REW analysis help... uh, so now what do I do?

[darkbuddha]

And four weeks later, I'm pretty much done... I have done testing after adding each (set of) element(s) and the results are a huge improvement! I think I'll build a few more poor man's cylindrical diffusors and tonight I'll see if testing supports adding them. In the meantime, because everyone loves to see a (mostly) finished room, here are some pics:

Before:

front:



back:





After:

front:




back:





New test results coming soon... and new questions of course.

[DanDan]

Well done, and I can see why you chose your name.....
DD

[kasmira]

I literally just looked through this thread like 2-3 hours ago wondering if you had posted pictures of your finished panels yet. Glad you got them in! Can't wait to see the test results

edit: Sound wicked in there or what?

[darkbuddha]

Originally Posted by kasmira

edit: Sound wicked in there or what?

Depends on what you mean by "wicked." It's sure as heck more clinical and unforgiving, which I much prefer to the previous erratic, null-filled I tolerated for so long before. It's much tighter and direct.

That said, for pleasure listening, I do kinda miss the low/mid boost & high end smear that made many tracks feel more visceral than they actually were.

BTW, a couple nights ago I made the mistake of playing a bunch of tracks I had on my computer via iTunes. The problem was that in spite of originally importing the tracks uncompressed, at some point iTunes converted all of them to mp3s. I was a bit panic'd wondering why the response and clarity were so screwed until I realized the issue. I hate compression.

[darkbuddha]

Originally Posted by DanDan

Well done, and I can see why you chose your name.....
DD

Thanks... it was a lot of work, but it's been a rewarding endeavor. I'm not sure I got it all right, but I think I did it as right as I could do it.

BTW, the name was bestowed to me long ago when I lived the kind of life and lifestyle that makes such a name apropos. Though I think the room does manifest the atmosphere and metaphors of that life and the psyche which elicited the name.

[darkbuddha]

Well, here are the results with before and after comparisons. Feedback is welcome.

SPL comparisons:









(Just for reference, below is a graph comparing SPL for the rear pair with the sub versus rear left and right separately. I post it to show that the sub is being pretty successful in filling in the nulls in the rears between 40-85 Hz. Not ideal, but manageable.)




Waterfalls:







First, smoothing is set to 1/3 octave (except the graph for the sub, which is set to 1/12 octave) since the point of posting these is to simply show the general level of improvement made. Second, I have waterfalls for all the channels if anyone wants to see 'em for whatever reason. Third, I'm sure the issues that remain are solvable, but I'm at a bit of loss of how to fix them without doing some serious work and/or rearranging the room (i.e. removing the bookcases and sofa, etc.).

One other thing... I now realize that there is relatively minimal value in either analyzing or posting the graphs for the combination of the quad monitor setup with the sub, but it's what I had initially analyzed when I started using REW. Given that all the monitors are outputing the same signal simultaneously, I imagine there are probably some pretty significant phase issues at work in that combination. Not good.

Again, any feedback is welcome.

[Demor]

You might want to eq the highs down a bit. I guess its pretty bright now.

[darkbuddha]

Actually, not really... it's not overly bright at all. I actually like a little bit of a high shelf anyway, which is essentially the way it is right now. That said, all of my analysis was only done to 10.5kHz because I'm using a Radio Shack digital SPL meter as the mic, and it starts to roll off around 6-7k. Eventually I'll pick up an ECM8000 or CM100 and do some measurements to 20k and see what's really going on up there, but for now it's sounding pretty good actually.

[darkbuddha]

Someone asked, so below are pics taken with a flash to make the changes more apparent.














Total treatment consists of 28 individual treatment elements...

front half of room:
two 12x24x30" pink fluffy soffit boxes on top of bookcases
two 6x12x96" SAFB panels between bookcases and side walls
two 11x15x18.5" pink fluffy mini-chunks on inside edges of bookcases
five 4.5x24x48" OC703+SAFB panels to cover front and side first reflection points (FRP)
two 11x48" semi-circular poly diffusors on side walls (between FRP)
one 3x24x48" (with 3.5" gap) SAFB overhead panel (cloud)
three 4.5x24x48 OC703+SAFB straddle panels at wall-ceiling corners (front & sides)

rear half of room:
one 15x18x96 pink fluffly soffit column
one 12x6x48 SAFB soffit half-column
one 11x48" semi-circular poly diffusor
one 6x24x48" OC703+SAFB panel
two 1.5x24x48 OC703 panels
one 3x24x48 SAFB panel
four 3x12x24 OC703 straddle panels at wall-ceiling corners (rear & sides)

[darkbuddha]

BTW, yes, the records on the shelves are arranged in a binary diffusion pattern. And yes, it did make a difference... quite a bit of difference actually.

[darkbuddha]

Boy oh boy... so I finally sat down and totaled the receipts, and it ain't pretty. My original hope was to do it for around $300. Of course, that's before I decided to do speaker stands and before I realized how much damn fabric I'd need (and how much it costs). And now that it's done, I realize I probably could've gotten away with doing a bit less, get most of the same result, and saved a bit $50-$75, but I'd still be over budget. Anyway, here's the breakdown:

Absorbers & diffusors:
$170 - Insulation (combination of OC703, Thermafiber SAFB, and OC pink fluffy stuff)
$143 - Wood & hardware for absorbers and diffusors
$80 - Fabric
$76 - Speaker stands (set of 4):

Total: $469, sub-total for acoustic treatment: $393

Not bad for what I was able to do, but like I said, I think I could've saved more by doing less, especially if I only treated for a stereo (as opposed to quad) setup.

Just thought I'd share for posterity's sake.

[DanDan]

Seems like money spent in the best way to me.
What else could you buy which would improve your listening experience this much?

Enjoy.

DD

[darkbuddha]

True enough... certainly there's no piece of gear of equal quality as my room treatments that could be bought for $469 that would provide such a return on investment, not even a mic.