The underestimated impact of room acoustics.

[catman]

G'day all, whilst reviewing and auditioning my friends newly constructed ESP electronics early this week, I realised that my friend's listening room acoustics are considereably better than my 'main' listening room, and much, much better than the acoustics here in my Ham Radio shack system.

I wonder how much I'm 'missing' by not having great listening room acoustics? :scratch2: Regards, Felix aka catman.

 

[shelly_d]

I would respond that the acoustical interaction of speakers and room are the big item. Different speakers will react in different ways to the same room environment. The variations are so endless that it is impossible to get perfect, and, as attested to by all the endless shuffling of equipment on this forum, very hard to get really good.

Assuming that you do feel you are missing something try to note what it is about your buddy's room that you like, perhaps you could try some treatment to alter yours toward that end.

Good Luck

Shelly_D

 

[lini]

Try headphones, Felix!

Grinnings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[dogscanskate]

http://www.lavardin.com/lavardin-faqE.html#support

You can start here and look at the plywood rack they suggest Felix. We are not all so lucky to have a room that has great acoustics. I've had a 12x12x8 room for 12 years, one of the worst possible combination for nodes.

I put up acoustic treatment in the room to make it listenable. As I changed my rack system from metal to wood, I removed the acoustic treatment as it had become redundant. My system retrieved more information with improved dynamics and a smoother response. All this at a much cheaper price.

I'm not saying that treating the room will not reap benefits (it will) but setting up a system correctly in a bad room can do more than people can imagine. Once this is done, it simplifies how you target your acoustical treatment in the listening space.

Contrary to what most experts claim (and I used to be in that camp), I found out just how critical the placement of gear in that room was. If that issue is not considered, you start off on a false premise. That may lead to too much treatment as I had experienced.

The analogy I'd make is that even a great turntable cannot overcome a misaligned cartridge. If both are done correctly, the gain can be tremendous. It is like building blocks, everything matters and affects the final result.

You can get good sound in a bad room but it is a painstaking task to accomplish.

Good luck!

 

[Norman Varne]

The locations of the listener and speakers within the room should be optimized before acoustic treatments are considered, so that can also be optimized. Even sensitive equipment, such as a turntable, should be located away from the most destructive room modes.

 

[GreatTone]

I don't have any acoustic treatments, but I have just realized something that puzzled me for a long time about my listening room. With my previous amp, a Sansui 2000x receiver, I always had to turn the balance control to about 10:30 on the dial (boosting the left channel) to get the center image correctly in front of my listening position halfway between the speakers. At first I thought maybe the cartridge on my turntable was unbalanced, but then realized it happened with CDs and tuner as well.

Last winter I replaced the Sansui with a nice Dynaco SCA-35, and I still had to turn the balance to 10:30-ish to center the image. I wondered and thought about why that might be the case, and yesterday I finally figured it out. There's a bookcase behind the right speaker, only about a foot away from it. The left speaker doesn't have anything but the wall about 2 feet behind it. So the sound is reflecting more from the bookcase, making the right speaker louder, and requiring me to shift the balance toward the left channel.

I kept thinking there was something wrong with my system. Glad I figured it out. Wish I could optimize the room, but that's the way it is for now.

 

[froogAL]

extra bodies

If you install extra bodies in your listening area (space permitting) you could theoretically create an anechoic chamber and make friends simultaneously.

I don't mean to trivialize a fascinating thread

Regarding post#6: Although I sit in the same position for serious listening, there's been more than a few occasions where I tweak the balance to make up for the difference in recordings. Often times the source material is far from optimal.

 

[Gregoire]

Before remodeling the cinder block walls/cement floor/rafter ceiling basement into a ManCave, I thought all my speakers sounded bad, I was always messing with the tone/EQ controls and was never happy with the sound regardless of the equipment I was using. Fast forward to my drywall walls/ceiling and carpeted ManCave, and I now keep my tone controls flat (except at low volume I use the Loudness control) and I'm real happy with my setup! I'm not saying my room's acoustics are perfect, just saying improving the acoustics can make a big difference.