room tuning 12ftx12ft room


hello, my first post. i have a very small room, 12ftx 12ft. i have the speakers where i think they sound pretty good except for some boomieness in some bass areas and even cut-out of bass or maybe room overload when i start to turn it up a bit. but anyway, i have 4 2"x4ftx2ft framed insulation panels behind the speakers, 1 on each side of the speakers (using the mirror trick) and 2 directly behind me, with maybe a 2" gap between them.

i've thought of covering the wall behind the speakers completely floor to ceiling and coming out on the side walls 4ft floor to ceiling. then just leaving the two panels directly behind me. does that seem like a good idea?

thanks
g19276
Obviously you guys are not familiar with Vandersteen speakers, their design and the amount of bass they are capable of. All of the room treatment in the world and moving speakers/listening position will not make up for the fact that his speakers are not matched for his room.
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The only successful technique that I've found in small square rooms is a 45 degree set-up.

This tricks the room into performing as if it has different dimensions.

All else, no matter how much you spend on room treatment, or move things around, cannot fix the problems with bass peaks and dips due to the room dimensions.

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Rrog is most likely right about the speakers. Seems he's pretty familiar with them. On the other hand, Hornguys advice should be tried as a last ditch effort. Here is some information on why that set-up may work:

http://www.decware.com/paper14.htm

Read the entire article. I've used it before in a very small room with speakers that could be considered too big for the room. It worked quite well. At some of the audio show where rooms are somewhat small people like Roger Sanders and Kara Chaffe use this type of set up. Worth a try IMO.
G19276, your room dimensions are similar to mine. You will not get a room this size to allow a speaker to plumb the depths of 30hz or below reproduction. However, you can enjoy great imaging and intimacy of reproduction with a few tips that helped me greatly. Firstly, I do agree with the posters who say you should try and get the speakers about 1/3rd into the room. The other trick is to apply bass trapping on the wall behind the speakers and as much diffusion as possible on the wall behind your seating position. The Vandy 3's are probably not a good speaker for a room this size, although I suspect you can get them to basically work, but with little bottom end extension. A better suggestion is a small monitor like the SF's I use or maybe Merlin TTM or ?
I also get great results with having the speakers with zero toe-in. Toe-in can be difficult to get right in this size of room, so if zero will work, then that should be tried first.
Is your room a dedicated listening room?
Gentleman
I read Frogs well intended suggestion in G19276 other thread
but disagree....
Why would anyone want to settle on a less natural sounding 2 way mini box when all you need to do is kill any excessive room overload with a simple Vandersteen assessment x over box and later insert the proper x 2 for uniform in room response.
We Have installed 2 and 3 Series in 12x14s and square rooms for years with fine results.
Try the Vandersteen X 2 Box and it will work like a charm
Start at 20 K and work up till speakers disappear.
Best Johnnyr