room for improvement?

beats4weeks · 7th June 2011

coming down the home stretch here in the man cave : ) I'd love some input on whats going on so far in my smallish 12' by 14' room, and if there's anything that jumps out at anyone as a place for improvement.

I haven't done a lot of listening in there yet, but one thing that did jump out at me right away was how much of a difference a couple inches forward or backward with my monitors made. Is the massive wall of records behind my monitors having any detrimental effect?

Also, I figured I would build a fluffy insulation style absorber to place atop of the record shelf straddling the front wall/ fabric covered ceiling corner. I was wondering if it would be any better or worse to make this a square absorber rather than a straddler. My instincts tell me a square one would be better as it would have more depth/surface area. But I haven't seen many (if any) square absorbers in other's studio corners. Is there a reason for this?

Another thing that I thought may be an issue is that the woofers of my monitors are smack dab in the middle of my floor to ceiling height. Ceiling is 91 inches from floor and the center of my woofer cones measure 45 .25 inches from the floor. Right now my ears are directly between woofer and tweeter level, which would otherwise be ideal. I can only potentially raise them higher, and then angle them downward with my MoPads to get the woofers out of the mid-point. So how many inches should I raise them, and with what? Books? Bricks? etc. Only provision is that they do have to stay on the desk as I've no room for stands.

What you can't see in the photo or what may not be immediately obvious, is that the ceiling is just fabric stapled to the the bottom of my 8" joists with 6" of fluffy insulation between it and and the beefed up subfloor above. Also, those are 2 floor to bottom of joist broadband corner absorbers made of 6"s of 703 with fluffy stuffed behind. Also the bottom row of record shelves is loosely filled with R-30 fiberglass insulation rather than records for some extra absorption in that corner (shelf is 15" deep). So all my front wall corners have a decent amount of treatment in them. I also have 4" 703 panels to hang at side First reflection points that will be mounted 3-4" off the wall once I settle on my monitor placement. Also have another corner absorber in rear corner and have 1 panel of 703 left over that i will likely place on the rear wall.

So any suggestions on how I could improve or make the most of what I'm working with? (Aside from cleaning up the clutter...it is still a work in progress.) Thanks for looking. Cheers!

beats4weeks · 10th June 2011

...Did I say something wrong? Surprised to see 0 replies after a few days. OK maybe one question at a time:

... the woofers of my monitors are smack dab in the middle of my floor to ceiling height. Ceiling is 91 inches from floor and the center of my woofer cones measure 45 .25 inches from the floor. Right now my ears are directly between woofer and tweeter level, which would otherwise be ideal. I can only potentially raise them higher, and then angle them downward with my MoPads to get the woofers out of the mid-point. So how many inches should I raise them, and with what? Books? Bricks? etc. Only provision is that they do have to stay on the desk as I've no room for stands.

Thanks

Jens Eklund · 10th June 2011

Hi all.

I think my personal health is bad, I might have pain in some parts of my body. What medicine would you recommend me trying?
　

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/6507362-post2.html

Max Dread · 10th June 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by beats4weeks

Also, I figured I would build a fluffy insulation style absorber to place atop of the record shelf straddling the front wall/ fabric covered ceiling corner. I was wondering if it would be any better or worse to make this a square absorber rather than a straddler. My instincts tell me a square one would be better as it would have more depth/surface area. But I haven't seen many (if any) square absorbers in other's studio corners. Is there a reason for this?

I think your instincts are right on this one - square is fine. You don't see it often because of the amount of space (usually floor space) that would be taken up if a corner was filled with a square/squares rather than triangles.

You'll never really know how much of an effect filling that area will have without taking measurements. The same is true for the monitor height question. In fact, the same is true of most things..... So I guess it's back to Jens' favourite link!! (above).

Jens Eklund · 10th June 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max Dread

So I guess it's back to Jens' favourite link!! (above).

It always fits!

Glenn Kuras · 10th June 2011

Quote:

Also, I figured I would build a fluffy insulation style absorber to place atop of the record shelf straddling the front wall/ fabric covered ceiling corner. I was wondering if it would be any better or worse to make this a square absorber rather than a straddler. My instincts tell me a square one would be better as it would have more depth/surface area. But I haven't seen many (if any) square absorbers in other's studio corners. Is there a reason for this?

It would be called a soffit trap which I just did some testing at Riverbank on one we designed. I can't go into to much detail at this time (I am sure you understand) but I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

DanDan · 10th June 2011

You have extensive trapping in there, in general great.
The deep ceiling trap should be taking care of your vertical mode, so without testing, an unlikely priority. With MoPads, it matters little what is underneath, bricks or books or whatever.
That leaves the length mode and it's multiples. Don't know which way round your room is. Hopefully your speakers are firing into the 14 feet dimension, mode =40Hz.
Play a sine wave in your room. Sweep the frequency very slowly and smoothly around 40, then 80 Hz. You will find resonant modes. The walls will shake!
While shaking, climb up there. If there very high level in that ceiling wall corner by all means fill it with fibre. Square or triangular is fine, more, further from the wall or apex, is best.
I am curious as to the back wall. While the Sines are playing go back there.
I suspect the very high levels you may encounter will give you a sense of priority.
Your speakers are quite a way from the real boundary, the front wall. Is this sheetrock or solid brick. I am inclined to guess that your speakers would be better off close to this wall, LP's behind you.

DD

beats4weeks · 21st June 2011

"Your speakers are quite a way from the real boundary, the front wall. Is this sheetrock or solid brick. "

The front of speakers are 34" away from the inner leaf of front wall which is 1 layer 5/8 sheetrock. Outer leaf is a shared stone wall with plaster coating. And yes, I am firing speakers down the length of the room (168" x 145" if memory serves correct. This puts my ears about 64" from the front wall and I'm seated in the center width-wise.

