I moved my speakers into another space and now they sound different

J

jamiecantar

Well-Known Member
Have you ever had this happen.

You buy some great sounding speakers driven by a half decent 45 wpc amp, place them temporarily in a smaller room half the size while you set up the larger room they were meant for. You then finish your space, move them into the designated new space and they don't sound as good as in the smaller room. The dynamics, tone, everything totally changes.

How did you fix it.
 
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Yes, they are working as designed. :D
Try different distance, toe in, stands etc... plus treatments
 
I had a similar problem. I wanted a pair of speakers in the living room for background ambient music. To experiment I brought the Polks up from the HTR and they sounded like they were an entirely different pair of speakers altogether. Room acoustics have a huge impact on how speakers sound. No matter what speakers I tried the sound was terrible. Too many hard reflections and open space compared to the HTR. Of the 4 different speakers I tried, the best sound comes from my old Bose 401s. In certain situations it appears Bose's direct reflecting formula has it's place.
 
jamiecantar said:
Have you ever had this happen.

You buy some great sounding speakers driven by a half decent 45 wpc amp, place them temporarily in a smaller room half the size while you set up the larger room they were meant for. You then finish your space, move them into the designated new space and they don't sound as good as in the smaller room. The dynamics, tone, everything totally changes.

How did you fix it.
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Ever had this happen? Yes. As Cubdog has pointed out, room treatments. Carpet, no carpet, windows, drapes, blinds, shades, pictures, paneling, and on and on.

Work with placement first, if you have that option. Then work on the treatments or removing treatments, so to speak.
 
yamafan said:
I had a similar problem. I wanted a pair of speakers in the living room for background ambient music. To experiment I brought the Polks up from the HTR and they sounded like they were an entirely different pair of speakers altogether. Room acoustics have a huge impact on how speakers sound. No matter what speakers I tried the sound was terrible. Too many hard reflections and open space compared to the HTR. Of the 4 different speakers I tried, the best sound comes from my old Bose 401s. In certain situations it appears Bose's direct reflecting formula has it's place.
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100% agree with Bose. They certainly do have their place. My 901 are in the mancave and likely will never leave that space.
 
Tomlinmgt here on AK is quite a room treatment whiz! He could steer you right with your room treatment issues. FWIW is IS a rael consideration and seldom often considered until you it hits you between the ears!!!!
DC,
 
Personally I find that taking the Wax out of one's Ears(cleaning them) more than likely creates the same effect!
 
I know it changes things, just didn't realize how much. 45 wpc in a 10 x 12' room worked well, as soon as I placed them in a 14 x 22' room, the sound is lost which leads me to believe you need more wattage for starters. I will have to experiment with placement and treatments. Room volume Makes sense. I'm no sound engineer but, when concerts play large arena's they require thousands of watts to fill the entire space with low distortion. A few hundred watts won't cut it.

I found some info.

The Sound Field In Listening Rooms:
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The acoustical properties of small rooms for listening to music differs considerably from that of large rooms primarily in the reverberation times (typically T60 < ½ second for a small room) and also room resonances. The “mix” of direct sound vs. early reflected sound vs. reverberant sound is different for small vs. large rooms. In a large room, first-arrival times of the early reflected sound are typically on the order of ~ 50-80 ms after the direct sound, whereas for small rooms, the first-arrival times of the early reflected sound are typically on the order of ~ few ms after the direct sound. Additionally, and especially so in home environments, the sound absorption properties of the room often are significantly higher than in large rooms, due to the presence of carpeting on the floor, window curtains on walls, etc. Thus, the acoustic “intimacy” of the small room often makes it difficult to emulate the acoustics associated with that of a larger space, e.g. when listening to recorded music.
 
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jamiecantar said:
I know it changes things, just didn't realize how much. 45 wpc in a 10 x 12' room worked well, as soon as I placed them in a 14 x 22' room, the sound is lost which leads me to believe you need more wattage for starters.
Click to expand...

You may need more wattage if you're trying to fill a larger space with the same volume as a smaller space, but that's likely not the main problem.

If it's room mode peaks and nulls that are affecting your sound then just throwing a ton of power at it won't fill the bottomless null pits, nor shave down the mountainous resonant peaks.
 
It's not just sq. ft, it is cubic feet. Lots more air to move when you do the math.
a few things can be addressed
placement
treatment
more power
room eq ie the dsp anti-mode
distributed bass- multiple powered subs
larger more efficient speakers as mentioned
 
Yea, my McIntosh MA-5100 pre/amp produces a nice clean 45 wpc and my efficient JBL 4311's are clear and once i get my newly acquired Dynaco MKlll mono blocks running they produce 60 wpc. Probably don't need more wattage.

Volume of room and room width changed things, that's for sure.
 
each room is different . i have done pa work and things can be dead on then the room fills up with people and everything has to be tweaked to match the space full of people .
its a science for sure .
take you car for instance .it maybe ok with 4 inch drivers .try them drivers in a large room and they will likely sound crap . or just open the doors and listen outside .
 
Many modern high fidelity sound systems have enough power to reproduce the peak sound levels e.g. heard in an actual concert hall, i.e. around ~ 100 dB and more. However, a home sound system that outputs sound pressure levels of ~ 85 dB will in fact sound quite loud in the smaller listening room of a house, as compared to a voluminous concert hall.

The dynamic range in a listening room is limited by the so-called tolerable top level and by the threshold that can be heard above background noise levels, which in a home listening environment may be around ~ 25–30 dB vs. ~ 30–35 dB in a concert hall.

It can be said that a listening room in a home typically has ~ 55 dB of listenable/tolerable dynamic range vs. ~ 70 dB of dynamic range for a concert hall. If the sound pressure level exceeds the top level curve at any point, the (average) listener’s response is “it’s too loud”… The threshold curve is associated with the minimum adequate signal-to-noise levels associated with average/typical listening rooms of varying room volume V.

2-way/3-way/4-way loudspeaker sound enclosures with passive cross-over networks may also have unacceptable phase-shifts and transient response at the cross-over frequency points.

Attempts to improve the ambience or spatial-temporal characteristics of reproduced sound in small listening rooms have led to the development of a variety of room expanders, stereophonic spreaders and shifters, etc. These are often ignored by hi-fi sound enthusiasts/audiophiles…
 
Do not underestimate the importance of room acoustics. It is at least as important as anything else!! Speaker placement can be a big factor too. Before assuming anything about your equipment, get some help from someone who understands room acoustics.
 
dc270 said:
Tomlinmgt here on AK is quite a room treatment whiz! He could steer you right with your room treatment issues. FWIW is IS a rael consideration and seldom often considered until you it hits you between the ears!!!!
DC,
Click to expand...

Oh crap...now the pressure is on. :D

Your gear is up to the task in for a 14x22 room. If you'd like some help then start a thread in the "Listening Spaces" forum and we'll gladly get you pointed in the right direction.

- Michael
 
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