What's the size of your listening room and/or ht?

Clueless: This is an area that I disagree with Everest's reference and a number of other references regarding splaying walls. In fact, if you look at most of the literature in this area, most discuss parallel walls and how to do all the calculations from this. It is FAR more complicated to design, model, and engineer a room without parallel walls. The results are predictable (contrary to Everest--but I think he knows this), but the effort is pretty great. I think Everest is clearly very smart in this area not to discuss it because it makes all the math very complex. Instead of using simple algebraic equations you have to do everything with integers and differential equations--it gets pretty ugly pretty fast. There's no way he could cover it satisfactorily in his book. It really just about requires a book unto itself. It doesn't make sense to do it in small environments, but when you get into larger environments that support longer wavelengths it is very beneficial in the bass region by reducing (or virtually eliminating) room modes when designed correctly. There's a lot more too it, such as designing the angles to reduce slap echo and even minimize the amount of diffusors used (they are almost always still needed to some degree). I know I haven't fully answered your question, but I think my fingers would wear out before I could really answer the question completely. I'd be glad to discuss it sometime and try to take some of the mystery out of it.

Rives, I've always enjoyed and respected your threads. Perhaps you could share the exact dimensions/proportions of your project?

My room is 15DX25WX8H, and it is fabulous. I got lucky.
When I ploted the graph recommended by Robert Harley in his book; it was obvious why, there are almost no reinforcements of any of the frequencies from 20-20K. Also since my speakers have the woofers far apart, they are quit immune to many of the room/bass problems.

Still, I would love a bigger room. But, I live in SanFrancisco with one of the highest real estate prices in the country; so I'm realistic and happy with what I can afford.

Richard

Unsound: I will when I finish the project. In fact I met with the architect today. I now have the basic boundaries of the room figured out, but do not have the exact measurments done. I have at least 2 more weeks of work (and probably longer--because I don't have enough time to do all the modelling and equations right now). My room is still not going to be perfect, because there are some constraints in terms of how it fits into the rest of the house, but it should work out very well. I expect when the project is complete (or at least the designs), I'll put it up on the rivesaudio website.

My room is 24'long and 14'wide. The ceiling is vaulted: 8' behind the speakers at one end, rising at 45degrees to 16', leveled off for 8', and sloping back down to the far end at 45degrees to 8' again. I use the entire room, with no divisions. It's almost like a mini-concert hall. I don't feel that it is too large, because I can fill it nicely with the sound from my 1 watt amplifier and single driver speakers. In fact, many times I need to turn it down a bit. I have used some acoustic treatments to good effect, but the room itself seems to have some good characteristics on its own. I have the speakers placed at one end, about 4' from the back wall, and about 4' from each side wall. This puts about 6' between the drivers. The equipment is between the speakers. My chair is about 9' from the wall behind me, and about 10' from the speakers. The chair is centered, and the speakers are toed-in so they are on-axis with the listening position. I have a room lens centered between the speakers, about a foot behind the diffraction plane. I have 2 room lenses positioned to the outsides of each speaker, angling outward at 45 degrees. There is another room lens directly centered behind the listening chair. 6 room lenses in all. I individually tuned each resonator in every room lens, for its position in the room, by ear. There are bass traps in the corners behind the speakers, and a drape between them on the rear wall. There is diffraction and reflection material on the wall behind the listening chair, but no traps. The floor is wood, with a 9x12 rug on the floor between the speakers and the chair, handling the 1st reflections from the floor. Absorptive panels are on the side walls in the 1st reflection zones. The vaulted ceiling is t&g pine wood. Overall, it is quite nice. I am not saying it can't be improved, but it is at least suitable for the time being. Since I am still working on finishing the interior of the house, things are changing, so I have to take all of that into account by listening to the system as I make changes to the house. No WAF to be concerned with. I'm as free as a bird.