HELP - Room Acoustics

[mouettus]

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Here you are now, in my basement looking at my recreation room where my home theater is located. But there's a problem. I just renovated the whole room and put some hard floors and drywall. I didn't realized before putting it all down that my stucco walls and ceiling and my carpet floor was doing an amazing job acousticly. Now I have a much nicer room but the sound is awful :S I'd like you to give me some ideas on room acoustics. I have a weird room shape and the system has to stay where it sits now (WAF).

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Also see next post for more pics

 

[mouettus]

More pics

Here are more pics so you can have a better idea

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

You are in desperate need of acoustical treatments.

1. a thick rug on the floor between the sofa and TV.

2. 4" acoustical panels on the walls.

For the best price/performance I could find, I like GIK Acoustics.
http://gikacoustics.com/index.html

The 2'x4' by four inch thick panels are awesome and they come in a variety of colors. (GIK 244s)

For starters, one hung horizontally on your left wall below the window at the first reflection point, two hung in the corners on the left, panels placed on both front and back in the primary seating areas would be a great place to start.

The difference in sound quality will be significant...
There is more that you can do, but the above will get you on the correct path......

GIKs are awesome....
I've seen first-hand the improvement a few panels can make in your sound quality.
View attachment 3073

Good luck

My 2 cents

 

[Audiacc]

Recalibrating speakers might help, too.
If your receiver has such option anyway.
Not as an alternative to acoustical treatment, thou.

 

[mouettus]

Actually I just changed my room size (in the setup options of my yammie) from large to small and it helped A LOT.

A couple of days ago I put a thick blanket on the floor and I'm not sure it had an audible effect on the sound :S:S

 

[j_garcia]

I see a number of minor issues with that setup.

1) The listening area is quite small.
which leads to
2) Couch against the wall.
3) Left surround too close to left side wall.
4) Right surround too close to adjacent "drop".
5) Surrounds a bit too close to ceiling.

Sub is probably OK there, but I'd also try shifting the system to the right and try it out in the corner where the FL speaker is.

 

[mouettus]

Like I told you in the first post, the system has to sit where it is now. I changed it once and I got a major feedback from my wife.

As for the subwoofer, I've tried many different positions and this is the place it runs best.

Finally, the holes in the wall for the surround speakers were made by my neighbor (contractor) when renovating the room. He has zero knowledge in HTs. If I position them where you said, we'll see the holes in the wall --> waf alert!!

 

[j_garcia]

Well, sell her on a semi-thick rug for the listening area at least then. A blanket isn't the same thing as a thick rug. A soft wall hanging behind the couch, maybe some bookshelves on the left side in which you can stagger the books or whatever is on the shelves?

Might be time to pick up a receiver with an Auto-EQ also. Might help, and your speakers will probably appreciate more power.

WAF It is so sad to hear about WAF being such a big issue for some of you. Sorry, but I don't answer to anyone when it comes to the sound systems. She understands that it is important to me, so she doesn't complain about it...(and she likes the way it sounds too )

 

[mtrycrafts]

If I position them where you said, we'll see the holes in the wall --> waf alert!!

It looks like the walls are drywall. The holes can be plugged so you won't see them. The only issue would be re-routing the wires.