Acoustic Treatment / Soundproofing

I did the same as ultrabike, but no minidsp, just REW, a target I needed.Try to minimize the number of filters I have to input to get a curve that works for my room. Plug that into Jriver and boom.

Dk, Abbey roads also use B&W, guess it depends on the room and monitoring situation you are up against. Not surprised if the dealer setup the speakers to sound like trash. On the spacing thing, thats what Mitch from Sweetwater did with a drywall cabinet as a huge ass bass trap and that really worked for him, different rooms different strokes?

 

I would probably experiment with putting bookshelfs along the walls instead of acoustic treatment. If you don't have a lot of books then obviously this isn't a good solution but if you already do have books then it's worth trying out. Or if you are a record collector you can set up your stacks along the wall as well.

 

i forgot where the data i found i used but, can probably find it online. a guy used tons of different materials and experimented with them againist walls and away from walls measuring coeffciant data. found best coeffciant data was shown with loose 9" thick fiberglass for actual real results and found it no different from wall and away. just suggested to place along wall for optimal space saving and absorption.. fiberglass can be compressed easily so its one best materials still for sound/heat absorption.

4" mineral wool is good as well but, not as effective for complete absorption of 100hz. mineral wool is much harder to work with and is twice more expensive...i been using fiberglass and mineral wool for years experimenting myself as well and always found fiberglass is best material to ever use for real results..

on side note.. people have different taste. i heard the 802d's in an acoustically controlled 30x30 room with 600w mono blocks and like multi thousand dollar silver speaker cables and fully balanced...personally thought they were bad.. you can get better deals finding a pair of jbl 4412's or altec model 14's and have something like jbl 2245h doing sub duty for lowest octaves for mid-field monitoring for lot less.

 

fiberglas can be compressed easily so can make it thinner while keeping same density. only downside to fiberglass is, it can change its density if got wet or was heated up a lot. also fiberglass has to be covered up with cloth or something as well cause vibrations can excite the particles to spread in the air. thats why mineral wool is more prefered for certain jobs. mineral wool doesnt alter when wet or heated up. mineral wool can be fully exposed as well where it needs no covering.

 

Moved the speakers around to optimize the position and took measurements.

Here is what came out of FuzzMeasure:

Imaging and decay are excellent but as you can see it's way too mid forward and fatiguing. (sounds that way too) I'm almost certain a major portion of the problem is due to comb filtering from my much too large desk.

I'm going to move the desk out of the room and remeasure with only the speakers and nothing else. This will eliminate the comb filtering effect so I can get an idea of the true "in shoebox" response

Edit: Added pics of my room so you can see how small it is.

 

I am in full agreement here, I'm not really sure what the f**k happened to B&W's house sound, because their 70/80/90s gear is pretty wonderful IMHO before they dropped the polite British monitor sound act for melt you face bright. If I' ever step up to the 800 series if will defiantly be Matrix not Diamonds.

 

Got motivated and dragged the desk out of the room. Just me, some speakers and a microphone.
Moving around the room I realize that there is a huge ass dead zone in the middle. Avoid this and lo and behold... we have BASS!

Check it out:


This sounds a LOT better already.

 

I built some acoustic panels in the fall using 2" thick denim panels, seemed to help the treble/bounce in my listening position which is pretty compromised due to the wall.I let She Who Must Be Obeyed pick the fabric so I could get the project done in happiness. I may try and convince her to let me try some at the first reflection point behind the speakers eventually.

 

In my quest to learn a little more about room acoustics I took the stands out and put the speakers 4" off the floor with only the IsoAcoustics stands. My reasoning is that having my head anywhere near the middle of the space is probably not the best location. Might as well try one of the extremes.

Surprisingly, after a little tweaking this arrangement works really well except for a bigass null at ~250hz. I am also gaining flexibility from sitting cross legged all the time.

Check out the Sonarworks results:


This corrects very nicely.

I don't think I'm going to keep the speakers on the floor indefinitely but I do think it may be best to simply ditch the desk idea and buy a couch and a coffee table. I do all my work on a laptop anyhow.

Oh lastly, for anyone who owns a pair of Event Opals I discovered that any of the hardware LF adjustment options do very bad things to the CSD/RT60 measurements. I was going to pull the 100Hz peak down using the built in filter but it caused behaviour like this:


Without the filter active everything above 500Hz is 60db down by 300ms. I'm not sure if this is audible or not but it sure as heck looks terrible on the measurements.

