I did include a picture as an attachment above of the room dimensions but lengthwise it's about 24 feet and it's a bit of an L-shaped it is 26 feet long into the kitchen and steps back in 10 feet into the great room and then that wall that is going to be mirrored eventually is 12 feet. I have a proximately 12 feet on the back wall for speaker placement from the corner to the door into the next room.
Passive vs Active...Again!
My wife and I have made the rounds and have listened to numerous speakers now, not as many as we'd like, but as many as we could within a 3-hour drive. We liked some both active and passive, but it seems most of the active speakers we saw are not that pleasing to the eye (eg: Genelecs).
Not having a dedicated listening room, our room itself is a big problem. We have lots of hard surfaces to deal with.
If we go with passive speakers and the associated gear to go with it, we will need to spend a whole bunch of money on acoustic treatments.
We have a ton of artwork as well and with already limited wall space, we would rather look at the art than a bunch of sound-absorbing panels.
So here's my question: Will active speakers, that may come in cheaper, with room correction software (DSP) be able to tame the sound to a pleasing level in my lively room, or do I go with passives and break out the Rockwool!
Just a side note, I had some Martin Logan Spires in a very similar style room, that was much larger with little acoustic treatments and they sounded pretty good. But in this house I don't have the room to pull the speakers 3 feet of the back wall.
I know there is no perfect answer here, but appreciate any feedback, thanks.
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@high-amp Just so you know, this statement is false. Open baffle speakers need to be about 5 feet from the wall behind them (like any speaker with rear-firing information). Otherwise the ear will interpret the reflected information as harshness. |
There are a lot of sneaky ways to make a room art friendly and also ’acoustically sweet’. These two objectives have a lot of overlap and you can satisfy both masters by careful planning.
My wife will not tolerate acoustic treatments in our living room. So I made a compromise that really worked for both of us. All artwork must not be behind glass...so no picture frames. What we have on the wall are canvas paintings, fabric tapestry, wood carvings. Even the chandelier is a perforated brass affair. The only shiny smooth surfaces are a TV on the long side wall and the full width window on the back wall. A wool throw blanket covers the TV during listening sessions and we selected heavy velvet drapes for the back window. Everything on the wall and floor has a diffusive or absorbtive quality. We have a hardwood floor so we chose the biggest wool Persion rug we could fit in our room. You would not know this room places a high priority on acoustics but it actually makes the room more interesting. Everything from candle holders to vases have an acoustic signature. I simply place the harder, smoother vases in other rooms. The wood and heavy textured pottery stayed. We have lot’s of live plants next to window. It’s visually and acoustically sweet.
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sandthemall - very creative, some great ideas, thx! dinov - +1 atmasphere - thanks Ralph, that's what I kinda though.yogi42 - Paradigm 120 h - yes, I saw these when they first came out and I'd love to hear them, problem is, where?
kingharold - https://www.deqx.com/products/hdp-4/ - stuff like this is really cool but I don't think I could figure out how to use it. I bought a microphone online and downloaded Room Perfect. I got so confused I returned the mic and deleted the software!
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