How to diagnose the need for room treatment?

Guys,

Thank you very much. Really. I have a fair amount of reading ahead of me + getting acquainted with test CDs & SPL meters. I'm not looking for quick fixes, so getting a good understanding of how my room/system behave together and how to improve the sound sounds like fun.

I hope you don't mind me asking back again for further guidance in a while. Will check out the room accoustics forum too.

A lot of good info/advice. Thank you!
Horacio

Al said, "I believe that some of the MORE SOPHISTICATED ( AND EXPENSIVE) equipment that does this sort of thing can help to take arrival time into account, in a meaningful manner,"

I take exception to those statements. The REW (Room EQ Wizard available at the Home Theater Shack) is sophisticated and does time domains. It is for FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE

Bob

Al wrote: "Particularly once you get above bass frequencies, tuning the room for flat frequency response using a test cd, microphone, etc., is not necessarily going to get you the best sound, and in fact probably won't. The microphone is not going to discriminate very well, if at all, between early arrival sound (the direct path from the speakers to the listening position) and later arriving sound (reflected off of walls, ceiling, etc). But your ears will!"

I think your comments apply better to the bass frequencies, not above bass frequencies. In the bass, the arrival/decay times are more easily measured and corrected whereas at higher frequencies room mode interactions approach randomness. Thus, at those higher frequencies, only FR adjustments are feasible.

Kal

Bob wrote: "I take exception to those statements. The REW (Room EQ Wizard available at the Home Theater Shack) is sophisticated and does time domains. It is for FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE"

Yes, yes, yes...................but REW is a measurement tool, only. It cannot implement a correction even if it defines it. One needs an additional tool to use the results.

Kal

In the bass, the arrival/decay times are more easily measured and corrected whereas at higher frequencies room mode interactions approach randomness. Thus, at those higher frequencies, only FR adjustments are feasible.

Yes, at higher frequencies only FR adjustments are feasible, but the point I was trying to convey is that making those FR adjustments on the basis of measured flat frequency response, in response to continuous tones monitored only in the frequency domain, will not provide best results. Listening to music provides the last (and most important) word in that part of the spectrum, it seems to me.

Arrival times in the deep bass assume importance particularly because of reinforcement and standing wave issues, as everyone probably realizes. Which causes the measured (and heard) amplitude of deep bass to vary as a function of frequency and location in the room, and which can be more easily corrected on the basis of measurement, as you indicated.

Regards,
-- Al