Sound correction in small room

It’s not clear from your post which wall you have the speakers on but I think it’s the short wall. Have you tried them on the long wall? My room is a similar size to yours and this works very well for me 

You can use the Cardas speaker placement guides as a good starting point, treating the corners with traps will then help on top
http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_horizontal_and_square.php

Hello la10slgr,

It appears that your components are resting on a table.

Resonance formed from vibration without an exit, trapped inside the chassis is affecting your components and loudspeakers operational efficiency hence clogging all your signal pathways (mechanical, electromechanical and acoustic).

Chances are your table and table top are also adding audible unwanted frequency and noise into the environment from vibration.

Until you get the equipment under control - mechanical grounding or isolated in some manner, searching for an acoustic cure will only serve as a temporary Band-Aid or confuse the issues even more. 

In my opinion, your immediate issues are mechanical and not acoustic.

Our recommendation would be to mechanically ground your loudspeakers and electronics package and hear more of what your equipment is capable of in performance, then listen to see if any additional acoustic products are required.

Robert

Star Sound

Hey everyone!  have seen your responses but havent had a chance to digest all of the information y'all have so graciously provided (daughters bday party this weekend) so will get back asap.. thank you so much for the recommendations and it definitely looks like there is a lot of information here...  

as a starting point, i am definitely looking for thoughts about my speaker placement and then progress to the other ideas.. i had considered long wall placement (they are on the short wall) but decided against that in the building phase for whatever reason was logical at the moment so now i am 99% locked into the current locale (outlet placement, connections, holes in the walls, etc..)

once again, truly, thank you!  I know no one in the audio world where i live and do not feel comfortable plugging the stores for their knowledge and then not hiring them so this kind of help is extremely helpful and appreciated!

I had a hell of a time getting my room to sound right. Here's some things that finally got it right:

To tighten the bass, get two unfinished Mapleshade maple platforms  and spike them to the floor. Then spike your speakers to the platforms.

http://mapleshadestore.com/feedback_maplespeakerplinths.php


To improve the room:

Get at least a ten-pack of SR's HFT's and place them around the room as directed 

 https://highend-electronics.com/products/sr-hft-high-frequency-transformer

Get two pair of the Shakti Hallographs.  One pair goes behind the speakers in the corners of the front wall. The second pair goes behind the listening position. Adjust for the best sound.

https://highend-electronics.com/products/shakti-hallograph-1

Happy listening ...

Frank

Some add-ons I figured out this weekend or forgot to mention:

1) The problems occur at louder volume/listening levels, about 90-95db

2) Problems also occur with louder music (louder as in typical rock music vs. mellow or acoustic music)

These two points may be obvious to some…

3: I do have speaker isolation planned with bamboo boards (some would call them cutting boards from Ikea..) to put on the carpet and then the floor spikes..  Haven’t added them on yet as I am still scooting the speakers all over the place testing different positions…

 

Ok, so here’s where things stand:

1) Let’s get this out of the way 1st…  I tried to not so discreetly allude to the fact that this room is already wayyy over budget…  So far over budget that had I known what the room itself was going to actually cost I would have had to at minimum drastically alter my component purchases (which in hindsight could have been done differently but what’s done is done…) or forego the project altogether…  If there is a comma in the price (e.g., $1,000+…) it is not gonna happen.  As it stands, anything that costs a couple of hundred bucks brings out a heavy sigh…  Not complaining, just stating the facts as they are….

2) GIk agreed that my speakers close to the front wall is an appropriate placement.  I was so focused on making sure I was giving accurate information I forgot to dive in to the logistics of why this works but regardless, he agreed when I said it sounded the best so far…

3) Need to get those panels constructed and hung

3a) still investigating best placement for the panels.  It seems the 1st and 2nd reflection points are the main idea here but honestly, they both may be covered by a single panel.  Ironically, my wife doesn’t have a small mirror in the house so have to go find one.  Should this be correct, this opens up the option of placing some panels either behind the speakers on the front wall or on the back wall (keeping in mind I am talking about panels, not bass traps)

4) Seems to be a pretty common consensus that bass traps need to happen so I will get on this. 

4a) spoke with GIK and got recommendations (very helpful by the way, just as many have mentioned) basically it comes down to me being on the right track with the panels and adding bass traps in all 4 corners of the room.  The total is approximately $700 but I can’t tell exactly as the website and my computer are not playing nice with each other as I can’t add the traps to my cart…

4b) I need to investigate the DIY route for building bass traps and am still looking for recommendations for material so I can compare prices with GIK.  It seems the OC 703 could be a component but either need to use it in combination with something different (alternating 703 and 703 FRK) or use something different altogether.  If I am reading correctly, it seems something with FRK needs to be involved so the bass trap doesn’t suck the life out of all the mid and high frequencies… Thoughts?

4c) triangular pattern that stacks up on top of each other (pancake style) vs. panels that are simply placed in the corner.  It seems the triangle option has more mass and therefore should absorb lower frequencies and do a better job overall when compared to panels placed in the corner.  Am I interpreting correctly?  Cost/benefit?

4d) as I stated earlier, I don’t want to be that guy that plugs a business for information and then goes somewhere else..  I need to do the aforementioned price comparison and if it is comparable, or at least somewhat in the ballpark of reasonable, I will use GIK but if there is a big difference then I gotta consider the alternatives..

5) components on the table – I can see how the table might be a reflector o’ sound and I do have a small rack style stand (3 shelves, maybe 2.5’x2.5’x2.5’) that I can easily swap in.  Thoughts?

6) Did some research on what was mentioned.  My interpretation:  Room nodes/modes = 2 “beams” of the same frequency meet and either create a peak (in phase) which amplifies the frequency or null (out of phase) which negates the frequency and cancels it out.. there’s a lot of math after this…  At this level, it makes sense. Am I correct in my interpretation?

7) @auxinput, thanks for the graph/chart.  I honestly can’t say that it all makes sense to me but from what I can decipher (as demonstrated in point #5 directly above) it seems the bass traps and panels will be a big part of the solution, if not the solution.. is this an accurate interpretation?

 

Again, my deepest gratitude for the input..  It seems like I am making some headway, at least in theory at this point..  By all means, I am still open to input so feel free to chime in (but please make sure you read point #1, the second one, above)