Room acoustics for Stereo set up

Imtiyaz Ahmad

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Hi
We all are engaged in sound hobby and go on in investing to build a better set up of our choice and give least attention towards room acoustics.I request the forum members to share their experiences for better treating room acoustics at an affordable prices.
 
I request you to read through so many threads that have been started by our forum members on their own treatment and experience of room acoustics, instead of starting another one. It will be beneficial to you. The search button is your buddy here!
 
Hi
We all are engaged in sound hobby and go on in investing to build a better set up of our choice and give least attention towards room acoustics.I request the forum members to share their experiences for better treating room acoustics at an affordable prices.
Read about this method on diyAudio. idea is to listen moderately close to speakers. Multiple advantages to it. you can listen to low power class A amp. As powerful class A amps are costly. You almost mitigate reflections due to Low volume levels. (But not 100%) There are free simulation website/software for studying reflections on internet where you can place speaker, room dimension, furniture etc. and it will show visual display of room reflections.
Regards.
 
Because every room and associated gear, especially speakers, room treatment is not a fixed thing. The shape and size of the room plays a major role in it. Speaker response is another one, given how the frequencies behave in that particular room. Sure, standard recommendations of diffusers/ absorbers and bass traps are there for one to experiment it with. But one needs to deploy it and experience it for themselves to see if it works for them. Everything in the room will also affect how the over all performance is, and in the end even a scientifically measured and treated room might not be what bakes your cookies. Experiment, experiment and experiment more if you don't like it.
some YouTube references down here. No guarantees it will work for you.
Tons other available online.
 
Imtiyaz please do not call sir. We are all friends here. It has been years I checked those softwares/info during my hyper internet browsing days. I dont remember exact names. Will search and post. Yeh pura samandar hai yaar. Internet is big ocean of knowledge, enough to get confused. So aim for few basic things/requirements. They do give rough idea about room interactions. which you can tune. Links posted by tuff of Ethan Winer are very good he is a pro and veteran. all this needs dedicated music room or family approval :p:).
regards
 
Hi,
A quick search I got following online app. Treat this as rudimentary step in your speaker placement. kind of like 'set the ball rolling'. There are other tools in the same app at top in 'tools' menu. Room modes etc. You will have to arrange furniture by drawing and as per given measurements.
https://amcoustics.com/tools/amray
This is not be it all software. But you get basic idea. There must also be some other paid software.
Regards
 
Read about this method on diyAudio. idea is to listen moderately close to speakers. Multiple advantages to it. you can listen to low power class A amp. As powerful class A amps are costly. You almost mitigate reflections due to Low volume levels. (But not 100%) There are free simulation website/software for studying reflections on internet where you can place speaker, room dimension, furniture etc. and it will show visual display of room reflections.
Regards.
For nearfield listening with speakers 4 ft apart, what levels would you classify as low, 65dbA/70-80dBA/80dBA+? I like listening at low volumes mainly to protect hearing and it also helps in reducing side wall reflections. I would like to know which could be an ideal level assuming room is very quiet [~40dBA background noise]. I can get decent sound quality around 70dBA in my set up. Thanks.
 
For nearfield listening with speakers 4 ft apart, what levels would you classify as low, 65dbA/70-80dBA/80dBA+? I like listening at low volumes mainly to protect hearing and it also helps in reducing side wall reflections. I would like to know which could be an ideal level assuming room is very quiet [~40dBA background noise]. I can get decent sound quality around 70dBA in my set up. Thanks.
ideals level can be anything with what you are comfortable with. If at long distance your amplifier can give sufficient levels I find no reason that at near field listening it will not. So it depends on you how high or low you want to listen at nearfield.
 
A personal experience of a bare minimum room treatment for stereo, No matter whatever setup you own, try covering the front wall (Behind the speakers) and side walls of the room with acoustical foams which is cost effective though. Yes, I have referred to the first reflecting points of the room.

That's all it is. You will be amazed by the sound once you install them. Then later you can cover the rear and ceiling depends on your budget.

I have never done a software related room treatments, pardon my ignorance.
 
ideals level can be anything with what you are comfortable with. If at long distance your amplifier can give sufficient levels I find no reason that at near field listening it will not. So it depends on you how high or low you want to listen at nearfield.
My apologies for the ambiguity in my query. What I meant was, what is the threshold level at listening position in a nearfield set up beyond which room reflections will start making an impact. I currently use the lead vocals as a cue to the right volume for a track. If I feel that the volume at which the lead singer is singing is realistic at that distance, I don't increase volume beyond that point. On measurement [may not be accurate though, since it's through iphone app] I find that average levels hover around 75-80dB when listening this way and impact of reflection is also less. Do you consider this a right approach? Also at these levels wouldn't most budget A/B amplifiers be operating as Class A?
 
