My Bass is Gone! I blame the room.

jazzmans said:
yeah, the vaulted ceiling, I'm gonna guess it has no popcorn on it (NEVER REMOVE THE POPCORN!), the big space, the hard floor, the big opening to the other part of the house, the glass, it all screams acoustic nightmare.

twere it mine, I'd put up a bunch of acoustic absorbtion on the roof first off. a big area rug in front of the speakers, something on the rear wall (the one the speakers are facing) to absorb reflections.... break up every surface you can so reflections aren't primary, but secondary... behind the speakers, etc etc.

it's a tough room, dude, and the sheer size of it vs the speakers is also a problem.

Goodluck!
Click to expand...
Tell me more about my room/speaker size. I really like my speakers, I just need a massive room adjustment.
 
Ugh. I've seen some blocky styrofoam wall panels. These would be easy to put up and take down...........thoughts?
 
GIK Acoustics makes sound control panels. They come in a variety of colors and will custom print your graphics/pictures on the fabric covers. I made my own and some bass traps before the turn of the century.
 
I'd try setting up with the speakers on either side of the fireplace, for starters. I think a big rug will be necessary, if only to tie the room together. ;)

I'd bet a combination of too much overall reflectivity, and nulls near your listening location are to blame. The sloping ceilings and open floor plan should work to your advantage, but the space may need a distributed bass solution.
 
forceof1 said:
Got popcorn. Rug is coming. I have to see what I can get away with as far as sound absorption........my other half wouldn't be too happy about my choice of decor in that regard.
Click to expand...

cool! if you've got popcorn, completely disregard my comments about the ceiling.

have you, simply for shits and giggles, tried reversing phase on ONE speaker and see what it does in your listening position? Nulls and voids are a real thing with bass energy. a bass wave can be fifteen feet long, and if your seating position is in the trough of the wave, no bass.

Or, you could look into a pair of subs, that would certainly help smooth out the bass response in that big room.

I've run subs with all my speakers for thirty years now, and it's only with my 'end game' speakers that I've removed the subs from my main system, but my delta/gammas have dual 12" IMG woofers, and eventually will be servos, once I put the box in.

Everything else I've ever had, no matter how big, have needed subs to get the bass right. My main room is 12'X30'.

hell, in bedrooms I use smaller subs as well. You don't have to buy uber expensive subs, a pair of decent subs will do better then one more expensive sub, imo.

In a big room, it takes more bass to 'energize' the room, which Tom in is alluding to, (I think)
 
forceof1 said:
Ugh. I've seen some blocky styrofoam wall panels. These would be easy to put up and take down...........thoughts?
Click to expand...
Styrofoam is not a good material for acoustic treatments. Neither is the regular foam you see used with the inexpensive foam absorption panels and "bass traps". If you can swing some thicker...like 2-3" thick...rockwool or rigid fiberglass panels (look for the term "broadband absorber") then enough of those placed in the right locations can help tighten up the mid and upper bass frequencies which will give the impression of stronger, cleaner low bass...and sometimes that provides enough of an improvement to room acoustics generated bass issues to make one feel like they've fixed their problem (the "good enough" scenario).
 
JoeESP9 said:
GIK Acoustics makes sound control panels. They come in a variety of colors and will custom print your graphics/pictures on the fabric covers. I made my own and some bass traps before the turn of the century.
Click to expand...

Good recommendation here. GIK can also offer very useful consultation after you share the details about your room, system and set up. They want you to get good results, and won't steer you in a direction that is beneficial to their bottom line only. Their prices are reasonable and products of high quality and well designed. And Glenn, the owner, is a genuinely good guy who is very generous with his knowledge on the acoustics discussion forums. You'd be in good hands if you let them help you out.
 
Man, that's got to be the most "live" room I've seen in a while. The reflection of sound waves must be pretty tired before they dampen out! :-)

Some good suggestions from the group. Maybe some super looking tapestry/hangings might deaden some of that bouncing sound. Keep in mind a thick rug as as well...and big!

Also, note what you have your gear sitting on as well.


Q
 
tomlinmgt said:
...nor have I heard anyone say the general acoustic response characteristics of a room with a vaulted ceiling with regard to echo related artifacts is any worse than a box shaped room. As a matter of fact, some consider the vaulted ceiling an asset in some regards since it eliminates two large parallel boundary surfaces, reducing echo producing reflections.
Click to expand...
I agree. The non-parallel surfaces are a good thing. I don't think the vaulted ceiling is the major problem.
 
tomlinmgt said:
A popcorn ceiling and a little absorption on the walls won't have a direct influence on modal activity in a room. The wavelengths are far too long for any of that stuff to affect them.
Click to expand...
Maybe it's the colored glitter they used back then on the popcorn ceilings. :D
 
rothwellaudio said:
Here in the UK, popcorn is something we eat at the cinema.
Is what you're refering to the stuff we call Artex, or textured wall/ceiling covering? A bit like thick, textured plaster?
Click to expand...
probably/maybe? it's sprayed on the ceiling, and breaks it up into many many different reflecting surfaces, instead of one (or two in the case of a vaulted ceiling) primary reflecting surfaces.

and yeah, it used to be asbestos and ??? I'm pretty sure the stuff on my ceiling is asbestos based, because of the age of my house, it was marketed as 'fireproof'.

Funny aside, asbestos is fine as long as it isn't airborne. once it becomes aerosoled, the danger begins.

It (popcorn) makes such a HUGE difference acoustically vs plain sheetrock.

Twere I to have ultimate control, I'd popcorn all the walls, not just the roof, but it would look wonky. I care about the sound, not the looks, and since I'm divorced, I don't have to satisfy anyone else.
instead, I have bookshelves covering all three primary walls, full of books of varying sizes, which work really well as acoustic deflectors/diffusers, and the front (behind the speakers) wall has quilts my mum made hanging directly behind my speakers(dipoles) damping/diverting primary reflections is SO very important to acoustics.
 
jazzmans said:
probably/maybe? it's sprayed on the ceiling, and breaks it up into many many different reflecting surfaces, instead of one (or two in the case of a vaulted ceiling) primary reflecting surfaces.

and yeah, it used to be asbestos and ??? I'm pretty sure the stuff on my ceiling is asbestos based, because of the age of my house, it was marketed as 'fireproof'.

Funny aside, asbestos is fine as long as it isn't airborne. once it becomes aerosoled, the danger begins.

It (popcorn) makes such a HUGE difference acoustically vs plain sheetrock.

Twere I to have ultimate control, I'd popcorn all the walls, not just the roof, but it would look wonky. I care about the sound, not the looks, and since I'm divorced, I don't have to satisfy anyone else.
Click to expand...

On TV you see all the home improvement shows that take the popcorn off the ceiling and I hate it. Besides music being screwed up, flat ceilings and hard floors make the room loud. All the cool people in my neighborhood growing up had the sparkles in the popcorn! Waaaaaay retro cool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom