Room improvements for non dedicated room.

[aceinc]

I will admit I haven't watched all of the acoustic videos or done all of the required reading, but I thought I would get this thread started. I have a living room which I use for a home theater. It is not a perfect room, nor can I gut it and turn it into a home theater. What I hope to do is make it better and still have it appear as a living room. To my ear it sounds pretty good, but improving the low bass could help. I use the room for two channel listening as well.

While I know the room is more important I will define my current system first;

Speakers;

• Fronts - Magnepan 2.7 QR with bass support provided by one "woofer cabinet" each comprised of 2 - 12" woofers servo controlled W style open baffle hooked in parallel with the 2.7s
• Center - Largish multi driver home designed and built rather efficient but sounds pretty good.
• Surrounds - Mirage OM 26
• Rears - Magnepan MMGs.
• Subwoofers - 1 - 15" Rythmik Audio Servo controlled sealed cabinet and two 10" Dayton Titanic drivers in small sealed cabinets driven by a Crown XTI 2002 (w/DSP)
• Height - 4 Dayton 8" ceiling speakers.

Amplification;

• Fronts - Emotiva XPA-1 Gen 1 mono blocks ~500w 8 ohms, ~1,000w 4 ohms. Maggies like power -
• Surround & Front - Emotiva XPA-3 Gen 1.
• Rears - XPA-2 Gen 1
• Height - Sherbourn 5/1500A

Surround processor - Marantz AV7704.

The room is 25'9" x 15'6" x 9' with a large fireplace and a bay window, two openings to the remainder of the house. The floor is concrete covered with wood and area rugs. All windows have cellular blinds (fabric cells with air gaps). There is a love seat and couch which are leather. There is also a over stuffed chair & ottoman. There are various knick knacks scattered through out the space.

The system is arranged so the TV center & fronts are on the short wall with the openings to the rest of the house. To the left in the picture below.

This a waterfall plot from the listening position with just the fronts and all subs playing.

Picture from the listening position.

 

[aceinc]

One of the things I heard in one of the videos Gene has created is that not all corners of a room are excited as much by bass. I sent a 10-200hz signal through my fronts & all subs and found the corner behind my left Front is about 5 DB over the other corners.

 

[Gmoney]

my money is on the left corner. Now if your standing in the "doorway" than my money is on the left corner. But if your standing wayside? Than all bets are off.

 

[Gmoney]

@aceinc Nice setup, just a note, I have this Cow, was wondering if you would be interested in buying a Cow? Great grass trimmer! Makes for a very kid friendly pet! Only down side for some reason leaves a lot of Cow Patties All over the place! Pooaeye!! I tell ya. So with that said it's gotta go! "no name" it will be a As is sale. But the Neighbor next-door heard some woman screaming from inside the house Thor may be the Cows name don't know for sure. Inbox me with a good offer, I'll run your offer by my friend who lives close by that Cow. He has been trying get rid of that Cow something about umm his wife thinks he my be leaving her to go start a Rancho Sango.

 

[Gmoney]

I will admit I haven't watched all of the acoustic videos or done all of the required reading, but I thought I would get this thread started. I have a living room which I use for a home theater. It is not a perfect room, nor can I gut it and turn it into a home theater. What I hope to do is make it better and still have it appear as a living room. To my ear it sounds pretty good, but improving the low bass could help. I use the room for two channel listening as well.

While I know the room is more important I will define my current system first;

Speakers;

• Fronts - Magnepan 2.7 QR with bass support provided by one "woofer cabinet" each comprised of 2 - 12" woofers servo controlled W style open baffle hooked in parallel with the 2.7s
• Center - Largish multi driver home designed and built rather efficient but sounds pretty good.
• Surrounds - Mirage OM 26
• Rears - Magnepan MMGs.
• Subwoofers - 1 - 15" Rythmik Audio Servo controlled sealed cabinet and two 10" Dayton Titanic drivers in small sealed cabinets driven by a Crown XTI 2002 (w/DSP)
• Height - 4 Dayton 8" ceiling speakers.

