How to make small room sound bigger

The right amount of balance between reflection which is necessaary at some spot in small room and between absorption and the importance of diffusion and the right balance in the right spot...

Diffusers are completely underestimated indeed like said Rick and Lavigne...

I use mainly tubes with a filtering cloth for diffusion ....And anyway there is a variable content on my wall with irregularities, like a library in 2 of my walls with many various reflective and diffusive content and geometry...

And in a small room the goal is not big nor small imaging sound filling room but disapearance of the speakers and of the walls geometrical inconvenience...Because you could have imaging and reflections problems with distortions all over the place also...:Like clearthinker say above...

In my room a square of 13 feet with 8 feet high, one of the speakers is a few inches in a wall corner , enscounced in it?

is it not completely bad?

Yes it is....

Then why did i feel no acoustical negative behaviour with this very bad location of one of the speakers?

Right treatment balance will not do the job here...Nor plenty of diffusers...It takes me Helmholtz resonators and my tubular Helmholtz diffusers to make the wall corner where my speakers is captive to disapear....Modification of the pressure zones distribution in my room...

 

i succeed...

 

By the way my last discovery was the useof a twofold pliable screen behind my regular listening location... With difusive and reflective devices and the right amount of absorbtion also... This was extraordinary idea for me because it give me the last acoustical cue i was longing for to beat my 7 headphones : intimacy like with headphone without loosing any soundstage , imaging, natural timbre experience and listener envelopment...

My last device is this twofold screen acoustic tool which also support 10 Helmholtz resonators and diffusers of various size but near 6 feet....

Intimacy is an acoustic quality rarely associated with speakers listening....I read about it nowhere why?

But it is one of the greatest to enjoy....For me....

 

 

 

Also i use 3 type of ionization devices at low cost... ( save one which is useful for other medical utilization and cost me 100 bucks)

Also i always enjoy my Schumann chinese low cost resonators grid at very low cost..

All these too numerous devices, all of them play their role in the acoustic results...

The most important impactful one are the Helmholtz devices resonators and diffusers though...

 

@clearthinker 

Excellent point. The objective is to improve SQ AND avoid near field listening. I enjoy classical music, large scale symphonic works and such. I would like to feel the scale as much as possible to simulate a concert hall. While I know it's highly unlikely to perfect, I am looking for a way to maximize this, if at all possible in 11x14 room. 

I plan on using SF Elipsa SE  and/or Focal Micro utopia, using SET Mastersound. I've experimented with this and the amp drives my speakers without any difficultly. 

@mahgister - I am aware of Helmholtz resonators, I have read of their effectiveness but to be honest, I’d have a very steep learning curve on those. They certainly seem to be a lot more work than what I’ve done so far. Congratulations on your patience, because learning how to do it, before even implementation - wow.

Anyone in here thinking I am overstating, just look at the math:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/helmholtz-resonator

Helmholtz diffusers are also powerful not only the very well known resonators which also diffuse some frequencies anyway...

It is a tube with a filtering end mouth with no neck and an open end... I used tube of different diameter and length...

By the way dont be afraid by the mathematical DESCRIPTION with equations...

Your ears/brain COMPUTE everything without using any numbers...

Just EXPERIMENT.... And LISTEN.....Most people are afraid of mathematic...learn the physical meaning of these devices , throw the equations on the garbage bin and experiment and listen with your own ears... Simple... It is FUN.... and it work... Especially if you use many devices that compensate each other... I created my device and tuned them by ears not by resolving a set of equations.... 😁😊

Is it perfect?

No...

Is it astounding in S.Q. improvement?

 

Yes, i laugh at the idea of any costly gear upgrade...

I listen music not sound now...

 

@mahgister - I am aware of Helmholtz resonators, I have read of their effectiveness but to be honest, I’d have a very steep learning curve on those. They certainly seem to be a lot more work than what I’ve done so far. Congratulations on your patience, because learning how to do it, before even implementation - wow.

While I know it's highly unlikely to perfect, I am looking for a way to maximize this, if at all possible in 11x14 room. 

This may sound nuts (oh heck, I've just chambered a bullet, someone's going to flame me over this no doubt).

I listen to orchestral music quite a lot, and I really love movie score. Try using your long wall as the front wall, try diffusion entirely on the front (long wall) with deep use of absorption in the front corners for lower frequencies. Absorption if possible on the top and bottom edges of your now long front wall.

Absorption on the back wall, however, if you're going to play with diffusion do not use quadratic (it's not going to give you benefit at all, certainly not here, it takes distance to develop an effect, which you do not have). You can get binary amplitude diffusion to work at extreme short distances, with absorption. If you do trial BAD with the holes, use 1/2" holes it helps with lower frequencies.

Set your speakers off the front wall, through trial and error and keep them in from the left and right boundaries ( I would start with 7 foot apart), this is why I am suggesting using the room the wrong way round. You could also try using absorption on first reflection points on the sides as well to open up for the larger sound you're trying to portray. The sides of the room, those reflections are a dead give away sonically on room size.

Your seating position would be not far off the back wall, giving you an equilateral triangle with your speakers, if you do the ceiling possibly try mixed absorption & diffusion.
If you have someone who can help you, a handy mirror to visually see the first off axis reflection points of both speakers (not just the closest one) on the side walls should be diffused or absorption treated.

It's absolutely a compromise, it's one that's worked for me and others, trying to get what you asked for.