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Moved from medium attic like room to larger room, everything is too bright

Hi guys, I moved my set up from a bonus room over the garage with slanted walls to our converted media room - which is the old garage. The room is about 450 ft.² with 10.5 feet ceilings. And four large windows. The good news is that I was persuaded to use cryogenically treated Romex directly from the electrical cabinet to the stereo. Which is great… Except I think the size of the room is making music seem brighter and more echoey.

I have a Hegel H390 streaming from a lumen T2. The speakers are KLH model 5 with 2 REL T/7x subs. Played a lot with speaker and sub placement but I think the problem is the volume of the room.

The room is double walled with amazing insulation plus ceiling insulation so that is not the problem. Plus we have area rugs over the hardwood.

I realize that my weakest element in the system is the speakers. So the question is should I save to replace the KLH speakers? And what speakers would work?

Thanks so much, Nadine

 

128x128atanarjuat99
alan60's avatar
alan60
190 posts
 

Soft furnishings and carpet is the answer.

erik_squires
16,402 posts
 

I undesratnd you are limited in what you can do, but here are some ideas:

  • Don’t forget the ceiling! White absorbers there can be inconspicuous and contribute to the overall reverb time.
  • Consider GIK Acoustics art panels, which let you put just about any artwork over absorbers.
  • I know you mentioned placement, but consider the AM Acoustics room mode modeller. Simulate your room and then try to keep your subs and your listening area out of the lowest modes.
  • Tone controls. Schiit Loki if you don’t have them built in.
  • Cross your speakers to the subs high, not low. 80 Hz sounds a lot better than 40 Hz.
  • Measure and EQ your subs appropriately.
retiredfarmer's avatar
retiredfarmer
354 posts
 

If you want to try something  cheap and this would be really only and indication of what the problem is and after you try this then you need to go looking for the best thing afterwards. Sit in you listening  chair. Have another  person run a mirror  on the walls a small mirror like a makeup mirror. Put a small mark on the wall where you can see the tweeter in the center of the mirror continue along the side wall until you can see the tweeter of the opposite  side speaker  mark the wall there as well. On the wall behind the speakers set something  on top of the speaker that is in line with the tweeter so you can also mark the wall behind the speakers in line with where the speaker would be. Now that you have the marks raid your towel cupboard  and put a bath towel centered on those marks  perhaps tape or pin them on the wall. Then take a listen  and see what you think. 

ghdprentice
7,316 posts
 

Lots of good comments. Room treatments and positioning… definitely. Some photos of your system (add to virtual system under your UserID)and room would be very helpful in getting more specific.

ohlala
1,238 posts
 

I also have an echo issue. The cheap and easy way to really tell is how easy it is to understand other people talking in that room, especially multiple people at a time, or the hand clap as suggested above. It can also be measured with microphones and software; the easiest is via ’reverberation time’ or ’decay’. Couches and padded chairs do work for that. I would also recommend thick felt rug pads to extend the frequency range the rugs absorb. The thicker the absorbing material is, the more bandwidth it will absorb. I find blankets useless because they will not absorb midrange well. They may work as a proof of concept, though. Echo is not limited to high frequencies. Some speakers are more directional than others, such as Sanders electrostatics, that may work better. I do not have personal experience in treating rooms for that speaker, though.

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