Effects of ceiling material on sound
kevhed72
Posts: 5,055
Just starting moving system into a new room....with a drop ceiling which has R-19 insulation stuffed between the floor joists above it. There is a 4" space between the drop ceiling and joists (which was close as I could get it).
Question - how much does this matter vs. focusing on adding room treatments / more insulation to walls / etc.
Question - how much does this matter vs. focusing on adding room treatments / more insulation to walls / etc.
Post edited by kevhed72 on
Comments
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Depends on what else you have in the room, shape, size, ratio, etc.
I personally like a slightly live room. it imparts a little more realism to the playback for me, YMMV... -
Hmmmm, you've got me thinking about mine now, Looks like I have a 10" drop(??) from roof to my ceiling which you can see is solid pine planks with beam strips. I have no idea what's above it.
When I moved in the 'clap test' showed the ceiling not nearly as reflective as the side walls and saltillo tiled floor. Since the place for the speakers is an alcove that shoots off the back of the house and has a small step-up from the main floor, I got nice balance with just a throw rug on the floor in front of the ML's, with wood ceiling adds a nice smoothness to the highs. So i guess in your place it depends on the material the drop is made of and the way it's mounted to the walls or the joists above it.
It's fun setting up a new room isn't it?
Thorens TD125MKII, SME3009,Shure V15/ Teac V-8000S, Denon DN-790R cass, Teac 3340 RtR decks, Onix CD2...Sumo Electra Plus pre>SAE A1001 amp>Martin Logan Summit's -
Last night I was quite disappointed over the sound, and today much more pleased. The biggest variable I can guess was the amp being powered up over night vs. being plugged in for 30 min. I still am curious what others with drop ceilings think / have done to improve sound....
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If nothing else later on you can hang some ceiling treatments if needed. I would focus on the rest of your room first (First and Second Reflection points on the wall and floor) and then go back to the ceiling."....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
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Feast your eyes on these for a bit. You could do a few at a time until the room sounded right and not have alot of big "art' on the walls.
http://www.realtraps.com/p_ceiling.htm
Gordon2 Channel -
Martin Logan Spire, 2 JL Audio F112 subs
McIntosh C1000 Controller with Tube pre amp, 2 MC501 amplifiers, MD1K Transport & DAC, MR-88 Tuner
WireWorld Eclipse 6.0 speaker wire and jumpers, Eclipse 5^2 Squared Balanced IC's. Silver Eclipse PCs (5)
Symposium Rollerblocks 2+ (16)Black Diamond Racing Mk 3 pits (8) -
It's fun setting up a new room isn't it?
Are those SL3's? I'm not current on the older stuff. Couldn't afford them when new!!
Gordon2 Channel -
Martin Logan Spire, 2 JL Audio F112 subs
McIntosh C1000 Controller with Tube pre amp, 2 MC501 amplifiers, MD1K Transport & DAC, MR-88 Tuner
WireWorld Eclipse 6.0 speaker wire and jumpers, Eclipse 5^2 Squared Balanced IC's. Silver Eclipse PCs (5)
Symposium Rollerblocks 2+ (16)Black Diamond Racing Mk 3 pits (8) -
No, they're the original Sequels, from about 1987, fantastic for an older pair! better crossovers than the SL3's IMO.Thorens TD125MKII, SME3009,Shure V15/ Teac V-8000S, Denon DN-790R cass, Teac 3340 RtR decks, Onix CD2...Sumo Electra Plus pre>SAE A1001 amp>Martin Logan Summit's
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After moving my setup from a room with hard walls and ceiling (it was a type of concrete almost) into a room with a dropped ceiling with ceiling tiles, I quickly realized that I hate dropped ceilings with ceiling tiles.
Even though I have wall treatments, the dropped ceiling room completely killed the imaging and bass response. My best guess is that the tiles vibrated with the speakers and dampening the bass and also acted as a large speaker cone that killed the imaging.
In fact, I hated it so much, I sold my LSi9s because I couldn't justify having such nice/expensive speakers in such a crappy room. For the time being, I'm using $75 speakers and it's about as good as I can get it. In the future, I will be reunited with my 9's, don't worry. -
After a few days, I think the fact that my A9s are now on a solid concrete floor with laminate on top....is a vast improvement over a wood joist floor with wall to wall carpeting. So far the positive floor changes have been a bigger impact than the change from drywall to drop ceiling.
I know there are other room factors involved, but swapping out the ceiling tiles has taken a much lower priority on my list of things to tweak. Kind of weird...its a never-ending journey I guess. -
After moving my setup from a room with hard walls and ceiling (it was a type of concrete almost) into a room with a dropped ceiling with ceiling tiles, I quickly realized that I hate dropped ceilings with ceiling tiles.
Even though I have wall treatments, the dropped ceiling room completely killed the imaging and bass response. My best guess is that the tiles vibrated with the speakers and dampening the bass and also acted as a large speaker cone that killed the imaging.
In fact, I hated it so much, I sold my LSi9s because I couldn't justify having such nice/expensive speakers in such a crappy room. For the time being, I'm using $75 speakers and it's about as good as I can get it. In the future, I will be reunited with my 9's, don't worry.
What was above the actual ceiling tiles?
