Speakers came alive

bazee

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Hi folks

this is just a experience i want to share with all of you.
I have my music system in drawing hall consisting of a yam avr and WF floorstanders. The hall is filled with a set of plus sofas.
Last month the sofas were removed for repair. So my hall became empty.
I just put a chair in middle in front of the system and started it. To my shock, the system was performing like on 'steriods'. A bare hall made so much difference.
For music i used to play around -15 volumes , but in the bare room if i crossed -20 or -19 it was enough. The bass was also powerful.
I wonder when we have demo of a system at a dealer it sounds great becos it is given in a bare room,done most probably with acoustic treatement and the system has been of course broken in.
Now my sofas have returned so has the earlier sound. The punch in the system is gone.
I think to get the best of a system you need a proper done up HT room which will probably cost twice the cost of the system.

regards
 
Room acoustics make the biggest impact of how a speaker sounds then comes speakers, power etc.
 
Overstuffed sofas, thick curtains, shelf with books, flower pots are all things which if carefully placed will positively affect the sound . Not the other way around.
A bare room will have too much echo and reflected sound which will raise the decibels. This is called cacophony. Not music.:p
Friend, I think you need to play around with the positioning of the speakers. The Sofa can be your friend ;) I think the sofa is in the way. Is the speaker directly firing into the sofa by any chance ?

Check here to learn placement:
http://www.rivesaudio.com/resources/listening_room/frame.html
 
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In my opinion, more than the room acoustics, the speaker placement and where you sit when listening make a much bigger difference.

When you are sitting in front of the speakers, in all possibility you are in the stereo sweet spot, thereby getting a much better audio quality and sound.

You will be surprised how much of a difference 'toe-ing' the speakers in towards your listening spot makes.

Room acoustics play a big role in damping the sound and taking away unwanted reflections, which in your case the sofas may be doing.
 
Bare room is not good for acoustics as it will lead to lots of reflected sounds. It is not correct that louder sound is essentially good sound....Clarity even at lower levels is what makes a good sound system and good room acoustics are paramount to it.
 
hello friend

a HT room is supposed to be BARE but the walls and ceilings are treated accoustically to handle reflections.
A lots of money goes in the walls,flooring and ceiling of the HT room.
A lot of people on this forum have posted along with pics how they built the HT room.

regards
 
hello friend

a HT room is supposed to be BARE but the walls and ceilings are treated accoustically to handle reflections.
A lots of money goes in the walls,flooring and ceiling of the HT room.
A lot of people on this forum have posted along with pics how they built the HT room.

regards

An HT/Listening room can be bare ONLY if you can treat the room acoustically.
Otherwise you need to have heavy furniture and stuff to compensate. A bare room without acoustic treatment is not an OPTION at all.
BTW: Some of the best music systems in India ( I am talking about 10 lakhs plus systems here) are kept in normal living rooms with no acoustic treatments whatsoever. Only heavy furnishing and carefull placement.
I personally know some such people who hate any acoustic treatments at all. They prefer the normal living room. And their system sounds just Brilliant !
 
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a HT room is supposed to be BARE but the walls and ceilings are treated accoustically to handle reflections. A lots of money goes in the walls,flooring and ceiling of the HT room. A lot of people on this forum have posted along with pics how they built the HT room.

Bazee, a room can never be completely empty. Even a Cinema Hall with all its acoustical treatment has hundreds of chairs and people sitting in it. If you sit alone in a cinema hall it will sound different. If you remove all the chairs and sit alone on the floor it will sound completely different. The chairs and people are part of the calculation for the acoustics of the hall.

Design of audio and HT systems have been done after careful considerations of households items such as sofas, bookcases, tables, chairs, and of course human beings. Room correction systems such as those from Audessey further enhance this system.

Acoustic treatment to a certain extent is recommended for HT system. For a pure audio system, the best is actually bare minimal treatment. This is to stop standing waves of all, but in particular, low frequencies. In music the room is supposed to be alive which in a way will help enhance the sound signature.

A completely dead room is used only in recording studios. This is done to ensure that no ambient noise gets into the recording.

A careful adjustment of your furniture and speaker placement and toeing-in will help you get the best sound possible. Walk around the room as your music is playing. If you hear a better sound in some places, you have standing waves in your room. If you hear low frequencies in some places, you need bass traps. These are not expensive and can be made by a carpenter.

My worry is when you heard the sound come 'alive' in an empty room, were you listening to echoes and reflections which gave you the idea of sound coming 'alive'.

Cheers
 
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