I treated my listening room with pretty good results. I agree with auxinput's comments. I will add the following. Before you do anything, download REW (room equalization wizard software) and optimize the results around the room without treatment. Get your speakers and your listening chair optimized, then play with the location of other furnishings that may be in the room. While you are doing this, listen for improvements in vocal clarity and stereo image. After all of this is done, then begin judicious introduction of room treatments. As auxinput indicated, it is usually good to focus on the tricorners first. You will almost certainly find that the measurements show accumulation of bass in those corners. Also, be patient, and let your ears be the final judge. Don't get fixated on ruler flat response. Be reasonable. I've been told it is hard to do better than + or - 10 dB in a room that is not custom built for a stereo room. The next time I move, I intend to custom build a home with a room designed for listening. That will be a fun project!
Bass trapping - corners or walls?
I've been reading articles on the ASC website and it seems that they contradict themselves regarding placement of bass traps. Most of their placement articles discusses placing bass traps in the corners. But the article below actually says that traps in corners are not that important and that traps along the mid point of opposite walls are more beneficial. What gives?
http://www.tubetrap.com/bass_traps_articles/iar89.htm
http://www.tubetrap.com/bass_traps_articles/iar89.htm
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@brownsfan my experience with the SR Black Box was not positive. I have a full suite of SR ART, HFTs, FEQs and Atmosphere which work well and add to the air and space on recordings but for me the BB sucked the life and energy out of the room -- if anything it controlled the bass too well (i.e. killed) and no amount of moving it around helped. It also imposed a certain thin tone that was very audible. Now this is in a room that has built in bass traps in the walls and soffits as well as ASC traps in each corner i.e. already has very well defined and controlled bass -- in a more acoustically open situation your experience may be very different |
@folkfreak , thanks for the info. I don't have, and won't have, any other treatments in the living room. It is too alive. No carpet. Hardwood floors and lots of windows. The room has almost no symmetry, so I wouldn't think room nodes would be that bad. One of these days I will run REW to see what I've actually got going on. Without measurement, I think it is excessive decay time that is causing my problems. I guess I should look for a vendor that is OK with returns. I don't want to run a $2K experiment. |
@brownsfan all SR products (and the BB is no exception) come with a 30 day no questions asks return policy so you should only be out return shipping costs (and possibly outbound shipping as well, at least I got charged that when I returned mine). If you are within driving distance of an SR dealer this won't be an issue I wouldn't be surprised if the BB did not work well for you -- my original intro to SR was via the ART system which I installed in my old room which was just like yours. Your wife may be very open to the ART system, it's not cheap but it works really well and looks very classy (unlike the HFTs or even worse the UEF panels) |
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