Room acoustics

Hello all

So many of you may have read my struggle with lab 12's and them the move to B&W + Rotel.

Well now comes the other part of my struggle for my music room, the lab 12's just to give me music fatigue from the bright sound, now after a week or so I am getting the same fatigue from the CM9's and after much reading I'm putting it down to the room acousics because it is empty, I had the same issue when I moved everything into my front room with hardwood floor high ceilings big window and only a single sofa.

Now the room is fully furnished I don't get this problem.

S back to the music room, this room will remain mainly empty and has an echo which really affects my ears with the sound.

Has anyone ever used any of these acousic panels you can buy for absorbsion of some of the brightness, I read online loads about this problem for people, some people make them and others dress a room with curtains, carpets, rugs etc.

My room will have all of those things eventually but right now it has nothing until I start buying some.

My question is would a normal large picture filled with loft insulation perhaps do the same job or would acousic panels be the be thing, I see you can buy the with your own art printed oh them, I did look at canvas but apparently the audiophiles say that it does to absorb sound as well as fabric

I was really worried yesterday that I had got rid of my lab 12's to soon as I still have listening fatigue but it's to late now to start again and who would be to say that I would still find them lacking bass when the room removed some of the boomy sound with a rug :)

Ay ideas all

The panels you speak of are used to reduce reflections to tame the mid-high frequency ranges and help with the stereo imaging. It is common to fix the the panels behind your listening position and, if applicable, on the wall either side of you approx. half way between your seat and the speakers. The aim is not to kill all reflections, this would sound awful, it is to tame the room to give a reasonably well damped and controlled performance.

If you having booming problems this could be a different issue and you could require a bass trap, usually in the rear corner(s) of the room.

I imagine there will be plenty of 'net articles available on the subject as it is often covered in magazines such as Future Music or Sound on Sound from a home music studio perspective. I imagine there will be similar articles from hifi press although I would crosscheck them with other sources to avoid being led down a snakeoil route.

Before heading down this path finish furnishing your room, soft furnishing and sofas etc. work wonders. If it is solely a listening room try and maintain a semblance of symmetry between right & left.

Or, take the opposite approach - dismiss everything you will find on the web, as it will just confuse you and attempt to prepare you to part with your money. Simply try something with everything you have at hand - be it furniture, people, rugs, pillows, mattresses against the wall, whatever. It will give you an idea of what works and what has any noticeable effect. Then start reading and investing...

I know a complete bore on this subject so I'll ask him.

I had the same problem when I moved into a new house with my lab5 and 3s.  I acquired this http://www.anthemav.com/products/anthem-statement/processor processor with room correction and not only did it fix the problem, my system has never sounded better

Instead of trying to fix the room physically, where sacrifices have to be made with decor and furniture, I would look into electronic room correction with a processor/receiver that has audyssey or ARC or something similar.

Hi Seanie

I know how hard you've struggled with this room and the amount of time and money you've spent on it as well, so it is a bit sad to hear you're still having some issues.

At the end of the day, speakers, and the speaker/room interface is the last real hurdle in the world of HiFi re getting as close as possible to the original sound.

Despite audiophiles protestations that all amplifiers, CD players, DAC's etc sound different, the realities are such, that if any differences are to be heard, they are inevitably minute and the province of afflicted obsessive audiophools, (who also staunchly deny the reasoned logic  and results of Blind ABX testing on such matters) whereas speakers and rooms are where they should be looking in terms of things that really matter if you're looking to really improve the sound for a considered financial outlay.

The difficulty that I'm reading into your situation, is that you have a fairly bare room, as you want it for parties/dancing etc.

Hence, the sound is likely to be much better balanced, either furnished appropriately, OR when it is fairly full of people.

By appropriate furnishings, one would usually have a mix of furniture, such as soft sofas, rugs etc, which tend to absorb mid and upper frequencies (bass frequencies are largely determined by the dimensions/size of the room) coupled with a mix of diffusion, such as a bookcase, or a number of pictures on the wall etc.

So if you treat the room overly much, with either heaps of furniture, OR go the route of wall mounted acoustic panels, you're likely to wind up with a very over-damped room when you have it full of a party crowd, which will make your system work very hard re SPL's required to make the music heard over both the sound absorbing qualities of a room full of people, plus their chatter etc.

Crucially, around 60% I am lead to believe, of what we hear in a room from an two channel stereo array, is from reverberation, or in other words room reflection.

I'd probably be looking towards fairly light furnishing and putting up with a bit of echo, knowing that it will mostly balance out when the room is full of people.

As an option, if you do a lot of listening there when you don't have parties, I'd suggest furnishing the room to give a balanced sound, and if you need more volume for parties, assuming you have a multi-channel amp, add some more speakers - something from the B&W 600 series would be more than adequate and a good tonal match to the CM series, whilst keeping costs down.

But it's a difficult one - a room adequately furnished for good sound day to day, and yet reflective enough to still provide good sound when it's full of people.

Unfortunately I can't think of a cheap solution to give you the best of both worlds without spending more on additional speakers to better drive the room when it is full.

However, if you have nice furniture to balance the room, then sound absorbing panels etc, should not be necessary.  And you can perhaps always clear the furniture out of the room in preparation for parties etc.

Hope this helps in some way - your situation presents some difficulties re contrasts of intended use.

Kind Regards

John...

 

 

Electronic room correction cannot/will not correct destructive phasing, ala room suck-out.

B

Hay there

I have decided to wait for the time being and then put down a large rug, when people come around and we have the music up I will put down a party carpet that ca be kept rolled up in the Cellar, well it's not a full cellar just stairs and some storage but dont know the name. 

Anyway as time goes on I will fill the room with some art and curtains will appear.

Cheers all I will hold off on the dedicated panels until need be but I will tr normal room stuff first, still miss the look of my 12's.

 

Bsantini

I don't know what to tell you, but I had the exact problems the OP has and the ARC system corrected the problem.

I also have hardwood floors and a lot of bare surfaces I was also going to lay rugs, acoustic treatments, etc. This is often total guesswork and results in worse sound and compromised decor. The ARC system corrected the "slap echo" and brightness of the room. Now I don't have to deal with those issues.

Seanie_230:

I will fill the room with some art and curtains will appear

seems an excellent solution - even curtains on walls that can be draw back to increase the level of reflection when a party is in progress

but not art behind highly reflective glass :-D