Amplification;

• Fronts - Emotiva XPA-1 Gen 1 mono blocks ~500w 8 ohms, ~1,000w 4 ohms. Maggies like power -
• Surround & Front - Emotiva XPA-3 Gen 1.
• Rears - XPA-2 Gen 1
• Height - Sherbourn 5/1500A

Surround processor - Marantz AV7704.

The room is 25'9" x 15'6" x 9' with a large fireplace and a bay window, two openings to the remainder of the house. The floor is concrete covered with wood and area rugs. All windows have cellular blinds (fabric cells with air gaps). There is a love seat and couch which are leather. There is also a over stuffed chair & ottoman. There are various knick knacks scattered through out the space.

The system is arranged so the TV center & fronts are on the short wall with the openings to the rest of the house. To the left in the picture below.

View attachment 47599

This a waterfall plot from the listening position with just the fronts and all subs playing.

View attachment 47600

Picture from the listening position.

View attachment 47602

Umm, Do believe I see Emotiva gear? Plus up over to the right high up is a photo US Marine soldier. Also gotta ask, what you got in them two cases to the right next to the spotted cat figurine.

 

[aceinc]

Umm, Do believe I see Emotiva gear? Plus up over to the right high up is a photo US Marine soldier. Also got ask, what you got in them two cases to the right next to the spotted cat figurine.

Yes most of the Amplification is Emotiva. The Marine is my son in law. The little case to the left of the giraffe is where I keep the dossier on Ted Cruz's father and his involvement in the assassination of Kennedy The big case is where I keep my copy of Project Blue Book.

 

[aceinc]

@aceinc Nice setup, just a note, I have this Cow, was wondering if you would be interested in buying a Cow? Great grass trimmer! Makes for a very kid friendly pet! Only down side for some reason leaves a lot of Cow Patties All over the place! Pooaeye!! I tell ya. So with that said it's gotta go! "no name" it will be a As is sale. But the Neighbor next-door heard some woman screaming from inside the house Thor may be the Cows name don't know for sure. Inbox me with a good offer, I'll run your offer by my friend who lives close by that Cow. He has been trying get rid of that Cow something about umm his wife thinks he my be leaving her to go start a Rancho Sango.
View attachment 47615

My neighbor has cows, I can visit anytime I like. One thing I notice is the patties from the male bovine are more ubiquitous and more difficult to avoid than that of the females.

 

[Gmoney]

My neighbor has cows, I can visit anytime I like. One thing I notice is the patties from the male bovine are more ubiquitous and more difficult to avoid than that of the females.

Dam, just lost a sale!! Thanks anyways

 

[Gmoney]

Yes most of the Amplification is Emotiva. The Marine is my son in law. The little case to the left of the giraffe is where I keep the dossier on Ted Cruz's father and his involvement in the assassination of Kennedy The big case is where I keep my copy of Project Blue Book.

The real shooter of JFK wasn't who the Fake News Media reported. Interesting though what's in the case. Any relation to Tom Cruise the Scientology nut job?

 

[aceinc]

The real shooter of JFK wasn't who the Fake News Media reported. Interesting though what's in the case. Any relation to Tom Cruise the Scientology nut job?

I am what Scientologists call an SP.

 

[aceinc]

I enjoy the repartee, but I am hoping to get some practical tips on how to improve my room's acoustics.

 

[Gmoney]

I enjoy the repartee, but I am hoping to get some practical tips on how to improve my room's acoustics.

You may want to hit @gene or @PENG up inbox them. But the reason you have a bump up in Bass on the left side is because of the doorway you speaker is sitting next to. Try hanging a Heavy curtain over the doorway and then re-run ARC again. Bet you get Different results. But since your older and I'm sure your not Hipster with Urban slang. I can dig a lil Repartee! I'm go now, and hang over wit dat Lampshade over there in my Man Cave and finish off my cup of Moejoe. Best of luck with your Shiny new speakers. Love them Big Blue lights on those amps you have.

