I live in a large cement room...


Hi. I would be grateful for anyone out there with acoustical knowledge to offer ideas. Here's my system, room, and issues to address;
#1. OK, THE SYSTEM: Cary CD303, Cary sli80 (with a buffet of NOS tubes, so sexy they're almost pornographic), Meadowlark Hot Rod Shearwaters, 2 Coincident power cords, Harmonic Tech Pro silwayII interconnects, a Chang Lightspeed on the way, and biwired DH Labs T-14 (soon to be replaced with either Harm Tech Pro9 bi's or the Coincident wire). That will be all the upgrades for quite a while, I took some big steps this past year to put together a good system for what I listen to, which is primarily small ensemble acoustic instruments- jazz & classical.
#2. THE ROOM: length 24' width 17' height 8'. Hard tile floor, cement walls, and cement ceilings sprayed with stucco textured with kitty litter, wasn't my idea but it's a nice effect.
Currently I have my speakers 8' out from the short wall ( I live alone :-), and 4' out from one of the long side walls, and 7' from the other side wall, (it has to be this way due to foot traffic considerations), the speakers are about 7' apart from center of drivers.
ROOM TREATMENTS I'VE DONE ALREADY: the whole back wall is covered in two king size egg crate bed pads, then covered by two king size Martha Stewart (taupe colored) cotton blankets, a nice looking wall if I do say so with lots of double stick carpet tape underneath and duct tape on the perimeters. On the floor I've put two throw rugs- Kmart designer rugs, (~4'x7') from the exclusive Tangiers collection, which I throw out and replace whenever the dogs vomit on them. So there is a thin layer of carpet all around me between the speakers and my listening position. On the long wall to my right of the listening position (with the speaker 4' from the side wall) are two large sliding glass doors with panoramic views of the Caribbean, ( I'm in St Thomas, which is why the house is all poured cement). There is a sheet thin drape over the windows. Behind the speakers along the back wall are lots of cardboard boxes from all my equipmemt, and CD racks etc.
ISSUES TO ADDRESS: How can I improve my soundstage/imaging? Speakers are slightly toed in. I don't seem to be able to attatch anything to the ceiling due to the kitty litter, it just wont stick. I think better speaker cables will help. Frequency response seems nice, but I'd love to hear even better imaging. Sorry to be so long winded but I just finished a nice bottle of wine. Jay
jay_carlson
My dad lives in a small cement room. The feds provide it
free of charge. I dont think he's too worried about imaging though.
Lee
I wanna die and be re-incarnated Jay. Betcha the bastard hit it rich on the dot-com run up and bailed before NASDAQ fell apart. I'm sure he has every vinyl release know to man too. Following that thought a little further, the SOB is probably well endowed and can drink anyone under the table!
The biggest image I am receiving here is the one where I wish for a pair of wading boots.
Actually Jeff I live a very modest life. I don't own the house, just have an apt. in it. (house-sitting). The owner comes down a few times a year. I guess it's kind of like Magnum P.I. Remember that show? no vinyl here though, and no dot-com dough either, although there are a couple of dot com kids here this week, (the upstairs rents out weekly about half the year @~9K/wk). These two 20 something bright kids are down here getting married tomorrow, they flew down over 100 family & friends, putting them up at the Ritz Carlton....Man, must be nice, the bride to be founded getconnected.com, the groom started some other .com suppplying biotech co.s with stuff. I supose they'll be broke in a couple years, but for now there having fun.
The big problem I see in the above is easily rectified. Simply change the dogs' diet.