Room acoustics/treatments help?? Photos included

You seem to be approaching this in a slapdash way. By that I mean a little bit of this and a little bit of that and hoping that it somehow works. Acoustics is simple applied physics. It's easily measured and quite predictable. The solutions can be cheap to very expensive with the domestic considerations becoming a major factor. There are any number of inexpensive tools and software that can help measure and quantify what is going on in your room. You need to do this before you start applying solutions. Research the archives, there's tons of info.

HInt, be willing to move your speakers out the way when not in serious listening mode.

Good luck.

Onhwy61 - I recently purchased a calibrated microphone, mic preamp, usb soundcard, and ETF software (now RplusD) to take detailed measurements. There is a somewhat high learning curve to the software, but I think I've gotten it pretty much figured out. The measurements tell a lot, but they don't show the whole picture, so I'm trying to get some "general room acoustics" advice, in addition to taking into consideration the results of my testing with ETF.

Also - I've tried the speakers in 6" increments all the way from 1" out to 6" feet out, and while the positioning does help a lot with the irregular bass response, speaker positioning alone does not help make the room less bright/glaring in the upper midrange.

I’m not sure what makes these speakers work better on a long wall than the short. It’s just how they were designed. I own the Dunlavy IVa, and owned the III’s prior to that. They work on the short wall, but not as well as the long wall. Dunlavy as well as Audio Physics are designed to be put as far apart as possible with a large amount of toe-in. they still require thought on placement from the wall (distance into the room) and work best at 1/3 distance into the room like other speakers. They also work at 1/5 or 1/7 points (distance is measured from tweeter back through speaker to wall) the distance to the side wall needs to be at least 1/3 more or less than the back wall dimension. In your case with one side open I would make the other side 1/3 greater than the measurement to the front wall.

So given your room (15’x12.5’) the speaker if set-up 1/5 into the room would be 2.5’ into the room (tweeter to wall) and the left speaker will be 3.4’ from the side wall (min.) It is recommended to have the speakers 8’ apart (this can be less, but your ear must be no closer than 8’ to the tweeter to keep the time coherence correct) but something less can work. The couch on the back wall with an absorbent material on the back wall should work fine; in fact this is how I have seen two showrooms (one for Dunlavy and one for Audio Physics) laid out. I should mention Dunlavy is no longer made, but they are excellent speakers still.

The biggest down side of the speakers being placed this close to the front wall is a loss of soundstage depth. You can increase the apparent soundstage depth by using a highly absorbent material on the front wall. The TV is an issue, so you may need to keep the speakers at the 1/3 point like you have them now. TV’s and two channel are tough, this may remain an issue???

One major downside of this type of speaker placement is the size of the sweet-spot. This layout tends to favor a single listener for perfect imaging, but this is not to say you both will not enjoy.

If you want to discuss this further, send me an email and I can send you my phone number…

jade

Try some TacT?

I don't think a shower curtain will help. Some of the suggestions here for downlaading acoustic literature or other material is good advise. There are inexpensive treatments for the walls and ceiling that might help. On the cork suggestion, it is really quite cheap and no one will notice when your done. Google cork suppliers and you will find bulk sheeting for a very good price. It can be stapled to the floor like a pad then you put a good fiber pad over that and then your carpet. The only thing that will be noticed is that it will make the floor seem far tighter.