[Rob Babcock]

I recently moved into a different house and am contemplating using the basement for my HT.  Here are a few pics:












The room is a bit narrow at a tad over 10 feet wide.  It's 24 feet long with a fairly low suspended ceiling.  I've only been here a few days; to get me by til I have time to set up my main system(s) I hooked my old Monitor Audio Bronze 3's up to an old Denon I got off Ebay a ways back.  Bass is pretty good, but there's so much reverberation that when you press "stop" on the CD the singer sings two verses before the sound stops!

So, to Ethan, Nathan and the crew at GIK, what would you advise for treatment if I were to use this as my HT?

[mcrespo71]

I first advise upgrading that 70's chair!

[markC]

I first advise upgrading that 70's chair!

And the carpet!

Looks like a tough room for HT, definitely 'gonna need some bass traps for starters.

[Rob Babcock]

The chair was already there.   The landlord asked if he should get rid of it but it's pretty comfortable, so I said leave it for now.  Obviously I'll add some rugs, too. 

[dB Cooper]

For HT, some kind of screen will come in handy 

[bpape]

Peek above the drop ceiling and see what the reason is for it being so low - might get yourself some more headroom.

Make sure the area above the drop is full of insulation.  Check and see if the walls are insulated - if not, consider poking a few holes and blowing in some.  That will help damp things a lot in the lower registers/lower mids.

For HT, the front wall should be completely dead.  Since you don't have much width to play with, no height for soffits, and a long length, I'd a minimum of 2" on the front wall to reach a little lower.

Hit the side reflection points with some 2" minimum 703/mineral wool/cotton/etc.

You might also consider some 2" on the rear wall with half of it having a bonded FSK facing on it or some sort of treatment that is more efficient down low than up high (but not totally reflective).

I'd start with that and see how it goes.  A HT should be a bit deader than that but with carpet and a drop ceiling, you're already pretty dead in the highs.

Bryan

[Rob Babcock]

Removing the suspended ceiling isn't an option- I'm renting.  Ditto for insulating the walls.  I think they already are, though.  No, I'm pretty much limited to more conventional (ie removeable) types of treatments.

[lonewolfny42]

You own some treatments already...right Rob ?

[nodiak]

We had those chairs man! Got 2 at a yard sale for ~$3, searched inside them and found $8 of loose change, a new record (change hunting in old furniture, a humurous sport). You may be sitting on beer money!

[Rob Babcock]

Yeah, a bunch of 8th Nerve stuff...Adapt corners plus 10 Response peices.  But I'd prefer to keep the 8th Nerve stuff for my 2CH rig upstairs and start from scratch in the basement HT.  Of course, I'm open to suggestions.

BTW, aside from being a bit narrow the basement has some real virtues, including sound isolation and light control, plus excellent bass support.  Since the room is so long, I should be able to move the seats front to back to mitigate the worst of the bass issues, then fix the rest w/parametric EQ and room treatment.

[lonewolfny42]

Yeah, a bunch of 8th Nerve stuff...Adapt corners plus 10 Response peices.  But I'd prefer to keep the 8th Nerve stuff for my 2CH rig upstairs and start from scratch in the basement HT.  Of course, I'm open to suggestions.

Well Rob....you can borrow those from upstairs to see how they work in the basement....as an experiment.

[Russell Dawkins]

In general I think this is a situation where there would be benefits from sitting closer rather than farther from the speakers, so
1. you hear a greater proportion of direct to reflected sound, and
2. The system doesn't have to play so loud in absolute terms.

You might even experiment with an across-the-room set up, counter-intuitive though it seems. I have known situations where it did sound better that way in a similar unpromising room.

You will need to pay attention to both absorption and diffusion, though.

If you want to orient down the long wall, I would position the speakers well away from the end, and put something like book/CD/record shelves across one end wall from floor to ceiling or go floor to ceiling 1/3 way across from each corner and have the center 1/3 totally absorptive. The speakers should be about 4' out at a minimum and your listening distance should be something like 10' max, giving you 10' behind you to the back wall.

That would be my starting point. Clutter will help, too!

Because the side walls are so close to each other, there will be a strong flutter echo between them unless measures are taken. What you want to avoid are parallel opposing reflecting surfaces, and you've got them from one end of the room to the other! You can break up the standing waves by absorption or scattering (diffusion). Bookshelves with books can scatter pretty well, but you'd need a lot of them! If you break the wall into sections, all you have to do is treat one side of each section to disrupt the standing wave.

Test your progress with a single loud hand clap. Flutter echo is obvious and nasty!

