Bright room, help

place a rug between the speakers and your listening position to eliminate floor reflections of the uppermids and high frequencies. adjust toe in to avoid side wall reflections or add deadening materiel on the side wall reflection points, including book cases, plants etc. don't be afraid to put the speaker axis's crossed in front of the listening position. adjust speaker heighth. you might list your equipment as some may be able to comment on ways to tame the equipment itself.

Typically, you want some very thick berber type carpeting with thick quality oriented pad underneath.

Sell the leather and purchase a cloth sofa and/or chairs (cotton is nice and cool to the touch like leather). And clothe ottomans. Leather will reflect sound.

I sold my leather sofa for some cloth chairs and ottomans and noticed a decent improvement in the bass region. The cloth material and cushions certainly act as an absorber.

Cover any windows with soft/thick draperies. Maybe even some parts of walls.

Remove any wall pictures especially if they have glass fronts.

Install large bookcases (no doors, no glass) with not so nicely kept books on shelves. The less orderly the shelves, the better the defraction.

Get rid of any tables and floor or table lamps and install some recessed lighting.

Move the speakers away from side and back walls.

Ensure that your listening chair is at least 4 to 6 feet away from the wall behind it.

-IMO

I had a similar problem with the exact room type and furniture. I also thought I needed to deaden the room and reduce echo. But then I replaced my $2500 "mid-fi" amp with a BAT VK-6200 and suddenly the "bright" room sounded sonically neutral. No echo, no brightness, no fatigue - just an amazing, realistic, detailed sound with a thinner wallet trade-off.

You should be glad that your room is "bright" and not "dead". It is far easier to absorb high frequencies using simplistic tools and materials than it is to try to make up for them.

Check out the various room treatment products from RPG, Sonex, etc... You can learn a LOT about how they will affect the tonal balance of your room by studying the frequency response curves i.e. "absorbtion ratios" that they display for some of their products. While i don't know if RPG, Sonex, etc.. have the info that you would need to do this on their website, Audio Advisor does. Simply click on the product that you are interested in and then click on the link for "specifications", etc...

If you have more time than money, you can take their research and duplicate their products for pennies on the dollar. There are also some excellent DIY designs on Jon Risch's website that he was kind enough to share with the public.

Before doing ANY of this though, you might want to check out some books by F. Alton Everest on acoustics. Not only will these give you a better idea of why you are experiencing the problems that you are, it will give you a better understanding of how you can correct it and make use of the other designs previously mentioned.

While it may be slightly more costly in the long run, you can also consult a professional. Rives Audio can assist you in resolving your problems in a manner that is very specific to your individual installation. Rather than taking an "edjimuhkated guess" at what should go where and how much you should use ( reading one of Everest's books will give you an idea, but... ), Rives ( or other "acoustic professionals" ) can do all of the legwork for you and give you the results that you are looking for without the trial and error approach.

Hope this helps and good luck with your system & room. Sean
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live in your room don't strip it... do as rives says and get the first reflection point on the damn parallel walls and lay a carpet with underlay for the first floor reflection at the minimum.

Leave the pictures on the walls as they will absorb some sound and more importantly diffuse sound. Leather sofa will absorb similar to cloth.

if the vaulted ceilings are high enough and the look is acceptable get some fibre board and fly them off the ceiling to absorb and diffuse.

if you do all of this the room will go from "Live" to more neutral and allow for more relaxed listening. Enjoy the music!