Help with room acoustics

[PietjePuk]

Hi,

Recently I bought new speakers, type Sonus Faber Chameleon, and I'm having some trouble getting the acoustics right. The higher frequencies are accentuated a lot, very low frequencies seem to be there, which makes the sound lacking the warmth that I'm looking for. Basically the eq of what I'm hearing is like a smiley face.

There's at least two issues in the room regarding acoustics. I'm curious whether these could indeed be responsible for the lack of mids. First, there's a large window next to the listening area covering the full with of the room (4-5 meters). Almost no curtains. Second, the flooring is laminated. We do have a large fluffy couch...

While I know from reading these could be issues, do they indeed affect the mids primarily or should I be looking elsewhere? Plus, any other tips to have the room sounding more "warm"?

Thanks!

 

[rojo]

Hi,

Recently I bought new speakers, type Sonus Faber Chameleon, and I'm having some trouble getting the acoustics right. The higher frequencies are accentuated a lot, very low frequencies seem to be there, which makes the sound lacking the warmth that I'm looking for. Basically the eq of what I'm hearing is like a smiley face.

There's at least two issues in the room regarding acoustics. I'm curious whether these could indeed be responsible for the lack of mids. First, there's a large window next to the listening area covering the full with of the room (4-5 meters). Almost no curtains. Second, the flooring is laminated. We do have a large fluffy couch...

While I know from reading these could be issues, do they indeed affect the mids primarily or should I be looking elsewhere? Plus, any other tips to have the room sounding more "warm"?

Thanks!

Your description seems to reflect Sound and Vision's measurements of those speakers. There's about a 6dB dip in a critical range there, then a mountain of hiss.

An area rug might help. Leaving the grills on might tame a subtle amount of the hiss. But the most profound improvement here would come from replacing your Chameleons with better speakers.

 

[PietjePuk]

Auch, thanks but that does kinda hurt... They did sound a lot better in the listening area with the carpets etc...

And that site is a goldmine, will keep that in mind. I do have some trouble reading the graphs.

 

[highfigh]

Hi,

Recently I bought new speakers, type Sonus Faber Chameleon, and I'm having some trouble getting the acoustics right. The higher frequencies are accentuated a lot, very low frequencies seem to be there, which makes the sound lacking the warmth that I'm looking for. Basically the eq of what I'm hearing is like a smiley face.

There's at least two issues in the room regarding acoustics. I'm curious whether these could indeed be responsible for the lack of mids. First, there's a large window next to the listening area covering the full with of the room (4-5 meters). Almost no curtains. Second, the flooring is laminated. We do have a large fluffy couch...

While I know from reading these could be issues, do they indeed affect the mids primarily or should I be looking elsewhere? Plus, any other tips to have the room sounding more "warm"?

Thanks!

The description of the room tells me that it would be bright with almost any speaker. I know a dealer who sells Audio Research, Sonus Faber, Vandersteen & several other brands, so I have heard some of the larger Sonus Faber speakers with various types of music. They have motorized drapes behind the speakers covering the windows, drywall with suspended ceiling tiles that have gaps containing absorptive materials where the reflections would occur and carpet that's not particularly thick (basic commercial stuff). It's a very good-sounding room, which is the goal- they need the equipment to perform, but if it needs open drapes, they can do that.

The store I mentioned sells & displays a good amount of tube equipment and with the Sonus Faber, there's no sense that anything is lacking, but it's also not noticeably bright unless the drapes are open.

When the room is quiet, clap your hands- if you hear repeating short echo, the room will always sound bright when the volume level is moderate to high.

 

[shadyJ]

You can't even know if the problem is acoustics if you haven't taken any measurements. You need measurements to determine what the problem is.

 

[PietjePuk]

Ok, since I'm quite new to the game... how should I be measuring this?

 

[shadyJ]

You need a measuring microphone and some software. If you want to make it simple, get a USB microphone like the Dayton UMM-6 or the UMIK-1. If you are in Europe, look at the XTZ microphone pro. For software, just use REW.

 

[moves]

You need a measuring microphone and some software. If you want to make it simple, get a USB microphone like the Dayton UMM-6 or the UMIK-1. If you are in Europe, look at the XTZ microphone pro. For software, just use REW.

How do you read the measurements?

 

[shadyJ]

How do you read the measurements?

The software will display the measurements. You may have to tweak the software settings for the measurement display to make sense or look understandable.

 

[TLS Guy]

Auch, thanks but that does kinda hurt... They did sound a lot better in the listening area with the carpets etc...

And that site is a goldmine, will keep that in mind. I do have some trouble reading the graphs.

I'm sorry to have to break it to you, but if those measurements are correct and done properly, all of those speakers are really bad. I mean really bad.

The room you describe will accentuate the defects. However those measurements would indicate a speaker I would not even waste time auditioning. Unfortunately really bad speakers abound. The manufacturers are just lucky that so few have third party measurements.

If you have just bought them can you take them back?

I have long experience with speakers, and the good ones perform well unless the room is so bad it resembles a concrete public lavatory.

 

[moves]

The software will display the measurements. You may have to tweak the software settings for the measurement display to make sense or look understandable.

That's what I mean though. What is the graph supposed to look like for it to make sense?

 

[shadyJ]

That's what I mean though. What is the graph supposed to look like for it to make sense?

Here is a graph that is very typical, you should be hoping to see something like that. That has had some smoothing done, where in the 'Graph' button in the top left menu, you select one of the smoothing options. Here is a graph that has no smoothing, and it is difficult to see what is going on in the treble frequencies.