In extremely reflective envrons there seems to be only two solutions, both mentioned here. 1) dampen the hell out of it (heavy curtains like theater curtains- very expensive) , 2) distributed low level nearfield playback that doesnt energize the room enough to hit the reflective surfaces (Donavabdears post). Also complicated and expensive. Narrow dispersion can help but it has its own problems of being beamy with a very small sweetspot that is hard to find in both planes (vertical and horizontal). But if you can find it, that can at least provide some measure of enjoyment. For most, rooms like this are usually a long process of experimentation and money that usually ends as "cannot be fixed". The Crystal Cathedral story is a great example: still sucks after hundreds of thousands invested. Glass heavy rooms are the one case where being an audiophile and fussing over sound quality doesnt work out well. @winoguy17 is right!
Room with glass windows as a walls.
My daughter moved from first floor townhouse apartment to 42nd floor skyscraper apartment and fifty percent of her apartment walls are actually glass windows from floor to ceiling now.
I helped her with setting up her system at old place and the sound was pretty decent however new apartment acoustic wise is total disaster.
Of course I did put her system together at new place but sound is terrible. She actually understands all my explanations about acoustic issues at new place, but she doesn’t take it seriously. My daughter actually listens to a lot of music, sometimes for hours however I wouldn’t call her audiophile, probably just a serious music lover and I understand that she will have listening fatigue pretty soon at her new place.
Acoustic treatment probably would be limited or refused due to esthetic and design incompatibility. Has anyone experienced setting up a system in such conditions, any advice?
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Your query reminded me of this video in which the speakers sound pretty damn good in what appears to be an acoustically awful room. There was also another video (same speakers/room) with different music, but I could not find it. Was the sound doctored, or did they actually achieve this sound @ the listening position? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGtXhRDpLJU
DeKay
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Glass walls are rough. If there's ANY possible way for her to hang acoustic clouds on the ceiling, that would be my suggestion. You can make them yourself for super cheap or order them from a company like GiK Acoustics. Minimal issue, just need to cover the holes and paint that part of the ceiling when she moves if she's renting. Also not sure if every single wall in the room is glass, but if you can get paneling up on any of the NON glass windows, that would be ideal. And one more suggestion would be, if she can stomach it, use adhesive or command strips and hang at least a decent size section at first reflection 4-6" thick of the thicker stuff on the window where her first reflection point is. Or again, buy some panels from GiK for first reflections. With clouds, and first reflections covered, and if her rear wall is not glass, putting some diffusion on there, would help massively! Best of luck to you and to her! |
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