<edit> having trouble working out how to post pictures!
Hi all, I need some help setting up my room and balancing the sound with the other practical uses the room needs to serve. I’ve only been in this house 10 weeks and have had the system for about eight. I am hoping for your input.The room is the ground floor living room, small (3.6m by 3.15m) and of solid brick construction all round with a fireplace and chimney breast and a shallow bay window.
The room is currently set up to serve both listening and working (I’m a single parent and the boys - 11 and eight - don’t come into this room); I’ve worked from home for the last 10 years so having a working space in the house in not temporary.
The room is currently set up as follows:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/geetee1972/7m35ghhttps://www.flickr.com/gp/geetee1972/41iKTYThere are two considerations for change, one is improving the listening experience, the other is making the room feel more comfortable as a living room. Currently I have one small arm chair in it but have a ‘snuggler’ coming (basically a much wider arm chair cozy for two, spacious for one). Ideally I would have both seats in the living room so that I haver somewhere comfortable with guests (when we’re allowed them again).
The challenge is fitting everything in without it feeling like cluttered. The following layout looks like it might work (the drawings are all to scale and are real measurements that take into account the space needed behind equipment to pug cables in etc) but it is very close to being overwhelming.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/geetee1972/1J0XgSThe other consideration is whether to give up on the desk being in this room altogether, which would achieve the feeling of a comfortable space. However, I am very extroverted and the desk locations is a very good way of remaining connected to other people and feeling energised (which what extrovert actually means). I do have another great location for a workspace up in my bedroom and the original plan was always to put the desk there. But having it located here in the window of the front room, aside from the slight ‘red light district in Amsterdam’ feel to it, has felt really positive and I am loath to give it up. But then again, I’ve just spent 15% of my mortgage borrowing on a hifi and feel I might be compromising the listening experience by laying it out this way. Removing the desk would result in the following:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/geetee1972/8aZX9MFrom a sonic perspective, on certain tracks I am getting a standing wave/resonant frequency in the lower bass registers; the bass can bloom and thicken and becomes very smeared. It is only a problem on a few recordings and is cured by plugging up the rear ports on the speakers but this is achieved by taking out a little too much of the bass response.
Complicated post with a number of options, hope you’re happy to read and comment and I look forward to your thoughts.