Wanna help with my room?

Robert Harley's Guide to High End Audio has lots of info in room stuff. Lots of other good stuff too.

One thing I would add to the above addendums to Stehno's advice concerns his recommendation to place the speakers at "the long end of the room". This phrase is somewhat ambiguous - does he mean "along the long wall" or "firing long-ways down the room", which means placed along the short wall? If the room size allows you to sit the correct distance away from a conventional monopolar dynamic box speaker without the rear wall being too close to the listener's head, speaker placement along the long front wall may be best, as it places the speakers farther from the sidewalls, avoiding early reflections (some actually recommend positioning the listener's head close to rear wall with acoustic treatment behind, but this will boost the perceived bass). For dipole panel speakers, which have a figure-8 radiation pattern with nulls to the sides, placement along the short rear wall would be better, so as to allow the speakers to moved as far out from the rear wall as is practical, and allowing them to be relatively closer to the side walls. For small monitor-type box speakers designed to be listened to in the nearfield, set-up whichever way is best so as to allow both the listener's head and the speakers to be farthest from room boundaries. Also, though strategic placement of bookcases, draperies, etc. could somewhat ameliorate the need to invest in acoustic treatment, if I was doing a dedicated room from scratch, custom-built to the correct proportions etc., I wouldn't skimp on checking into purpose-made treatment systems, or even hiring a professional consultant from the beginning. I've heard a more startlingly real, holographic image cast by a pair of utilitarian self-powered Mackie small monitors precisely positioned in an acoustically designed and treated studio control room (no parallel walls, angled ceiling, staggered sides, absorptive and diffusive surfaces), than I have ever heard from any high-end system in a normal room. At least consider treating the ceiling first-reflection points if all the rest is too extravagant. One more thing: if we are talking ground floor, you may want to consider having slab concrete below the carpet at least at the end that will be underneath the speakers and maybe the equipment stand, especially if there is a turntable involved.

Thanks very much guys!

Check out www.cardas.com for a discusion of room dimensions.
Go to INSIGHTS then ROOM SETUP. He suggests 10 x 16 x 26.

Sean is right. The room dimensions really need to avoid being devisable by a common denominator. The Everest books are fantastic and can give you "golden ratios" of rooms that work well. In addition to this there are many other considerations. Outlets, wiring, isolation, absorption material vs diffusion material and when to use which--it varies greatly depending on the room size. There is so much you can do with a room being designed from scratch, it really becomes a matter of budget and taste. For example--John is right about minimizing windows for acoustical purposes--but for me, I like natural sunlight and would not sacrifice having windows, but I would make them acoustically sound (no pun intended). You have to decide what your goals and budget is and then do a complete design incorporating those goals.

Hi, when you have decided on the room dimensions take some time to model it--ie. the furniture placement, floor, ceiling and wall covering choices--with speaker/room modeling software. I used a Cara 2.1 program and achieved excellent results. I changed my original design plans about 30 percent after reading the software results.

you guys are the best! many thanks!

I would HIGHLY avoid room dimensions of 9 x 12 x 18. You would have MASSIVE standing wave problems at multiple frequencies. For best results, none of the dimensions should be easily divided by a common multiple. As such, 18 is directly divisible by 9 and all three figures are divisible by 3. This would produce severe nodes with multiple points of reinforcement. Off the top of my head, something along the lines of 9 x 14 x 17 would be FAR superior. Many of Stehno's other suggestions are very good though.

I would HIGHLY suggest picking up a book or two by F. Alton Everest ASAP and doing some reading. He has several different books out about acoustics, designing and building your own studio / listening rooms, etc... It will be the best money that you ever spent. Sean
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AWESOME!!!!!

I'd like to take a stab at it.

o For acoustics, the room should be retangular, not square.
o With a 9' ceiling your looking at about a 12' x 18' x 9' which are very good demensions for a music room 13'x17' might be a tad better. (mine is 12.6 x 18 x 8 and I don't believe I have any problems with it)
o Speakers should most likely be placed at the long end of the room.
o There is a special deadening material/wrap to put behind any sheetrock that will help silence any adjoing rooms.
o I'd probably consider insulating in any case.
o If you can afford for it, try to have the ceiling at about 8' directly over the speakers and sloping upward to 9' as the ceiling moves to the back of the room.
o Both side walls should be non-parallel if possible. Either from the bottom moving up and outward about 4 inches or from the ceiling going down moving outward 4 inches or so to eliminate initial reflections.
o Thick berber carpeting and thick pad should do the trick.
o No matter what is underneath the floor (concrete slab, crawlspace, basement), you really should have the room properly suspended by floor joists or if slab by 2x4's laying on the concrete. This should help immensely with the bass.
o If budget allows, install ceiling beams to break/catch the sound reflections as the sound works toward the back of the room.
o Install as few windows as possible.
o Install bookshelves on the front and back walls and load them up with as many different books as possible to diffuse sound.
o Find the best 10 gauge romex you can find and run dedicated lines for each component from your service panel to the wall outlets.
o Purchase FIM, PS Audio, or even Home Depots best 20 amp hospital/audio grade wall outlets for each component.
o Ensure that all dedicated lines are connected to the same phase of 115 volts at the service panel.
o Ensure that the amplifiers circuit breaker is a 20 amp circuit breaker (all others can be 15 amp)
o Real wood paneling on all walls is better than drywall, assuming that there are many grooves (tongue and groove, etc.) going vertically in direction.
o There should be little or no glass or hard shiny surfaces if at all avoidable.
o Use a 6 panel solid (outside) wood door for room entry.
o Because it's not the biggest of rooms, I would recommend staying away from any 4-way speaker system. Supposedly, most 4-ways require you to be some distance back (8 ft or more) for all drivers to gel as one.
o Unless you are using the very largest of speakers (I have Aerial 10T's full range speakers), speaker size should not matter.
o Any room treatments at this point may or may not be needed.

With these simple and inexpensive tricks, no matter what system you put in this room, you should experience the very best sonics that your equipment has to offer.

-John

Make the deminsions large enough so you can put the speakers in the middle of the room if needed. I am told by folks in the know (Joachim Gerhard at Audio Physic for example, I think the interview is at Speakerbuilding.com) that this is the best way to get clean sound but it is never done because of "aesthetic reasons."

"Totally treated with acoustical damping" would be well...very damp.

Two good sites to view on this topic are www.silcom.com/~aludwig and http://physchem.kfunigraz.ac.at/listeningroom

Both of these sites have all of the "magic dimensions" ect...

As you know, the room is crucial and resonates like a pipe organ. Without knowing more about your personal preferences it's a bit tough to get very specific.

Good luck.

Sincerely, I remain