HydrogenAudio

Hydrogenaudio Forum => General Audio => Topic started by: Paul_ 2012 on 2013-01-31 22:59:17

Title: listening room
Post by: Paul_ 2012 on 2013-01-31 22:59:17
Hi, in a few months, if I ever finish, I may have a dedicated listening room. I'm fitting out the loft space. In consideration to my partner, immediate neighbours on one side and budget there are a some aspects of construction and finish that are non-negotiable. The space will be approx 2000 cu ft and shaped like an old fashioned tent with a ridge pole and drop sides. All surfaces except the floor will be plasterboard and floor will probably be carpet over hardwood, although I may be able to fit some sort of low budget floating timber floor. There will be varying degrees of insulation behind the plasterboard, R4 in the overhead areas, mainly for heat exclusion. Having read a lot of the previous conversations on the subject of acoustics I will follow as many ideas as practicable, probably the more straight forward ones such as plugging the gaps etc. As I will be able to make some of my own base traps and similar items, I'm looking for a simple plan I can follow when the room is ready for occupation and have found starting positions for the speakers (2) and the couch.
Your thoughts on this will be appreciated.

Although a large part of the technical agenda is beyond my expertise I would like thank all those at HO that freely share their expertise and time.

Paul
Title: listening room
Post by: RayGarrison on 2013-02-01 03:19:28
... As I will be able to make some of my own base traps and similar items, I'm looking for a simple plan I can follow when the room is ready for occupation and have found starting positions for the speakers (2) and the couch...


Hi Paul.  Just my quick two cents... having had lots of different systems in lots of different rooms for lots of different years (being an old guy and all) one thing I'd suggest is spend as much time as you can (before you get too itchy to try something that you just can't wait any longer) *LISTENING* to the system in the new room before you start changing anything.  Whether you wind up using diffusers, traps, absorbers, reflectors or magic beans, if you don't have a really, really solid idea of how the system sounds before you start changing it, you're not going to be sure whether whatever you do is a good thing or a bad thing.  Also, though it sounds like you already know this, don't overlook the fact that moving the speakers a bit this way and that, and changing their toe-in angle and such can have a really significant impact on the sound - more so with some speakers, less with others, depending upon their design, of course.

Uh, question for you... that ceiling.  Is it a steeply pitched "tent top" (makes an acute angle at the top) or shallowly pitched, and how high are the side walls where they meet the lower edge of the ceiling?
Title: listening room
Post by: Paul_ 2012 on 2013-02-01 04:09:01
... As I will be able to make some of my own base traps and similar items, I'm looking for a simple plan I can follow when the room is ready for occupation and have found starting positions for the speakers (2) and the couch...


Hi Paul.  Just my quick two cents... having had lots of different systems in lots of different rooms for lots of different years (being an old guy and all) one thing I'd suggest is spend as much time as you can (before you get too itchy to try something that you just can't wait any longer) *LISTENING* to the system in the new room before you start changing anything.  Whether you wind up using diffusers, traps, absorbers, reflectors or magic beans, if you don't have a really, really solid idea of how the system sounds before you start changing it, you're not going to be sure whether whatever you do is a good thing or a bad thing.  Also, though it sounds like you already know this, don't overlook the fact that moving the speakers a bit this way and that, and changing their toe-in angle and such can have a really significant impact on the sound - more so with some speakers, less with others, depending upon their design, of course.

Uh, question for you... that ceiling.  Is it a steeply pitched "tent top" (makes an acute angle at the top) or shallowly pitched, and how high are the side walls where they meet the lower edge of the ceiling?


Thanks fro your reply, the ceiling goes to a sharp angle, and as I'm at work at the moment I will reply armed with measurements rather than guesses tomorrow or tonight when I get home. I'm in Australia so there may be a bit of time lag to deal with, thanks Paul
Title: listening room
Post by: Arnold B. Krueger on 2013-02-01 13:35:35
Hi, in a few months, if I ever finish, I may have a dedicated listening room. I'm fitting out the loft space. In consideration to my partner, immediate neighbours on one side and budget there are a some aspects of construction and finish that are non-negotiable. The space will be approx 2000 cu ft and shaped like an old fashioned tent with a ridge pole and drop sides. All surfaces except the floor will be plasterboard and floor will probably be carpet over hardwood, although I may be able to fit some sort of low budget floating timber floor. There will be varying degrees of insulation behind the plasterboard, R4 in the overhead areas, mainly for heat exclusion. Having read a lot of the previous conversations on the subject of acoustics I will follow as many ideas as practicable, probably the more straight forward ones such as plugging the gaps etc. As I will be able to make some of my own base traps and similar items, I'm looking for a simple plan I can follow when the room is ready for occupation and have found starting positions for the speakers (2) and the couch.
Your thoughts on this will be appreciated.

Although a large part of the technical agenda is beyond my expertise I would like thank all those at HO that freely share their expertise and time.


Sooner or later Ethan will buzz by again and probably mention something about this RealTraps web business, which as is his style gives away a lot of good free information about room acoustics in addition to selling a prefab room treatment products.

Another buzzword in this context is Room Eq Wizard or REW, which is one of the best freeware room acoustics tools around.

Google is your friend!
Title: listening room
Post by: Ethan Winer on 2013-02-01 19:40:21
I'm looking for a simple plan I can follow when the room is ready for occupation and have found starting positions for the speakers (2) and the couch.

This will get you started:

How to set up a room (http://www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm)
Acoustic Basics (http://www.realtraps.com/art_basics.htm)

--Ethan
Title: listening room
Post by: Paul_ 2012 on 2013-02-01 22:08:34
Thanks for all the info. If it helps the room dimensions are approx
Floor area 21 x 15ft
Ceiling ht at apex 10ft (apex is 120 degrees)
On one side of the sloping ceiling is 10ft long and then drops vertically by 5ft and the other side slope is 14ft long and then drops vertically by 2.6ft
The volume is approx 2100 cu ft

I'll just add that I'm based in Sydney so there may be a time lag in responses

Paul