How would you measure/define this space

E

edee_em

Enthusiast
My family/great room is about 11x20' with a cathedral ceiling (12' high on one end, 8' high on the other). It is open to the dining room on the right side on the one end of the room that has the tv, avr, fronts and center. Moving away from that, the room opens up to the kitchen eating area of roughly 11x12' size, with a continuation of the cathedral ceiling. We sit in the family room to watch tv and movies. I see lots of references to large, medium and small rooms but I get the sense that these are enclosed spaces. How does this space design that I and a lot of other people have, judging by all the open-concept renovations going on, affect room sizing and ultimately speaker purchases and placement? Thanks.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Open spaces would be considered large when it comes to subs. Placement is always critical for the mains, though they are affected less by the size of the space because the higher frequencies are getting to you more immediately. Low bass frequencies are long and will tend to "use" the whole space and are generally longer than the distance you are sitting from them.
 
E

edee_em

Enthusiast
With a calculator? :) Maybe just call the ceilings as an average 10' for simplicitity but like j_garcia says otherwise....

ps There is this article too http://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/subwoofer-room-size
Sure, if you need one. Thanks for the link. I was scared at first as my high school physics was a long time ago but it wrapped up nice near the end. Do you remember how simple this all was? Our biggest worry before putting the stereo on was whether we were going to drink beer or whiskey. Now we have to concern ourselves with wall and floor coverings and everything in between. Sometimes I have to believe "ignorance is bliss"...
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Sure, if you need one. Thanks for the link. I was scared at first as my high school physics was a long time ago but it wrapped up nice near the end. Do you remember how simple this all was? Our biggest worry before putting the stereo on was whether we were going to drink beer or whiskey. Now we have to concern ourselves with wall and floor coverings and everything in between. Sometimes I have to believe "ignorance is bliss"...
LOL. My bigger worry was which album was I gonna roll on....
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
My dad had no idea I was making adjustments to our speakers. I'd sit on the couch and dial in the sweet spot for me, I bought isolation pads for them because we had hardwood floors that vibrated, lol. So when he wasn't there, I was listening to vinyl on his rig that I saved money to go buy. He just listened, not critically like I already was at around 16.
 
E

edee_em

Enthusiast
With a calculator? :) Maybe just call the ceilings as an average 10' for simplicitity but like j_garcia says otherwise....

ps There is this article too http://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/subwoofer-room-size
My dad had no idea I was making adjustments to our speakers. I'd sit on the couch and dial in the sweet spot for me, I bought isolation pads for them because we had hardwood floors that vibrated, lol. So when he wasn't there, I was listening to vinyl on his rig that I saved money to go buy. He just listened, not critically like I already was at around 16.
I remember all that too but it was pretty much all we could do because we, the colloquial "we", didn't have any money to do anything else. Now, with an extra couple of bucks, we're measuring everything to the nth degree and living or dying by a lot of what the numbers say rather than our ears. It's like in the car market: no one wants to buy a Genesis because it's a Hyundai. Forget that it may be a better car and offer more for the money, if it doesn't say Mercedes or Audi or BMW, forget it. Maybe we should all find that album lovinthehd was talking about, roll one and chill out! Having said that, however, I do love that nice sound...
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I remember all that too but it was pretty much all we could do because we, the colloquial "we", didn't have any money to do anything else. Now, with an extra couple of bucks, we're measuring everything to the nth degree and living or dying by a lot of what the numbers say rather than our ears. It's like in the car market: no one wants to buy a Genesis because it's a Hyundai. Forget that it may be a better car and offer more for the money, if it doesn't say Mercedes or Audi or BMW, forget it. Maybe we should all find that album lovinthehd was talking about, roll one and chill out! Having said that, however, I do love that nice sound...
LOL if I had known about measuring at the time....I had a good job in high school and bought my own pretty good audio gear at 15, probably would have been dangerous had I known about subs or spl meters :) I had a german car back then, too....a vw bug!

ps Am rolling one for you guys now. I have a special tray but I grabbed my copy of Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus....
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
I remember all that too but it was pretty much all we could do because we, the colloquial "we", didn't have any money to do anything else. Now, with an extra couple of bucks, we're measuring everything to the nth degree and living or dying by a lot of what the numbers say rather than our ears. It's like in the car market: no one wants to buy a Genesis because it's a Hyundai. Forget that it may be a better car and offer more for the money, if it doesn't say Mercedes or Audi or BMW, forget it. Maybe we should all find that album lovinthehd was talking about, roll one and chill out! Having said that, however, I do love that nice sound...
I always calibrate and listen to it and then end up making changes to it by ear or turning off the "goodness" that it granted me when listening to music because I like the way my speakers actually sound :)
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
We got wise to the dealer sound room tricks when we used to buy speakers. We'd go to some specialist audio store, have them take the speakers in question down from their array, set them on chairs and sit between them. Then we would ask ourselves, is the tone good for what we mostly listen to, yes? And do they distort? No? We can make this work, even if it means sitting between them. The louder they played without distorting just meant the more of us that we could fit there. It seemed to work.
 
E

edee_em

Enthusiast
We got wise to the dealer sound room tricks when we used to buy speakers. We'd go to some specialist audio store, have them take the speakers in question down from their array, set them on chairs and sit between them. Then we would ask ourselves, is the tone good for what we mostly listen to, yes? And do they distort? No? We can make this work, even if it means sitting between them. The louder they played without distorting just meant the more of us that we could fit there. It seemed to work.
Now we have movie soundtracks/scores, 5,6,7.1, atmos, etc.,, etc., to include in our listening tests. It's not just about the music anymore, is it... turn off this, add this, tweak that. If I didn't love doing it so much, I might actually "complain" about it;). How did Little Feat work out for you luvinthehd??
LOL if I had known about measuring at the time....I had a good job in high school and bought my own pretty good audio gear at 15, probably would have been dangerous had I known about subs or spl meters :) I had a german car back then, too....a vw bug!

ps Am rolling one for you guys now. I have a special tray but I grabbed my copy of Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus....
"Feats don't fail me now"!
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
LOL if I had known about measuring at the time....I had a good job in high school and bought my own pretty good audio gear at 15, probably would have been dangerous had I known about subs or spl meters :) I had a german car back then, too....a vw bug!

ps Am rolling one for you guys now. I have a special tray but I grabbed my copy of Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus....
I don't drink any more, so there's lots of rolling going on in this house.

gotta love medical cards...
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
Now we have movie soundtracks/scores, 5,6,7.1, atmos, etc.,, etc., to include in our listening tests. It's not just about the music anymore, is it... turn off this, add this, tweak that. If I didn't love doing it so much, I might actually "complain" about it;).
I'm not complaining either. I'm fortunate to have had such ear training with more limited resources of the time. Now, with speakers being more capable than ever, it's actually easier for music than it used to be. Even with employing the crude means of the past.

Sometimes, it's nice to just blow off the technology and say. . . . "I got this!"
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I don't drink any more, so there's lots of rolling going on in this house.

gotta love medical cards...
Still have yet to step foot in a dispensary. Enjoy it while you can. They're a comin' for 'em soon.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Still have yet to step foot in a dispensary. Enjoy it while you can. They're a comin' for 'em soon.
I haven't been in a dispensary for more than a year. Don't need one. And yeah, I've been keeping a finger in the wind. It's stupid.
 

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