Enter to Win: Rives Audio Test CD 2

[AverageJoe]

I figure there are enough resources around and lots of great information right here (learnin' something new every day) to get me past my ignorance of acoustics. And I'm lucky to have the full support (at least so far) of my wife in incorporating a dedicated HT in our new home plans. But I think the hardest part will be aesthetics - getting the right look with the best sound I can afford.

 

[Josuah]

My biggest problem has been being limited by the house construction to begin with. I have to work within the confines of the exiting floorplan and structure, and these rooms were not designed with a home theater in mind. Doing the best I can, within my budget, to address acoustical properties of the room I have is what I've done.

 

[lee kostiuk]

I'm currently living in a town house right now and don't want to spend much money on room accoustics until I move into a house. My stereo system in my last house sounded great! I think it's b/c it wasn't on contrete and had high quality underlay and carpet. My town house has no underlay and has horrible carpet combind with some weird geometry with the walls. When I move I'll invest in some room treatments if it needs it.

 

[bongobob]

I live in an apartment and placing the sub so it both sounds good and doesn't annoy the neighbors (too much ) is a real challenge. Cheers!

 

[Sheep]

To much crap in my room! Need a dedicated room inorder ot setup acoustic treatments.

SheepStar

 

[Bundi1098]

If it was not for forus like this I would have been lost. It was audioholics that pointed me in the correct direction on speaker wire and I was amazed at the diference in sound a good 12GA wire made. I am an average guy that can't pick out different ranges of sound and it made a huge difference. The second step was to upgrade to a self optimizing tunner. That helped

 

[ragged]

Well, it's just to figure out how to calibrate the sound and figure out what is best for listening to music/movies/sports etc. The receiver has so many options, but when I choose, say live sports as the default, it sounds awful.

Right now, as a temporary solution, I end up fiddling around until it's sounds ok.

 

[auge.dog]

Contest Question: What was/is the biggest obstacle in getting the acoustics in your room right? How did/are you planning to overcome that obstacle?

The biggest obstacle is not knowing where to begin with a limited room size and limited speaker placement options. We have property and have plans to build a house on it in 2007. I will need help getting it accoustically satisfactory due to my spouse's preference for small and subtle.

 

[Fratt70]

Have no Idea where to start, trying to get all the speakers now, then will address the rest.

 

[Bryguy]

My biggest obstacle is the wife and then the wallet. I would first move my gear from the short wall to the far wall (12x15 foot room that opens to a kitchen with slightly larger dimensions). This would create a mucher better soundstage and reduce some of the boominess of the bass. As for acoustical treatments I would use some large acoustical tiles or strips on the walls and a couple of strips on the ceiling.

Bryguy

 

[Brucest]

Reply to Rivas contest

I have a test tone CD and am planning on eliminating some low end resonances as a first step. Beyond that, I'm not sure how to proceed.

 

[Aviator]

Living in a dorm room

Uggh, that's the sound of being tired of being crammed into a cinder brick room for 4 years. My school doesn't have many good off campus options, small town, so my stero suffers because of lack of space, and the fact that anything I buy probably won't be right in the next year.

Oh well.

 

[gixxerific]

I picked the first one, my rooom is an acoustical nighmare. Mainly the shape of the room, well not so much the room but the rooms that are connected to it. My family is not that huge carpeting does help but I have a kitchen right off the the side on the wall where my system rest than there is a small divider maybe 4 foot wide that oppens up again to some stairs. So a lot of open space with a divider thrown in basically. It's like setting up yoour system in a very wide but shallow room than putting your system on the left side and not the middle.

 

[riceaterslc]

my biggest problem is being in the military
i've been in 3 states in the past 10 months and still dont know where i am going to end up permanently. i just lug around a pair of speakers and a reciever, leave the rest at home with the old lady.

 

[masak_aer]

Soundproof and Aesthetics

My biggest obstacle is the "soundproofness" of my space. I can't turn on my HT too loud. I live in a condo. Neighbors came banging on my doors even when my HT is only at 1/3 of its capacity. Lol. Aesthetics is also a problem for me. My spouse has problem with me putting on my rear surround on the wall with the cable hanging down from the ceiling.

 

[bobbydigital]

MY biggest obstacle is the living room which is open on one end to a dining room. It hasnt been to bad though. My last house was a horrible L shaped living room open to the kitchen that was much worse. Also subwoofer placement has been challenging. Come on free CD!

 

[rolyasm]

Room design. I had a HVAC system going through my room and the builder couldn't change it. Created some funky angles. What to do. ahhh.
Roly

 

[mlbillow]

My biggest obstacle is finding the time and money. Last year we moved into a new house with a dedicated home theater. I have it all set up (equipment wise) and have painted it and done some decorating, but have not had the time or money to do any more with it. I have been reading up on what I want to do, now its just tryign to find the time and money to do it.

 

[beeman]

We have a lot of windows in the HT/Family room. I imagine curtins would be useful to help the acoustics more so than blinds. We just moved in so the decorating is slow right now b/c of the budget.

 

[kruzmisl]

Waf

The biggest factor to deal with was the Wife Acceptance Factor. I over came this with well placed in wall speakers of good quality. The thing that really made it sound great was the YPAO optimized microphone on my Yahama RX-V2600 receiver, which runs sounds patterns and sets the speaker balance. I found a huge difference in the overall 7.1 channel sound.