Dedicated 2CH room or not?

VR3

Mulveling...

What kind of treatments would you do in my room?

HT - let me know your thoughts. I havnt really fooled around with placement yet - they are amazing where they sit. But I will have to try them without toe in as well.

Gaara

I second Mulveling's recomendation for GIK and Auralex. I use the 244 traps, Monster Bass Traps, and Auralex 2in wedge foam and LENRDs.

If you want lots of good info room acoustics I recommend Ethan Winer's Site for his company Real Traps. He also has some info on the Foam by Mail here. Ethan (Ethan Winer) posts a lot on Audio Circle under the Acoustics Circle and Bryan Pape (Bpape) from GIK does also. They give great recommendations for various room types and situations if you want to do some searching.

Jared

jm1

Glad to see you’re contemplating a dedicated room.

I created a thread on what I accomplished in my room. You can find it here. There are pictures of the room in the last post. I also have some pictures in the showcase.

Pay heed to what Mulveling said in his posts.

Additionally,

- If you do not know which wall you will be using as the room front, design the room so the door (or any other room feature) will not be in a location where acoustical treatment could be placed.

- Plan on insulating the walls so they do not resonate. I also placed cross braces mid wall to further reinforce the studs and drywall.

- If you are able, incorporate sound proofing in the ceiling. This will allow you to retreat to the room and not disturb family members. You may also wish to place some on the wall. This would be a good start on learning more on the subject.

- Heating/ventilation registers need to be looked at as sources of noise. Addressing this issue during construction will prove easier than post construction.


Take your time. If you are unsure of any aspect of the room design, construction or treatment, conduct more research. Once completed, you will be in for a big surprise.

Mike Reeter

What a great thread,I also have been thinking of turning a sitting room,12'x12' into a dedicated listening room...but,thought the SDA's would be too big for this space.

I would have tried by now,but the 2.3's are in the basement,and the proposed room is on the 2nd floor...2 flights of steps...150 lbs. each...I may talk myself out of it yet:D

Ricardo

The plan is ready; will have all walls framed (two of them are against the concrete and I had thought of leaving them like that); I'll use double layers of drywall with green glue for soundproofing; same on the ceiling, with fiberglass between the joists/studs.
I contated GIK Acoustics and Bryan has been very helpful in providing his thoughts; based on recommendations here, plus what I think has been outstanding advice/service from him, I will treat with their products.

Will start taking pictures tomorrow of the area as is (a mess), and document progress. I am so excited with this project!!!

Thanks everyone for all the great input!!

Early B.

Great!!!

How long do you think it'll take?

mulveling

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

Mulveling...

What kind of treatments would you do in my room?

HT - let me know your thoughts. I havnt really fooled around with placement yet - they are amazing where they sit. But I will have to try them without toe in as well.

Trey - here's what I'd do, please remember I am no expert; I'm merely providing advice based on my internet research reading info from real experts and from experimentations in my own 2ch room:

To start with, treating the most critical 1st reflection points will give you the biggest bang for your buck, IME. If you can swing it, say five GIK 244 panels at $60 each plus shipping would be super - but even 3 should be a great start. These panels are 4'x2'x5.5" each. You could also consider the 242 which are 3.5" thick, $50 each, and come 3 to a box. Since you're a DIY kinda guy, you could probably make your own with a little bit of research - however the GIK panels are a pretty good value proposition considering they don't cost much more than the raw materials, and they design & build them pretty well. With 3, I'd put one vertically at each 1st reflection point on the sidewall, then horizontally mount the 3rd on the back wall centered behind my head. With 2 more, I'd put them against the wall behind the speakers at the 1st reflection points there - OR alternatively you could try them as bass traps by straddling the corners behind the speakers (244's work much better than 242's as bass traps). If you don't have anything on the floor, try to get a thick rug (with padding preferrably) for it to soak up 1st reflection high freqency energy - a broadband panel would be much better of course, but not much fun to walk on.