The easiest solution is a radically nearfield rig. This removes the room from the equation to a large extent. A slim pair of floor standers and a sub could be positioned close.

The zigmahornets reviewed lately on 6moons might be fun to try and a really appropriate use for them. You would be out $100 to try, though!

[ctviggen]

Oh, darn.  I thought you had the normal square type of dropdown ceiling.  Anyway, some diffusers near/above your head (or at first reflection point) would be good:

http://www.rpginc.com/products/skyline/index.htm

These are the expensive version, but I've seen cheaper.  However, I'd go bass trapping (front wall/corners), then first reflection points, then ceiling. 

[rollo]

Rob,
        Looks like the perfect Maggie room to me . Love those rectangles. Call Eathan at Realtraps he will know for sure.
Good luck
rollo

[Audio-fiilis]

Please, do  not invest too much, as it would be in vein.

Concrete block on a such a narrow form does not give you a change.

Stay within some 2000$ in you budget, get a design house later.

Why do you want to watch movies so much anyway? Get  a Life, Get Kids (!!!!!), Get a pension. Please, move somewhere whear you can cycle or ski or run instead of watching the newest Hollywood pictures. I bought a bike made by an US company, to get more of my my good life. I live in Europe and I think riding That bike (with style) is good  life. Live the good life!

Not understanding acoustics may be expensive. Your Life is going to be, unless You understand the physic's of Your hobbies.

[TheChairGuy]

Rob, the flourescent fixtures (that's what they look like up in the wall) are all kindsa' bad for audio and video.  Don't evaluate anything with them on....the noise they emit just leaches into your system. 

No conditioner I know of completely rids them of their vices 

[Rob Babcock]

The beauty of the situation, TCG, is that I would never have the lights and the gear in use at the same time. aa  With my audio rig upstairs and the video stuff in the basement, I'd literally just use it as an HT for movies.  Certainly the size/shape isn't ideal, but I've heard great sound in far, far worse rooms.  The room is so long, for instance, that I have broad latitude in situating my speakers and seating to nudge things out of bad peaks and nulls- that's a good thing.  Slap echo is manageable with some treatments, as is the bass.  I'm actually very optimistic that I can get good film sound down there.

Keep the suggestions coming- and to the vendors here I'd love some very specific recommendations.  Don't worry about sounding like a shill, I want you to shill!  

[JLM]

Part of what you're hearing is inseparately based on what you're seeing. 

Is the room really that blue?  Use of yellowish/incandescent lighting (especially warm-white fluorescent) will make the room look worse, but a whiter light, like metal halide (or even daylight fluorescent) would help.  I recommend warmer, but bright colors in basements as they tend to be cold/dark (or seem so even if they're not just based again on our preconceived notions).

Why would anyone run stripes the long way in a long room (thereby accenting the long/skinny shape of the room, making it feel like a railroad tunnel)?  Gawd, now I'm sounding like an interior designer!     But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once  and learned that in a long/skinny room like yours to use darker colors on the side walls to make them seem farther away and lighter colors on the end walls to make them appear closer.  Darker/more neutral side walls should also help with picture quality.  Just moving everything towards one end of the room (and ignoring the rest) will help.

Like the dark colors, adding absorption on the side walls will make them seem farther away.

[Ethan Winer]

Rob,

to the vendors here I'd love some very specific recommendations.  Don't worry about sounding like a shill, I want you to shill!

You want, shill, I'll give you shill!

For a room like that our Standard Surround Room Kit will do a stellar job. The lower "3D" drawing on the left side of this page shows where to place the various pieces:

http://www.realtraps.com/placing_mt.htm

With that ceiling, and no chance to get above it, you'll hang four MiniTraps from the grid using the free clips we have available for that.

The next step up is to add a row of diffusors along the back wall. But good diffusors cost more than good absorbers, so diffusion back there is more an option than a necessity.

Was that enough shilling for your tastes?

--Ethan

[Rob Babcock]

Part of what you're hearing is inseparately based on what you're seeing. 

Is the room really that blue?  Use of yellowish/incandescent lighting (especially warm-white fluorescent) will make the room look worse, but a whiter light, like metal halide (or even daylight fluorescent) would help.  I recommend warmer, but bright colors in basements as they tend to be cold/dark (or seem so even if they're not just based again on our preconceived notions).

No, it's not really that blue- that's a setting on my digital camera.  I hadn't used it in a couple months and didn't scroll thru the settings, just used the first one that came up.   I have an add on A'gon with some speaker pics I took in my previous place with the same blue hue.