Need help from you acoustical experts

Sounds like a strong ceiling reflection?

What kind of a ceiling and what is on your floor?

Do you have more than just 1st and 2nd reflection point panels?

Oh, and what speakers are you using??

My first reaction when I look at your pictures is your speakers are far to close to the wall behind them. The first thing I would do if I came into your room would be moving the speakers forward from that wall about 4ft. My next thing I would do is try moving them closer to the side walls and increasing the toe in substantially, possibly until the axis’ cross in front of your head. I think the panels on the side walls to deal with first reflections would control the side wall reflections. Of course you would have to move your listening chair back to maintain the ’triangle’. And, FWIW, I think you may have too many panels but I would have to actually hear the room to know. I don’t know these panels but I would put absorptive panels on the walls first reflection points, diffusing panels on the 2d reflections points. I’m not at all sure that the panels on the rear wall (wall behind the speakers) are at all necessary, but if I did they would be of the diffusive type and I would place them in the center of the wall, I think a modified version of a live end/dead end set up works well. Just try moving the speakers 1st and changing the toe in. And if that works (at all) for you you can start to rethink your need for panels.

I just looked at your system here on A’gon. If that’s the system you have problems with, the issue is the height of your diffusion panels + the low ceiling.

If your ceiling was higher and had broad-band treatment it probably would be OK.

Remove any diffusors next to/behind your speakers that are ABOVE the level of the speaker. Ideally those should get replaced with simple absorbers.

While I generally applaud the use of a mix of diffusor/absorbers, I think you may have a little too much diffusion going on. Diffusors tend to pull the image towards them, so everything above the speaker level is going to encourage us to hear taller images, while diffusion to the sides encourages the sense of a soundstage wider than the speakers.

Also, a couple of pure abosrbers in the ceiling between the chair and speakers would probably go a long way.

newbee,

Those are the Vortex Acoustics (Von Schweikert) VR-35 speakers. They are designed to be close to the wall, kinda like the old Snells.

ghdprentice
I have a virtual system and uploaded 2 photos there.

erik_squires
I have tried taking the outermost 2 panels down from behind the speakers. Yes, those panels do "pull" the sound towards them.
The 2 Music note panels (from ATS) are purely absorbers. Have not pulled those off yet because A. I like them B they use Z clips rather than small nails to hold them up. Might leave a nasty scar. I’ll try it anyway.
The ceiling is "acoustical" tile but I don’t know how absorbent it is.

That being said, I’m a little wary of putting something on the ceiling if it’s going to pull sound towards it. Maybe some white Sonex JR panels just for an experiment?

OP:

Diffusors pull towards them. Pure absorbers do not and that’s the only thing I’d recommend. I believe some one makes a broad frequency absorber that will drop in where you have ceiling tiles. As I recall, those "acoustical" tiles are very reflective at higher frequencies. If you can find the drop in panels with a wider range you’ll be all set.

Your problem isn’t the absorbers, it’s that you have combination panels with 3d diffusion in a tiny room.

As a quick test, throw some towels on the tallest combi panels.

BTW, I am not recommending you get rid of all your diffusors, just change the mix that is above the height of your speakers to be more aborbent.