Recommended room treatments? Waterfall attached.

[m_tyson]

Can anyone recommend some room treatments based on the attached waterfall, thanks! This is after PEQ with the BFD, which gives me pretty flat response down to 21Hz. It looks like I should target 20-30Hz with treatments, but I am a beginner at this. The room is 26x16x8, with a 4' opening on one of the 16' walls to an adjoining room. I currently have no treatments except a persian rug on the hardwood floor...

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

With no treatments, that's actually a good graph. Bass traps are the primary treatment for low frequencies, and even then they don't do well at the lowest frequencies. Unless you can do something built-in during the constuction stage, they are intrusive and take up a lot of space in the room.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[m_tyson]

Thanks, Wayne.

How about a helmholtz slot resonator? I played around with a calculator, and it looks like I could do a thick floor to ceiling built-in against a wall that targets 33Hz. Has anyone tried this?

With no treatments, that's actually a good graph. Bass traps are the primary treatment for low frequencies, and even then they don't do well at the lowest frequencies. Unless you can do something built-in during the constuction stage, they are intrusive and take up a lot of space in the room.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[jostenmeat]

It looks like I should target 20-30Hz with treatments, but I am a beginner at this.

How about a helmholtz slot resonator? I played around with a calculator, and it looks like I could do a thick floor to ceiling built-in against a wall that targets 33Hz. Has anyone tried this?

Hah, I am looking forward to your efforts when you are a seasoned veteran!

Savant would probably be one of the first I would PM here regarding Helmholtz. There should be at least a few others here who could help out quite a bit too.

I found one thread dealing with Helmholtz, but it's a horizontal configuration (in a riser). I thought you still might be interested.

 

[bpape]

Be very careful with resonators down that low. They can introduce their own little oddities to the mix. If you could post a graph pre EQ and with a little more vertical range showing, that would allow a better analysis of what's actually happening in the room and how best to deal with it.

In general, treat response by (in order)

- Placement of speakers, sub, and listening position
- Treatments
- EQ last what you can't deal with via the other 2.

Bryan

 

[jostenmeat]

Bryan, can you please describe what exactly a "little more vertical range" means? And once you were given this data, what would you be looking for, and why?

Thanks! You da man.

 

[bpape]

The graph currently shows has the highest SPL level at approx 75db. The bottom of the scale that we can see is 48db. So, we're only seeing the first 27db of the decay. Seeing more of the decay allows identification of travelling waves and other things that might not show up in the first 27db as easily.

Bryan

 

[m_tyson]

i lowered the waterfall floor to 36. red is before peq, green is after, and i also generated an overlay. i did the sweeps (about a year ago) at 75db, because i don't really crank the volume when watching movies (wife and kids usually limit me to -25db on the dial). thanks for looking!

 

[bpape]

Notice that the EQ, while helping frequency response somewhat, has actually increased decay time tails in the 70-80Hz areas.

The decay time is still a bit longer than I'd like to see down deep but up higher looks decent. Is this room open to another room or does it contain a lot of glass?

Bryan

 

[Quickley17]

Sorry to go on a tangent, what do you use to measure this data and create these plots?

 

[bpape]

Room EQ Wizard. It's a free program available at hometheatershack.com

There's a forum area for REW and the BFD.

Bryan

 

[highfigh]

Looks like Room EQ Wizard.

 

[m_tyson]

Both! This is a 26x16x8 livingroom, and due to windows, openings, and WAF, the viewing area sits at one end of the room with the sound shooting across the short length. The other half of the room is a play area with train tables for the kids. Subs (one M&K MX-80, and stacked Yamaha SW216s) site behind the couch, and the projector is shelf-mounted on the rear wall.) I have space for treatments on the close side wall (which has the 4'w opening), behind the main towers, and against the wall behind the seating area. Ideas???

Notice that the EQ, while helping frequency response somewhat, has actually increased decay time tails in the 70-80Hz areas.

The decay time is still a bit longer than I'd like to see down deep but up higher looks decent. Is this room open to another room or does it contain a lot of glass?

Bryan

 

[bpape]

Front and rear right corners - broadband control

Right wall by right speaker - 4" ish panel for reflection and boundary (SBIR) control and to make that speaker more balanced to the left one.

Behind the monitors - 2-4" panel to deal with boundary issues again.

Bryan

 

[m_tyson]

Great, thank you!

Front and rear right corners - broadband control

Right wall by right speaker - 4" ish panel for reflection and boundary (SBIR) control and to make that speaker more balanced to the left one.

Behind the monitors - 2-4" panel to deal with boundary issues again.

Bryan