I see you have some space between the speakers and front wall, which is good. Best would be to also remove the TV & large stand between the speaks, or reduce its footprint as much as possible, and/or move the stand back towards the front wall as much as possible. Large objects near the speakers are typically a bad thing. Moving that stuff outta the way will also give you more room to experiment with speaker placements...

If you find you're happy with the results, next would be to attempt serious bass trapping and/or covering the ceiling 1st reflection points. You'll probably see a big leap in performance covering all 4 vertical corner wall-to-ceiling, but of course that involves a lot of traps! We're talking 2 panels per corner = 8 panels - the experts generally say to start with the wall behind the speakers, preferrably from the ceiling, then fill in from there. Of course you don't want to make a room too dead, so stick to just 1st reflection points and corner traps for now and you should be fine.

Sure sounds like a lot to be done, but remember the biggest bang-for-the buck will be from the first 3 panels! Good luck!

Ricardo

Early B. wrote:

Great!!!

How long do you think it'll take?

Don't know; maybe a couple of months? It took me a little over a year to finish the whole basement....plumbing and everything, but I wasn't this motivated

VR3

Thanks for all the advice Mulveling. Will be considering that more as all the gear comes to completion. I appreciate it.

HT - I toed out my speakers quite a bit, with a slight toe in only and slid my TV stand back a few notches.

Man there was an apparent unfolding of the soundstage when I toed them out a bit. There is an apparent lack of right staging due to there being no door there (need to put it back up) - but the left staging is phenominal. The guitar on the side is in the den, the drums are verrry far back and the singer is forward. Outstanding!

Good luck on the room, need lots of pics!

Ricardo

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

Thanks for all the advice Mulveling. Will be considering that more as all the gear comes to completion. I appreciate it.

HT - I toed out my speakers quite a bit, with a slight toe in only and slid my TV stand back a few notches.

Man there was an apparent unfolding of the soundstage when I toed them out a bit. There is an apparent lack of right staging due to there being no door there (need to put it back up) - but the left staging is phenominal. The guitar on the side is in the den, the drums are verrry far back and the singer is forward. Outstanding!

Good luck on the room, need lots of pics!

Ha ha ha; I toed them in and love it .

VR3

I had them toed REALLL far in. Almost a V between me and the speakers. They just seemed congested - particularly in my small room. If the room were larger I think itd be a little different.

Early B.

Me, too. I found that my Taylo reference monitors liked to be toed in slightly.

VR3

Dude its just a holy sound. For the lack of the better word.

One of my reference disc is "Dead Can Dance" - "Mr. Love Grove"

Every one should own this disc.

There is a "whip", "congas" and a few other misc instruments that I forget off hand...

But the vocals on the CD are extremely large, infact on a good system they completely engulph the room, resonating about.

I recall listening to them on my Dad's Grande Utopias - and the whip would be about 10 feet from the left speaker (he has a wide room) and the congas would be about 5 feet away...

This is the closest Ive heard to that.

The Whip expanded out infront of the left speaker and back what seemed to be about 5 feet. The congas positioned about a foot behind the left speaker... and the male vocalist engulphed the center staging about 1 foot infront - with the reverb resonating throughout the room.

Oh man, soooo beautiful.

schwarcw

HTrookie wrote:

Wow; I feel pumped; I'm going to go ahead and do it; just put up the wall, a carpet, and start playing around with treatments; found this site that has decent prices (I think). I'll keep you posted and will take pictures along the way.

http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/

I like those geometric pieces! You could really make the man cave cool with some geometric pieces, nice lighting and a Kegerator from the Flea:D

Serendipity

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

I recall listening to them on my Dad's Grande Utopias - and the whip would be about 10 feet from the left speaker (he has a wide room) and the congas would be about 5 feet away...

Your dad has Grande Utopias? Awesome! I thought (might be wrong though) he had a Klipsch/SVS system with an Outlaw pre and Adcom amps?

Glad you are enjoying the speakers.