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

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.

Rives, best of luck!

Brandon007:

My audio system (which is a small/medium sized solid-state system (I hear that tubes do sound better and more natural than solid-state does, but they're too much of a headache to maintain and upkeep, whereas with solid-state, all you have to do is plug it in, set it up correctly, hit a button or two, and you're off and listening)) is located in my living room, and the size of my living room is 14"(H) x 12"(W) x 16"(D). It is not to me, an ideal situation as far as a listening room is concerned. But for right now, it works, as I make as best of the situation as I can. But I can promise you, the first house that I move into, I am going to take the audio system into full account before I go to settlement and close on my first house, and I am going to furnish my listening/living room around my audio system instead of the other way around. An upgrade of the room and the acoustics that come with it (or that I make it into) will then permit me to potentially upgrade the speaker system (either getting a small speaker system like my KEF Reference 102s, but with more refinement, or getting a stand-mounted floor standing system with low stands) and the amplification as well (and I will be looking at either Bryston, or moving a little bit up the ladder, Krell or Levinson gear) while keeping my front-end sources intact (I am going to have some very good sources which I am getting right now, and once those are completed, I don't plan on making any more audio purchases no time soon afterwards).

My home theater system is located in my bedroom, and that measures 14"(H) x 12"(W) x 12"(D), and to this day, I am still trying to figure out how am I going to fit a six piece speaker package (for me, that is going to be four satelites, a center channel, and a subwoofer) into the same room that also houses my bed, a TV (which weighs 100 pounds all by itself) and stand (which has to hold the TV, a DVD Player, a VCR, and an A/V Receiver as well), armore (for clothing, not audio/video equipment), a nightstand, and a side bench. Maybe when I finally get my house, I may have a dedicated room to put my home theater in then, and that alone will give me a whole lot more room to work with. And as icing on the cake, I am single. So, I won't have a wife to protest and bicker with (MAN!!!!!! AM I A LUCKY DEVIL OR WHAT?!?!?!?!?). I do have a girlfriend, but she doesn't live with me. So she won't as have much of a say as to how I will set up my house when the time comes for me to get one. So in either since, I won't have any WAF (or in my case.... GAF) issues to wrestle with and worry about.

But like I said, at the moment, I do the best I can with what I can afford. Real Estate isn't cheap to begin with. And as I live in Washington, D. C., I live in a tight housing market right now, which means that housing is at a premium. But hey, whose complaining. At least, I do have a place to live, right???

--Charles--

Right now my gear is squozed into a 14x14 room with 7' ceilings, but this is temporary as we've just moved in. The house is ~150 years old and obviously wasn't designed with audio or theatre in mind! I'm building an addition, but the biggest I could realistically fit in the budget is 15x20 inside dimensions with a 8' 8" ceiling height. (I live in the middle of nowhere, too, where the real estate prices are reasonable - how do you guys manage this in SF and DC???)

The dedicated room won instant WAF as the addition basically is my room downstairs and a new kitchen upstairs :)

The last house (back in the SF area) had "more" space. It was 16x23, but it was shared space with the living room.

In answer to Blw:

I live in SF, but have a great wife that "lets" me have the biggest room in the house for my hobby. She even had to move her office into the dining room when our child got old enough to need his own room.

Also, if I had your room I would definitely "change" the dimensions. Whatever frequency that has a 7' wave is reinforced 3X. Line the walls with bookcases to reduce the problem.
Good luck with your next room.

Richard