 

I stopped short of doing acoustic treatments on my walls and ceilings due in part to cost, aesthetics, and quite frankly I was happy with the sound that I could achieve without going that far. Room acoustics do a lot to change the output of your system, and this is particularly true for rooms that have dimensions that are evenly divisible, have lots of glass (windows and etc), lack carpeting/rugs, and/or are rather empty (no furniture). I actually have a posting on my web site on what I did along with some general information, and it focuses largely on what can be done to baseline (measure) your room and fix some of the acoustic issues without resorting to all of the acoustic panels and bass traps. Most of us probably do not want our room to look like an anechoic chamber, and for me that would be regardless if I wasn't married (but it helps that I wasn't insistent about it ). Anyway, I have some information on there as first steps, and if you feel that you still need to pursue additional acoustic treatments perhaps because you have a particularly tough room; then, I have some basic information on there about acoustic panels including bass traps along with suggestions for placement. Anyway if anyone is interested, the link is http://www.waltershobby.net/acquisitionacoustics.html which is on my hobby web site with no advertisements or anything like that (just fulfills my enjoyment to share information), and it doesn't exclusively cover acoustics but it does talk about it quite a bit.

 

good stuff but, pretty basic ideas and suggestions. thing eq, speaker placement and furniture placement will do so much. it will not so much affect the comb filtering and decaying not so much. unless the room is like 50×50 with heavy carpets and very high celings, there will be always issues. of course nothing is perfect and can always do so much which very understandable.

i never had/put limitations on myself and while i like things clean and organized, me being typical dude, i never too much cared bout asethetics. i dont mind my listening area looking like a padded room or anechoic chamber. it also becomes very nice quiet meditation spot. never had spouse/partner issues either. always was understandable and equal on both parts. of course me being such a sexy beast as well helps(i cant help im just that hot).

one thing i do, that i always do is i use my ears instead of mics. always had better results detecting problems in room(s) and with speakers with my ears more effectivly. also cause while im part of young generation still being in my 20's im not very technically inclined. yea know basic stuff with computers/laptops and know how to fix'em and worked with audio software and understand few things, im just not exactly Einstein with the stuff.

i like your page though and is very nice. even though its basic stuff, it is still very informtive and useful information for everyone and appriciate your time putting it together.

 

Thanks, I tried to keep things simple, basic, and to the point although that is not always my strong suit. I'm rather technical and have an engineering background, so I do have a tendency to over analyze everything. In fact, if you have ever seen the Big Bang Theory (most people have), then you will catch the reference that both my wife and mother-in-law refer to me as Sheldon. Even if I do have many of his qualities, I do realize that I still need to utilize the KISS principle to insure a wider appeal but still be informative (like Fun with Flags). Besides, it is just a hobby web site (almost like a personal blog about my hobbies throughout the years). Nonetheless, if I can assist anyone in their enjoyment for any of the hobbies that I'm in to, I am more than happy to assist. Obviously, everyone has different goals, personal situations, tastes, and even perhaps obsessions to pursue perfection or perhaps the lack of such. Interestingly, everything on my web site was done by hand. In other words, I did not use any software to create any of it. I wrote the HTML and CSS files myself in a basic text editor, and I didn't even use a debugger to write the JavaScript software that runs the pages on the browser. In fact, this web site was the first time I learned and deployed any of these technologies. Anyway, I don't profess to have golden hearing, but I believe I have a good feel now for analyzing various frequency ranges and detail and getting better at detecting differences in soundstage and etc. Nonetheless, as an engineer I do not want to rely solely on my senses, and I like to use measurements to back up or confirm my results. Besides it is very difficult to back up claims by only citing personal observations without providing any true data. Although, audio can be a very subjective hobby. Some like a bright, neutral, or warm sound. Some are bothered by a sterile sound and prefer a lively one, and some have preferences for various soundstage sizes (width and/or height). Some are even bothered by the lack of detail. Personal preferences for audio presentation can almost feel like it is as varied as the music some people are into. Nonetheless, thanks for stating that some might find my web site useful and/or informative. I'm still working on it, and I still have several more pages to write that are currently "under construction." I just write one page at a time as time permits.

 

If it's possible i would put one of the wide band traps on a stand so you can move it freely in front of the window. Having them flush against the wall makes them less effective anyway. Also a wall right behind your head is worse then a window on the side imo.

 

I would prefer this one if I can shove something to absorb/diffuse behind the listening spot and behind the speakers.