Bright room, help

You should be glad that your room is "bright" and not "dead". It is far easier to absorb high frequencies using simplistic tools and materials than it is to try to make up for them.

Check out the various room treatment products from RPG, Sonex, etc... You can learn a LOT about how they will affect the tonal balance of your room by studying the frequency response curves i.e. "absorbtion ratios" that they display for some of their products. While i don't know if RPG, Sonex, etc.. have the info that you would need to do this on their website, Audio Advisor does. Simply click on the product that you are interested in and then click on the link for "specifications", etc...

If you have more time than money, you can take their research and duplicate their products for pennies on the dollar. There are also some excellent DIY designs on Jon Risch's website that he was kind enough to share with the public.

Before doing ANY of this though, you might want to check out some books by F. Alton Everest on acoustics. Not only will these give you a better idea of why you are experiencing the problems that you are, it will give you a better understanding of how you can correct it and make use of the other designs previously mentioned.

While it may be slightly more costly in the long run, you can also consult a professional. Rives Audio can assist you in resolving your problems in a manner that is very specific to your individual installation. Rather than taking an "edjimuhkated guess" at what should go where and how much you should use ( reading one of Everest's books will give you an idea, but... ), Rives ( or other "acoustic professionals" ) can do all of the legwork for you and give you the results that you are looking for without the trial and error approach.

Hope this helps and good luck with your system & room. Sean
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live in your room don't strip it... do as rives says and get the first reflection point on the damn parallel walls and lay a carpet with underlay for the first floor reflection at the minimum.

Leave the pictures on the walls as they will absorb some sound and more importantly diffuse sound. Leather sofa will absorb similar to cloth.

if the vaulted ceilings are high enough and the look is acceptable get some fibre board and fly them off the ceiling to absorb and diffuse.

if you do all of this the room will go from "Live" to more neutral and allow for more relaxed listening. Enjoy the music!

Don't do anything to your room until you've found the right
position for your speakers(?).

If you can get them well out into the room, and angled toward your listening postion, you might not need any damping material. See the Cardas website for room placement
guidelines.

Acousticsfirst.com is very competitive and may be some help, Good luck.

Hang some nice decorative rugs on the wall. Kana813 offers good advice. Here's another great site on positioning

http://www.audiophysic.de/produkte/aufstellung/aufstellung_e.html

Also try a rug on the floor, (with non-slip backing of course). Rugs on the front and back walls will tame brightness and on the side walls will improve imaging.