Without testing, this is where things subjectively sounded the best to my ears. Only a couple inches back and the bass gets pretty hyped I just picked up my SPL meter and the Dayton Audio measurement mic. So I will be doing some testing, but moving things around in here is a pain in the rear - moving several tons of records around isn't easy. So that's why I'm asking if anything jumped out at anyone as a potential problem before doing my own tests.

7th June 2011	#1
beats4weeks Gear Head Joined: May 2006 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 58 Thread Starter	room for improvement? coming down the home stretch here in the man cave : ) I'd love some input on whats going on so far in my smallish 12' by 14' room, and if there's anything that jumps out at anyone as a place for improvement. I haven't done a lot of listening in there yet, but one thing that did jump out at me right away was how much of a difference a couple inches forward or backward with my monitors made. Is the massive wall of records behind my monitors having any detrimental effect? Also, I figured I would build a fluffy insulation style absorber to place atop of the record shelf straddling the front wall/ fabric covered ceiling corner. I was wondering if it would be any better or worse to make this a square absorber rather than a straddler. My instincts tell me a square one would be better as it would have more depth/surface area. But I haven't seen many (if any) square absorbers in other's studio corners. Is there a reason for this? Another thing that I thought may be an issue is that the woofers of my monitors are smack dab in the middle of my floor to ceiling height. Ceiling is 91 inches from floor and the center of my woofer cones measure 45 .25 inches from the floor. Right now my ears are directly between woofer and tweeter level, which would otherwise be ideal. I can only potentially raise them higher, and then angle them downward with my MoPads to get the woofers out of the mid-point. So how many inches should I raise them, and with what? Books? Bricks? etc. Only provision is that they do have to stay on the desk as I've no room for stands. What you can't see in the photo or what may not be immediately obvious, is that the ceiling is just fabric stapled to the the bottom of my 8" joists with 6" of fluffy insulation between it and and the beefed up subfloor above. Also, those are 2 floor to bottom of joist broadband corner absorbers made of 6"s of 703 with fluffy stuffed behind. Also the bottom row of record shelves is loosely filled with R-30 fiberglass insulation rather than records for some extra absorption in that corner (shelf is 15" deep). So all my front wall corners have a decent amount of treatment in them. I also have 4" 703 panels to hang at side First reflection points that will be mounted 3-4" off the wall once I settle on my monitor placement. Also have another corner absorber in rear corner and have 1 panel of 703 left over that i will likely place on the rear wall. So any suggestions on how I could improve or make the most of what I'm working with? (Aside from cleaning up the clutter...it is still a work in progress.) Thanks for looking. Cheers! Attached Thumbnails

10th June 2011	#2
beats4weeks Gear Head Joined: May 2006 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 58 Thread Starter	hmmm... ...Did I say something wrong? Surprised to see 0 replies after a few days. OK maybe one question at a time: ... the woofers of my monitors are smack dab in the middle of my floor to ceiling height. Ceiling is 91 inches from floor and the center of my woofer cones measure 45 .25 inches from the floor. Right now my ears are directly between woofer and tweeter level, which would otherwise be ideal. I can only potentially raise them higher, and then angle them downward with my MoPads to get the woofers out of the mid-point. So how many inches should I raise them, and with what? Books? Bricks? etc. Only provision is that they do have to stay on the desk as I've no room for stands. Thanks

10th June 2011	#7
DanDan Lives for gear Joined: Aug 2003 Location: Cork Ireland Posts: 6,825 1 Review written	Test You have extensive trapping in there, in general great. The deep ceiling trap should be taking care of your vertical mode, so without testing, an unlikely priority. With MoPads, it matters little what is underneath, bricks or books or whatever. That leaves the length mode and it's multiples. Don't know which way round your room is. Hopefully your speakers are firing into the 14 feet dimension, mode =40Hz. Play a sine wave in your room. Sweep the frequency very slowly and smoothly around 40, then 80 Hz. You will find resonant modes. The walls will shake! While shaking, climb up there. If there very high level in that ceiling wall corner by all means fill it with fibre. Square or triangular is fine, more, further from the wall or apex, is best. I am curious as to the back wall. While the Sines are playing go back there. I suspect the very high levels you may encounter will give you a sense of priority. Your speakers are quite a way from the real boundary, the front wall. Is this sheetrock or solid brick. I am inclined to guess that your speakers would be better off close to this wall, LP's behind you. DD __________________ www.irishacoustics.com www.soundsound.ie

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10th June 2011	#3
Jens Eklund Lives for gear Joined: Oct 2009 Location: Stockholm Posts: 3,005	Hi all. I think my personal health is bad, I might have pain in some parts of my body. What medicine would you recommend me trying? 　 http://www.gearslutz.com/board/6507362-post2.html

21st June 2011	#8
beats4weeks Gear Head Joined: May 2006 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 58 Thread Starter	"Your speakers are quite a way from the real boundary, the front wall. Is this sheetrock or solid brick. " The front of speakers are 34" away from the inner leaf of front wall which is 1 layer 5/8 sheetrock. Outer leaf is a shared stone wall with plaster coating. And yes, I am firing speakers down the length of the room (168" x 145" if memory serves correct. This puts my ears about 64" from the front wall and I'm seated in the center width-wise. Without testing, this is where things subjectively sounded the best to my ears. Only a couple inches back and the bass gets pretty hyped I just picked up my SPL meter and the Dayton Audio measurement mic. So I will be doing some testing, but moving things around in here is a pain in the rear - moving several tons of records around isn't easy. So that's why I'm asking if anything jumped out at anyone as a potential problem before doing my own tests.