[pretzel_logic]

I have been trying to tone down some of the heavy bass in my listening room, 14x20x8, 8 foot bay window centered along a long wall to the right of my listening position, heavy curtains, another 6 foot opening to the left of my chair.

I have 2 of the GIK corner bass traps behind the speakers and will add a couple more so they go to the ceiling, and have a couple GIK 244 bass traps behind my chair.

I am planning on making some higher frequency traps using Roxul Rockboard 60 2 inch thick boards and am wondering if I should double them up for 4 inches total, or maybe make a couple doublt thick and a couple just 2 inches thick. I'd use them for side reflections.

Basically the problem I'm still having is a slightly muddy mid range as the upper bass is still a little heavy. The traps I'm using have certainly helped, no more one note bass and the whole soundstage opened up more. I'm also having problems with voice as well, probably due to reflection, but definitely with rock music, too much going on in the music and the voice becomes unintelligible.

Any thoughts on going 4 inch vs 2 inch on the panels?

Brian

[bpape]

For the side walls, just use 2". 

You might also want to experiment with a 4" panel behind the listening position.

Bryan

[pretzel_logic]

Bryan,

I have 2 of the 244's behind the listening position now and will be putting my albums directly between them. Should I put a 2x4 4inch panel sideways about the record shelves?

I was also thinking about a panel above the equipment rack as well, sideways on the wall. The rack is centered on the wall between the tri traps.

I suppose with the fairly rigid rockboard it will be easy enough to experiment before building the panels.

Brian

[bpape]

Try the panels on the rear butted to each other with no gap between and directly behind your head rather than to both sides.

Let's get that figured out first before we move on to the front wall.

Bryan

[bmckenney]

Brian, I'm no acoustics expert.  You'll get all the advice you need on that from others here thankfully.  I am just starting to get in a similar situation as you are at now.  I just received 4 Mini traps from RT for bass trapping some ceiling/wall boundaries.  Right now they are just on the floor straddling corners and I will hopefully install them up top this weekend.  This is not an ideal amount of coverage for my room.  I should have about 8 traps, but the results with 4 traps are very promising.  I didn't have what I would call one note bass in my room so it wasn't a dire straits situation, but there is no doubt I'm getting flatter bass response in the room with these.  I will be getting either one or two pairs of the GIK Tri traps in the next couple of weeks for floor/wall corner trapping which will get me up in to that zone of 8 bass traps for my room.  After that, I'll look at reflection treatments like you are now.

I have one suggestion for you though.  I believe you stated your rack is on your front wall between the Tri traps and speakers.  And you have a turntable too, which I think makes this suggestion even more worth considering.  And if you have a wood suspended floor, again more worth considering.  Move your rack to a side wall and run some longer speaker cables.  I did this after reading Jim Smith's book, Get Better Sound.  And he did make this recommendation in strong wording.  I was skeptical about the results, but very impressed once I did it.  Jim's book didn't really state why this is better.  My theory is it has to do with acoustic reflections off the rack that negatively impacts imaging, but I also wondering if it has to do with mechanical resonance from the speakers affecting equipment in the rack more so in between speakers compared to when on a side wall.  And I believe a rack will work better the closer it is to a load bearing wall, especially if its a suspended floor.

If this is something you can consider, and need some affordable, longer speaker cables to try it, I recommend Anti Cables.  I got a pair made up where the lengths are different, one shorter and one longer, and it works great.  The longer pair was twisted to give it similar characteristics of the shorter pair.  And there is some other technical aspect of the cables that makes the suitable for having different lengths.  And the cost is low.

Bryan

[pretzel_logic]

Wow, lots of Bryans/Brian here.

I actually did have my system off to the side but moved it between the speakers some time ago, mainly so I didn't have to use such long cables but I also prefer the system along the front wall. The front wall is also a load bearing and insulated wall, the other side is the garage. I know there are two sides on whether to put the system between the speakers or off to one side and both have valid arguments. If I could have the system isolated in a different room or closet I would but it's just not possible at this point. My speakers are a couple feet in front of the system so I'm not sure how much that's affecting anything, but I still want more panels there, at least above. Oh, the table is on a wall shelf.

As far as putting the 244s next to each other I'll give that a try. I know I need to do more in the way of sidewall reflection so that's my next step but that will be a week or so away at the earliest, as well as getting a 2nd pair of tri-traps ordered. I'm hoping those will help as well but I may try the side panels first to see what that does.

Brian