Room Accoustics - The Final Audio Frontier

[avphile]

Speakers are not the last step to your ears. Unless you listen in near-field conditions in a small room.

Room accoustics determine to a large extent how pleasant or unpleasant the sound is that gets to your ears.

The most expensive set-up in an untreated room will sound no better than even an entry-level set-up in a properly treated room.

[sandawa]

i agree 100%

[Octaver]

I agree, Room Acoustics affects the real output of your system. There are only 3 factors that affects Room acoustics these are the Reflection, Diffusion & Absorption. In order to control it, you need to learn the characteristics of each material used in your room. Dead room doesn't really mean "Acoustically Treated Room". Sometimes we need some reflected sounds in order to have a wider soundstage...huh
If you are really serious with "Audio" you must learn Room Acoustics? (IMHO)

[wanderlust]

totally agree with this.... room acoustics affects/determines how your entire system will behave.... most of the time it is the system that must conform to the room not it (hows this: notice how convincing is the amp,speaker,etc. when auditioned at the store, yet it sounds quite awful when used at home, together with your system, some say its in matching the equipment, but have we really considered that it might be that room acoustics is creating havoc to an otherwise perfectly matched set-up, most of us usually remedy the problem by replacing the unit, to match it with the set-up.... said otherwise: "that is which will blend harmoniously with the room acoustics")

i have a very difficult place to set up my audio (in fact it is still placed together with my HT set-up) and had recently experience how powerful is the effect of room acoustics in ones system, this when i had bought a surplus speaker. sadly i never realized this the first time and have sold and an otherwise nice speaker thinking it was to boomy... when i realized now, it was the rooms acoustics thats making it so.

[avphile]

What accoustic treatments have you done to your listening room, if any?

[kimosabe]

So what are the treatments? e.g. your set-up is to boomy, laidback, bright etc.

[wanderlust]

avphile said:

What accoustic treatments have you done to your listening room, if any?

for the moment, a drapery at the wall behind my system, a the curtain in the right window wall. the left side is quite far from the wall na kasi. and of course the carpet.

[avphile]

Room treatments such as drapes, blinds, carpets, thick cushions, shelves with heavy books, etc. help diffuse or absob early reflections that can tame brightness. They work well to manage frequencies above the 200hz area.

Below 200hz or so, room modes take over. These are the standing waves produced when the room dimensions are exactly a whole number fraction of the frequencies' wavelenghts.

Example: if you have an 8-ft ceiling, expect a standing wave at 70hz and its harmonics (140hz, 210hz, etc.). There could be peaking in one area of the room (usually at or near boundaries) and a suck out in another (almost always the room center). Either you install bass traps, change your listening position or speaker position or both. (Being closer to speakers in a near-field listening will reduce room mode effects, not eliminate.) Often in a small room, there's really very few positional choices to make so that bass traps become a more attractive option.

That's theory.

I wonder if anyone has intalled bass traps in their listening rooms. I also would like to learn from your experiences and what materials you used as bass traps and how it blends with the room decor.

Small to average rooms have the worst room modes. Despite all the room treatments you have, rooms modes will always color the bass that you get. In other words, without bass traps, you will never get how your sub or speaker really sounds.

PS. You would need a Sound Pressure Level Meter and a test CD sweep from 10hz to 250hz to check on room modes.

[iceman90a]

i have an SPL but dont have a test CD, nor do i know how to test for them. am curious to find out though...

[avphile]

That's nice, I have a test CD but no SPL meter. ;D And have some idea how to go about it.

[iceman90a]

avphile said:

That's nice, I have a test CD but no SPL meter. ;D And have some idea how to go about it.

ha! 1+1 ;D invite me over, teach me how and burn me a copy

seriously