 

[aceinc]

You may want to hit @gene or @PENG up inbox them. But the reason you have a bump up in Bass on the left side is because of the doorway you speaker is sitting next to. Try hanging a Heavy curtain over the doorway and then re-run ARC again. Bet you get Different results.

I tried to send a message to their inboxes. It was rejected. I did post in Gene's profile. @PENG limits who can see his profile.

I guess they are keeping the riff raff out...

 

[Gmoney]

I tried to send a message to their inboxes. It was rejected. I did post in Gene's profile. @PENG limits who can see his profile.

I guess they are keeping the riff raff out...

Who's riff and raff? they members of AH? Maybe try @AcuDefTechGuy he is Knowledgeable. But he may also give you some great Advice on ATi amps very Solid audio gear. They come with 7 years of warranty. Plus they service their gear before and After the sale.

 

[shadyJ]

I enjoy the repartee, but I am hoping to get some practical tips on how to improve my room's acoustics.

Treating sidewalls would probably be a waste of time with those speakers since they are so directional. If it were me, I would put some absorbers behind the listening position and behind the speakers. I wouldn't worry about ceiling or floor reflections with those speakers.

The waterfall plot doesn't really help much. A basic frequency response sweep with a 50dB window would be a lot more helpful. It looks like the bass is pretty rough in there though. You might want to think about getting an EQ system for the low frequencies.

 

[aceinc]

Treating sidewalls would probably be a waste of time with those speakers since they are so directional. If it were me, I would put some absorbers behind the listening position and behind the speakers. I wouldn't worry about ceiling or floor reflections with those speakers.

The waterfall plot doesn't really help much. A basic frequency response sweep with a 50dB window would be a lot more helpful. It looks like the bass is pretty rough in there though. You might want to think about getting an EQ system for the low frequencies.

I have various EQ options available for the bass. but what I am most concerned about on the bass is the decay time below ~50hz.

Regarding the choppiness in the curve above 50hz, I will run tests of individual subs one at a time and see if I can determine which sub or combination of subs are the culprits. Although it could be the 2.7s as they are fairly flat to about 35hz.

 

[aceinc]

Treating sidewalls would probably be a waste of time with those speakers since they are so directional. If it were me, I would put some absorbers behind the listening position and behind the speakers. I wouldn't worry about ceiling or floor reflections with those speakers.

The waterfall plot doesn't really help much. A basic frequency response sweep with a 50dB window would be a lot more helpful. It looks like the bass is pretty rough in there though. You might want to think about getting an EQ system for the low frequencies.

Is this what you would prefer?

 

[shadyJ]

I have various EQ options available for the bass. but what I am most concerned about on the bass is the decay time below ~50hz.

Regarding the choppiness in the curve above 50hz, I will run tests of individual subs one at a time and see if I can determine which sub or combination of subs are the culprits. Although it could be the 2.7s as they are fairly flat to about 35hz.

The bass decay time below 50Hz doesn't really matter too much. The wavelengths of those frequencies have an inherently long duration. That curve is very choppy though, it is almost as if there is some kind of comb-filtering, like there is a phase conflict. You need to make sure everything is playing together in phase.

Is this what you would prefer?

View attachment 47630

That is good, but the Y-axis is still a bit wide. Limit the top of the Y-axis to 95dB.

 

[aceinc]

The bass decay time below 50Hz doesn't really matter too much. The wavelengths of those frequencies have an inherently long duration. That curve is very choppy though, it is almost as if there is some kind of comb-filtering, like there is a phase conflict. You need to make sure everything is playing together in phase.

That is good, but the Y-axis is still a bit wide. Limit the top of the Y-axis to 95dB.

More like this;

 

[Gmoney]

Is this what you would prefer?

View attachment 47630

You lucked out! James is one of The Best here on AH. If he can't help you. Than Hire a professional to go into your home with helping you setup your speakers right. Happy Listening!