Any way to put life back into a completely dead room?

naturallight

Now the room is 17x30, 7 1/2 droped ceiling..heavy acustic panels designed to kill sound. Rug probably with a rubber backing..heavy wall paper, that has been soaked with 2 coats of oil basied primer, the primered paint, plus it's a below ground basement. Which i now have had to put a heavy wood door up..so the room in enclosed.
It is now a dead zone. It is sucking the bass out of my 12's..the farther you go back in the room..the less bass you have. That i'm going to try and fix with a sub.

But the room is just nasty. probably great for recording..but for speaker playback....pretty bad. No life, almost no reflection of anything.

I'm thinging some type of electronic trickery....pretty much for lack of better terms..to try and put an SDA type open feel..into a room that has none.

Something from BBE, or whoever...if that make any sence....if there is such a thing....

Geoff4rfc

Since the room is so dead, why not room treatments? Is the bass just for music or movies? If both, I'd go with a pair of awesome subs and create some reflection in that room, here, try this for starters.........http://truesoundcontrol.com/clearance/index.html?gclid=CIK4rOeX0bACFQxshwod90_6Ww

naturallight

No it's 2 channel music only....room treatments..well there expensive, not sure were i would put them to begin with...you'd be dealing with reflective stuff...in this case you want some reflection..you not trying to kill it...which is the complete opposite of most other rooms..LOL

cnh

I agree, most of the materials in that link are designed to "kill" room reflections, and it sounds like what you want to do is "introduce" some? Not sure what you would do!

Usually rooms that have a lot of sound bouncing around have shiny wood or tile floors, smooth unadorned lustrous walls, and very little in the way of furniture in there. They are sort of Zen-like with a lot of smooth "reflecting" surfaces. Most people say that that is not really very good for musical reproduction?

Rugs, acoustic ceiling tiles and painted wall paper absorb sounds? Are there also a lot of "things" in the room? Maybe empty it out some?

cnh

gdb

Put some naked women in the room...........

aboroth00

Diffusion can be very useful in this case. Most people think of room treatments with just absorption.

Use of dipole speakers. Electrostats? Drop ceilings, heavy wall paper, or rug won't "suck out" bass. Bass absorption in this region is accomplished by very thick materials. Bass is lost in your room for other reasons. It may be due to your speakers being able to pressurize such a large space, inadequate isolation from the exterior, you sitting in a null.

naturallight

Well the dropped ceiling tiles are 3/4" heavy acustic panels designed to kill sound. But your right, the room is just nasty.
Before the only opening into the room was from the stairway..which as soon as you go out there is reflective wood flooring..very high walls.

When the music was loud...the stair way acted as almost a funnel for the bass...I "assume" there was being a lot of air push out that entrance...so when you walked up the stair way..you could feel the bass..almost as much as you could in the room.

With the room sealed off now....it very well could a "null" space as you say. Not alot you can do with it...

Joe08867

Are you in love with your ceiling tile? You could add non acoustic or diffuser tiles to help liven up the space.

You could also add a reflector to one wall. A couple of large picture frames with a solid panel of glass or other non porous surface in it hard mounted to the wall.

naturallight

Not a bad idea..put up some of the cheap crappy stuff they sell today...LOL It would probably reflect some stuff.
Altho of course would look out of place on the ceiling..but not a bad idea..put up some in certain locations.

I do tend to go with the "null" theroy....only because i know what the speakers and the room sounded like before..and what they sound like now with the door in place and closed. as strange as it seems....

The killer part is if you open the door all the way...then things are back to what they should be....LOL
Kind of defeats the purpose of the door( i just found that out yesterday..when i just said, hell.i'll leave the dam door open)

Purpose of door, was to keep the wife's cats from the music room..and to kill the volume when she dose not want to be bothered with it.

So i guess i have a two edged sword here....Pretty much leave the door open, when i want to (and can)..and run the volume control up to 11:30 oclock..and have fun with that volume in the 15 foot seating position....

Then at night, or when ever she's tierd of hearing it. Close the door..drop my seating positon to about 10 feet..and run the volume at less...and toe in the 12's.

Not perfect..but not undoable either.

Joe08867

You definitely have a null. My old bedroom had one. The shape of the room had all the bass go to one corner. I had to put a trap to get rid of it. Sounds like the doorway is yours.

aboroth00

This sounds more like a null than actual due to your drop ceiling absorbing bass. I have a similar drop ceiling with 3/4" Cellulose backing. And I use 1" OC 703 for reflections and the lowest they'll absorb is probably around 500hz. Bass traps will probably absorb into the 50hz region but you don't have that issue.

The best thing to do if you have bass issues is to run sweeps even with a simple RS SPL meter or a more complicated REW mic setup to get an idea what you're dealing with. You might have been enjoying the boominess and now that boominess is gone you feel like you're lacking bass. So far, all we have to go on is your subjective opinion. As you probably have heard before some people prefer a "house curve" rather than flat linear response, this just might be the case.

naturallight

Yeah, i agree with you....not a lot you can do about it. If i leave the door open...yes i can push the 12's..and at the 15 foot seating..sounds great. To be blunt you can't push the 12's close to the 12oclock position...on most source cd's..it just too dam loud and abusive. On old analog coverted stuff..that was recorded low..then you can go a bit farther.
But in the end..i think it's.. if you have to close the door..turn it down and move your seating position..or deal with the wife..so closeing the door is probably a good idea...LOL