Trell's tiny home office

[Trell]

Like so many of us the home office usage has been prominent compared to a year ago with so many working working from home, those that are so lucky that they can, that is.

Our tiny home office for two people has more than a few upgrades with the latest upgrade in excellent 8830A monitors from Genelec, as well as a 7360A subwoofer for me. The speakers is calibrated using the GLM Kit that can store the calibration in the speakers themselves, so no need to have the kit connected afterwards or having a program running on the PC. Compared to several other room EQ the GLM from Genelec will only cut frequencies and not boost.

The first upgrade was some thin 2 inch acoustic panels from GIK Acoustics to reduce slap echo while having a video meeting. Later on new microphones (Earthworks Audio SR314 and Rode VideoMic NTG) as well as using my excellent Fuji X-T2 camera with a top quality lens for meetings duty.

 

[Audiosaur]

You've done very well with that small space, Trell. Those chairs, though! I'd think you'd want to spring for something more comfy.

 

[Trell]

You've done very well with that small space, Trell. Those chairs, though! I'd think you'd want to spring for something more comfy.

Thanks! My wife has said for some time to get new chairs

 

[Trell]

I've calibrated the monitors and subwoofer using Genelec GLM Kit, though I'll going to try a few more measurements positions to see if it gets better in the lower mid. After the calibration I apply a high frequency tilt as I don't prefer flat.

 

[Trell]

Made a new calibration of the speakers, and added some notches as well as increase the sw level with +2 dB. There are still some valleys in the mids, especially for the right speaker, but a better placement is not practical on my current desktop. I could move the desk towards the left but then I'll have to move the laser printer, but that will have to be a later project.

 

[highfigh]

Made a new calibration of the speakers, and added some notches as well as increase the sw level with +2 dB. There are still some valleys in the mids, especially for the right speaker, but a better placement is not practical on my current desktop. I could move the desk towards the left but then I'll have to move the laser printer, but that will have to be a later project.

View attachment 47847

View attachment 47846

Have you measured the response with the right speaker closer to the back wall, rather than following the curve of the desk? That may be a cause for some of the comb filtering. I'm not sure I would remove all of the dip in the 600-700Hz region- I have found that reducing the level in the 500Hz range on an equalizer can help with words that start with the letter W. It's not a precise adjustment on a graphic equalizer because the frequency for each slider is fixed, but if the Genelec software allows parametric EQ, you can do a better job with it.

Unfortunately, cancellations aren't easy to fix with an equalizer but turning and shifting the speakers in small increments can make a big difference. .

 

[Trell]

Have you measured the response with the right speaker closer to the back wall, rather than following the curve of the desk? That may be a cause for some of the comb filtering. I'm not sure I would remove all of the dip in the 600-700Hz region- I have found that reducing the level in the 500Hz range on an equalizer can help with words that start with the letter W. It's not a precise adjustment on a graphic equalizer because the frequency for each slider is fixed, but if the Genelec software allows parametric EQ, you can do a better job with it.

Unfortunately, cancellations aren't easy to fix with an equalizer but turning and shifting the speakers in small increments can make a big difference. .

I moved the speakers around on the desk and even close to wall and corners just to test, but those positions that made a bigger difference are not practical with the current layout of the room.

My Genelec monitors have 16 available PEQ and 4 shelf filters (for changing sound profile afterwards, like HF tilt), though after calibration about 10 PEQ or so is not used by the calibration. Genelec PEQ only allow cuts, no boost allowed.

 

[highfigh]

I moved the speakers around on the desk and even close to wall and corners just to test, but those positions that made a bigger difference are not practical with the current layout of the room.

My Genelec monitors have 16 available PEQ and 4 shelf filters (for changing sound profile afterwards, like HF tilt), though after calibration about 10 PEQ or so is not used by the calibration. Genelec PEQ only allow cuts, no boost allowed.

WRT cutting vs boosting- as it should be.

 

[Trell]

WRT cutting vs boosting- as it should be.

That includes level compensation that can not be positive, so after calibration one might have to decrease other speakers levels to de facto increase the subwoofer level. This time I had a "headroom" of -2.8 dB for my subwoofer

 

[FeRDNYC]

Thanks! My wife has said for some time to get new chairs

The one advantage to your current chairs: they'll keep you from sitting at your desk for long periods without a break!

(Either that, or they'll completely ruin your glutes and lower back when you do sit too long. Six of one...)

 

[highfigh]

That includes level compensation that can not be positive, so after calibration one might have to decrease other speakers levels to de facto increase the subwoofer level. This time I had a "headroom" of -2.8 dB for my subwoofer

I know- boosting can cause many problems, especially if there's no way to know if the increased level is causing distortion- the added noise is easy enough to hear. Better to adjust the level in a circuit that isn't following a filter which has a narrow bandwidth and active circuitry allows steeper filter slopes without adding as much phase shift and loss as passive filters would cause.

Genelec gets it right- many don't.