My apologies for the ambiguity in my query. What I meant was, what is the threshold level at listening position in a nearfield set up beyond which room reflections will start making an impact.
if one is listening nearfield why to increase volume and see room reflections are making an impact. As I think idea is to make room reflection make less impact not more. And wouldn't 'threshhold' be different for different person, amplifier, speaker and room ?
If I feel that the volume at which the lead singer is singing is realistic at that distance, I don't increase volume beyond that point. On measurement [may not be accurate though, since it's through iphone app] I find that average levels hover around 75-80dB when listening this way and impact of reflection is also less. Do you consider this a right approach?
If you feel that impact of reflection is less at that level wouldn't that be good.
Also at these levels wouldn't most budget A/B amplifiers be operating as Class A?
How can we tell when amplifier leaves class A and in to Class B without knowing amplifier design*, speakers used and at what volume ? Thats why I said Class A Amplifier in post #3. For example Pass AmpCamp Amp 5w amplifier. which is low power compared to Aleph J Amplifier.
*by the way I hardly understand circuit design. If you want you can post your amplifier model, at what volume you are listening (There is one thread on diyAudio where you can find how much amp power you are using ) and experts will calculate for you if level you are listening is 'remaining' in Classs A.
 
Hi
We all are engaged in sound hobby and go on in investing to build a better set up of our choice and give least attention towards room acoustics.I request the forum members to share their experiences for better treating room acoustics at an affordable prices.
Hai na hfv pe. In excruciating detail.

The tl;Dr rooms suck. Add treatment. Buy mic. Attempt to redo treatment. Buy magnepan. Augment electronics.

Ciao
GR
 
Go for constant directivity based designs, they dont need room treatments since the room is used as an advantage in such designs
 
Go for constant directivity based designs, they dont need room treatments since the room is used as an advantage in such designs

Hi,

Can you please give some more idea about constant directivity speakers? I dont see many speaker manufacturer giving any details about it in specs.
I heard about it from a friend who has an excellent setup.

Thanks
 
A constant directivity design is one where the on-axis and off-axis spectral balance is maintained. Most of the speakers, even high end ones leave this so important factor out and instead focus on aesthetics. Its easier to sell speaker that look good with average performance than speaker that perform very good with average looks. Good aesthetics and good sound dont go well and the fact that sound cannot be seen, aesthetics take precedence. :(

So what does spectral balance of on-axis and off-axis mean. The goal of reproducing music is to fool the ear brain system. We hear on-axis sound directly and off-axis sound after reflections. Both ARE important. The on-axis sound comes directly, followed by the reflected sound. They should have atleast 10ms of inter arrival time. If they occur withing this window then our ear-brain merges them together, if its outside the window then it adds to spaciousness which is what we need. People try to suppress reflections but that removes the sense of spaciousness and makes the room more like an anechoic chamber. Too much reflections takes the clarity away from the sound. The right amount of reflections can be had by having a speaker that has off-axis sound same BUT reduced in SPL as compared to on-axis sound. Only constant narrow directivity speaker can do it, irrespective of drivers or crossover used.

Now toe-in the speaker, as one moves from left to right the left speaker sound increases due to toe-in and the right speaker sound increases due to toe in AND the spectral balance is maintained while the listener does so. Such a speaker strongly maintains the central phantom image when the material is mono or provides strong imaging when material is panned. Toeing-in regular speaker ie TM based designs is a futile exercise.

Lets look at dipoles, its a way of achieving constant directivity, it has figure 8 radiation pattern, in the bandwidth that it is used in, it produces same sound both forward or reverse, when we move to left or right the sound spectral balance is same, only the SPL changes. This is the biggest factor of sound being improved with them. Ppl think its because of boxless design but thats not the case. A wide dipole baffle broadens the directivity which is why a wider baffle should not be used with a dipole, it just defeats the purpose. Linkwitz made the lx521 with slim baffles.

Lets look at sealed designs, a 12" waveguide mated to a 12" midbass (xover at 1Khz) is what makes a good constant directivity design. Look at Earl Geddes's speaker Abbey (now defunct). He has much more content at his website, worth a read. Econowaves are also very very good at a slightly compromised vertical performance.
 
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