, even sitting back 15' from the speakers. The speakers do the disappearing act  really well here. High frequencies are smoother, and the subsonics are more detailed and cleaner. It's like there's not as much congestion in the bass region, but more space between bass frequencies. The big room, is a big deal. It's easy to get totally lost in the sound.

Man, it's really nice, but honestly, I don't think I could accurately describe it. But yes, there is a substantial difference in a bigger room, and it's all for the better. I can't think of one negative in the larger space.

Cheers

[jon_010101]

.....My current asymmetrical setup in a nearly-cubic room is tremendously susceptible to standing waves and comb filtering due to reflections.

   Man! I think you have to find a new place ASAP! That's the worst room shape you could have... a cubic

Yeah, 12x12x9.5'  -- well, not quite cubic, but bad enough 

I have a door to the left of the left speaker, a door to the left of the right speaker, and the right speaker is 2' from the right wall while the left speaker is 4' from the left wall.  All the surfaces are very hard plaster, floor is hardwood (with a rug).  The wall on the right has two very large windows, even further mucking up my imaging (although the view of the parking lot is, um, nice). 

Still, it gets worse -- I am directly above a monstrous steam boiler ca. 1929 -- I can measure 70dB in my closet, 60dB in the living room, mostly under 100Hz.  I stop the music when it comes on, totally hopeless. 
Awesome sound to sleep to though -- a huge gas flame roaring just 15' away from my bed.   

[nodiak]

Yes, larger is much better in my experience too. I moved from 24' x 30' x 12' to 11.5' x 26.5' x 7.5'. Just not the same, not terrible, but can't get things to open up before the room gets overloaded (esp. with bass). The smaller room does still have some good depth (26.5'), and overall volume is ok which helps. As I do more room treatment things improve alot.
Don

[Russell Dawkins]

Still, it gets worse -- I am directly above a monstrous steam boiler ca. 1929 -- I can measure 70dB in my closet, 60dB in the living room, mostly under 100Hz.  I stop the music when it comes on, totally hopeless. 
Awesome sound to sleep to though -- a huge gas flame roaring just 15' away from my bed.   

Ouch! I'm sure you deserve better, Jon - are you planning on moving - soon, I hope!

Even subtle low frequency noise is insidious and, I think, and really best avoided for your peace of mind.

[nathanm]

Not the whole system, but just the speakers.  The amount of bass they were putting out blew me away.  It was completely different than what I was used to.  Definitely a "is there a subwoofer somewhere?" moment.  The guest room was almost the size of my entire apartment, though.  The realities of acoustics are very cruel.  It becomes apparent that in order to truly upgrade you must spend at least $100,000.  Not on gear, but on real estate.  One benefit of the small room is that you can actually afford to cover up the nasty reflective surfaces and achieve a more cohesive aesthetic whereas with a giant room you improve your modal lot but at the expensive of more spaced-out panels which isn't as nice looking, IMO. 

Although my own crappy almost-square room served an equally ear-opening experience to my friend who once brought his own inexpensive speakers to my place.  They were not embarassed sonically as I had secretly desired once placed evenly within the foam-lined walls.  Unfortunately due to WAF (actually GAF), absorption was not in the cards, nor was proper placement so the sound was much less distinct in his room.  Then again, he at least had -WAF I just had +BAF, so maybe it was a draw.

[jon_010101]

Ouch! I'm sure you deserve better, Jon - are you planning on moving - soon, I hope!

Even subtle low frequency noise is insidious and, I think, and really best avoided for your peace of mind.

Strangely, the noise is quite soothing (although it has terrified some of my guests!), despite being completely incompatible with music listening.  Basically, I picked this apartment for being within walking distance of everything in town, and for having very nice flooring and woodwork ... foolishly disregarding audio consequences!  I will be moving in August, although to where I don't yet know  

[DeeCee]

Went from a multipurpose but fairly nice room (acoustically) to a borglike cube (nearly 10x10x10, but hey at least it's a *dedicated* listening room!) when I moved cross-country.

Unfortunately my speakers do best when allowed lots of breathing space; I should actually get a different set but I'm too enamoured with the cohesive sound  (and really nice midrange) they produce...

Sound quality did suffer, but by applying some light room treatment and addressing some issues by using a diagonal placement for the speakers, I get a reasonable (but far from perfect) sound.

At least I can say I heard what my system can do under better circumstances beyond the dealer showroom...

Happy Listening!
- DeeCee

[PhilNYC]

I've lived in 4 different locations since 2000.  Each time I've moved, the setup was the same as the previous place, but it wasn't the exact same setup in all 4 places (ie. system was the same from loc 1 to loc 2, changed speakers and moved from loc 2 to loc 3, changed amp and source and moved from loc 3 to loc 4).  The difference in sound from place to place was pretty enormous, and showed me that its tough to judge components without considering the room.

Location 1:  NYC apartment, room was 14ft wide x 26ft long x 9ft tall with opening on one side to dining room.
Location 2:  NYC apartment, room was 12ft wide x 18ft long x 8ft tall (this was the site of the very first NY Audio Rave!)
Location 3:  NJ house, room was 19ft wide x 16ft long x 8ft tall with openings to large rooms on two sides
Location 4:  NJ house, basement is 41ft wide x 19ft long x 8ft tall

(systems were all set up along the wide wall)

Of these, I'd say acoustically, Location 4 is the best and Location 3 was the worst.  Still, the first move from Loc 1 to Loc 2 was a pretty big eye-opener as the sound went from light and open to closed and heavy with the exact same gear...

[TONEPUB]

I just moved everything to a larger room and am now in a 16 x 24 room
with my system on the long wall.  Lost a touch of pinpoint imaging, but
a much bigger sound overall..

Really enjoy the bigger room.