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Thread: Room Dynamics and the Effect of Hard Surfaces

  1. #1
    Join Date: Jul 2017

    Location: Kent

    Posts: 550
    I'm Paul.

    Default Room Dynamics and the Effect of Hard Surfaces

    My listening position has my head about 8in away from a rear stud wall, he puts me to shame tbh

    Would I see any benefit making that wall as sound deadening as possible with say some acoustic tiles / matting?

    I can position myself equidistant to my speakers (around 8 foot with a slight toe-in) and the speakers are about the same distance apart from each other with a big telly splitting the two. I'm currently considering putting a big heavy blanket over the telly to prevent unwanted deflections but am I taking it a step too far with the wall? My floor is carpeted and I have heavy curtains behind my system.

    Has anyone seen any improvements softening walls / floors / windows?
    Current system:
    RPi + Allo Digione
    Beresford Caiman Seg & Dorado powered by 15v Linear PSU
    Transcendent Sound Mini Beast OTL
    Amptastic Mini-1
    Klipsch KG4.5 Speakers with Titanium Diagphrams and Sonicap Cap upgrade
    110aH Leisure Battery powers the Mini-1 & Digione

  2. #2
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Notts

    Posts: 2,741
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pepperamip View Post
    My listening position has my head about 8in away from a rear stud wall, he puts me to shame tbh

    Would I see any benefit making that wall as sound deadening as possible with say some acoustic tiles / matting?

    I can position myself equidistant to my speakers (around 8 foot with a slight toe-in) and the speakers are about the same distance apart from each other with a big telly splitting the two. I'm currently considering putting a big heavy blanket over the telly to prevent unwanted deflections but am I taking it a step too far with the wall? My floor is carpeted and I have heavy curtains behind my system.

    Has anyone seen any improvements softening walls / floors / windows?
    I use Magneplanar speakers in a dedicated music room: a double bedroom. The room is a decent size but smaller than the rooms I am used to running Maggies in. I made a number of acoustic panels out of 100mm acoustic Rockwool insulation. One set is positioned behind the speakers. The other (smaller panels) are behind my listening chair at ear level. Together they provide just the right amount of "damping" to tame early reflections and smearing from back wall reflections.

    Geoff
    Last edited by Sherwood; 15-02-2019 at 20:58.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

    Posts: 37,779
    I'm Martin.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Pepperamip View Post
    My listening position has my head about 8in away from a rear stud wall, he puts me to shame tbh

    Would I see any benefit making that wall as sound deadening as possible with say some acoustic tiles / matting?

    I can position myself equidistant to my speakers (around 8 foot with a slight toe-in) and the speakers are about the same distance apart from each other with a big telly splitting the two. I'm currently considering putting a big heavy blanket over the telly to prevent unwanted deflections but am I taking it a step too far with the wall? My floor is carpeted and I have heavy curtains behind my system.

    Has anyone seen any improvements softening walls / floors / windows?
    Yes. I have a big window right behind me, closing the (quite thick) curtains makes the sound improve noticeably.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

  4. #4
    Join Date: Apr 2016

    Location: Gravesend and France

    Posts: 1,498
    I'm paul.

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    IN my dedicated room I have 4' x 2' x 2" panels behind my sofa, two upright and the third across the top of the other two. Top one angles away from the wall and touches the ceiling as the ceiling is low. Also have another 4' x 2' x 2" panel at first reflection by right speaker and another on the ceiling. The left speaker is by French doors with kilo serge wool curtains as used in vocal booths.
    Bakoon 13r Denon DP80 Stax UA-70 Shure Ultra 500 in a Martin Bastin body with jico stylus, project ds2 digital Rullit aero 8 field coils in tqwt speakers

    Office system, DIY CSS fullrange speakers with aurum cantus G2 ribbons yulong dac Sony STR6055 receiver Jvc QL-A51 direct drive turntable, Leema sub. JVC Z4S cart is in the house

    Garage system another Sony receiver, cassette deck


    System components are subject to change without warning and at the discretion of the owner.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,853
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    If you can manage it, ideally the speakers should be placed at a 'live' end of the room (i.e. an end with a large window or patio doors) and the listening position at a 'dead' end of the room (if that too has a window - close the curtains).
    Barry

  6. #6
    Join Date: Dec 2014

    Location: UK, inactive

    Posts: 1,570
    I'm inactive.

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    Always found the bay window syndrome a problem with typical UK semis - and try to avoid setting up speakers on either side or facing them unless heavy drapes are to hand.

    Years ago I worked for a firm who hired out heavy velvet curtains to venues for sound deadening purposes.
    Biggest customers were modern conference centres with big glass areas to cover. They made a massive difference

  7. #7
    Join Date: Dec 2012

    Location: Stevenage

    Posts: 356
    I'm Mark.

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    I had glass bookcase doors right behind me. Covering them with cork tiles (looks far less gash than it sounds) made a huge difference

  8. #8
    Join Date: Jul 2017

    Location: Kent

    Posts: 550
    I'm Paul.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    If you can manage it, ideally the speakers should be placed at a 'live' end of the room (i.e. an end with a large window or patio doors) and the listening position at a 'dead' end of the room (if that too has a window - close the curtains).
    Barry ive managed this to some extent where my speakers face out from a top to floor window but then i have patio doors just in front of my right side speaker (perpendicular) However the cuetains are always closed covering these by the time im listening to music.

    I do have a big 1m squate painting behind my head too so i wonder if that does parrt of the job for me.


    Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
    Current system:
    RPi + Allo Digione
    Beresford Caiman Seg & Dorado powered by 15v Linear PSU
    Transcendent Sound Mini Beast OTL
    Amptastic Mini-1
    Klipsch KG4.5 Speakers with Titanium Diagphrams and Sonicap Cap upgrade
    110aH Leisure Battery powers the Mini-1 & Digione

  9. #9
    Join Date: Feb 2010

    Location: Moved to frozen north, beyond Inverness

    Posts: 2,602
    I'm Dave.

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    This also relates to the recent suggestion of trying different speaker positions to improve the sound from the speakers. Most of us don't have enough control over our rooms to be able to really judge. One room we have is a quite large conservatory - not good in terms of reflecting glass. However, on one occasion I was presenting an evening of recorded music to a society, so decided to try in that area. Because the space was relatively free from other furniture I was able to position the speakers quite carefully. Small differences in position did make significant differences to the spatial characteristics of recordings.

    My suspicion afterwards that "ideal" listening rooms would have hardly any furniture, and be acoustically dead - so that any ambience from the recording could be picked up, yet such rooms would probably be horrible to live in. Also it may be that recording engineers and producers actually do expect users to listen in "normal" rooms, so don't actually mix in any additional reverberation. Listening to some recordings in a completely dead sound environment might actually be unpleasant, unless artificial reverb is added in within the listening environment.

    Only a very small amount of artificial reverb would be needed, but it could make some recordings more enjoyable to listen to. I don't think many of us are shaping the sound within listenning rooms in that way, though.

    Getting listening right for more people presents additional problems too.
    Dave

  10. #10
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

    Posts: 37,779
    I'm Martin.

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    My understanding is that the reflected high frequency sounds need to arrive at your ears shortly after the direct sound, too much of a delay and you get smearing and muddle. But if there are no reflected HF sounds at all it will sound dead with very little soundstage. So treating a room is a complex undertaking as you need to get into the goldilocks zone.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

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