Need help with old system in new room . . .

[NMG]

Hi everyone,

Like the title says, I recently moved into a new home and took my old system with me. System consists of Rotel RB-1080 (for the fronts), Rotel RSX-1056, B&W 703's up front, B&W HTM7 center and B&W DS6 surrounds. Sub duties are from a Paradigm Reference Sub 12 which needs a minor repair before it can get back into action . . . PW-2200 handling duties in the interim, LOL.

Anyway, in my old room I would have described my system as "effortless". I had great balanced sound and I didn't have to get into the volume much at all. Going into the 60's on my RSX-1056 was very unusual and it was LOUD. This room was shaped sort of weird and was about 12x24 with an adjoining hallway. This was a main floor room as well so not in the basement.

The new room is much smaller and is roughly a 12x15 square with an adjoining staircase. It is in the basement. I have some issues with bass response that I've managed to get a decent handle on by moving the sub and listening position around (sound treatments are in the future), but my main concern is the way I have to push the volume on the 1056 to get similar volumes to my old room. I was listening a minute ago and had the 1056 on 65 and it sounded very good, but probably about as loud as what mid 50's would have given in my old room I think. Obviously this is a but subjective, but I do know that the new room requires a much higher volume setting for similar output than the old room.

The ONLY thing that has changed (other than the room obviously) is my speaker wire. I had to get new wire when I moved and I hate to say it (since I didn't buy into there being THAT much difference in wire), but I just bought some generic copper speaker wire to make my runs. It's nothing fancy, but mind you, neither was the brand name wire I was using before. Still pretty "entry level" stuff for the most part. Is it possible that the wire is the culprit for needing to crank the volume so much? Could it possibly have that much more resistance than the old stuff?

I don't think anything is going to get damaged, but I would rather run my amps at a lower setting if possible. I didn't think going to a smaller room would require the volume to be cranked more, I actually expected the opposite.

Any thoughts as to what may be going on here?

Thanks in advance for any ideas you can share!

[dyazdani]

What is in your new room in terms of furniture, wall coverings, etc? I would put in some items to break up the sound and see if you can find anything in the way of room treatment on the quick. I've seen similar issues in the past where people move and put a system in a relatively empty room. Seems as though you have to turn up the volume, but I feel it is due to reflections interfering with the clarity of the sound rather than the SPL itself.

[NMG]

Hi dyazdani,

Basically I have a medium sized couch, all of my gear, a few pictures on the wall, and a computer desk and computer. I wouldn't really consider it "empty" in those regards. The room is also fully carpeted.

It could very well be reflections like you describe. I also know that when I was getting my sub setup, there were some rather extreme differences in response depending on where I was, so yeah, I think acoustics are an issue. Quite possible that those are playing a bigger role in the perceived sounds than the SPL alone.

I did talk to a local dealer briefly about room treatments and I'm going to take some better measurements and try some stuff out to try and get the reflection points taken care of and also get some bass traps. I've never really used room treatments before (mainly because I had great sounding rooms), but I think I need to try some here just to try and get things back to how I know my system can perform. I know the room can play a huge role so I'm eager to see how I can work on some of those issues.

Thanks for your feedback and if you have any other thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

[dyazdani]

Everything you have in your room though (except the couch) is hard, so it is going to reflect the sound. Carpet helps, but since everything else is a hard surface, you'll still get a lot of issues.

The best you can do for now is to experiment with speaker and listening position placement. Maybe you can get some softer objects in the room and see what happens.

[NMG]

Just wanted to post a quick update. I ended up adding some acoustic panels to my room and WOW, what a difference!

The best way I can describe it is that there is life back in my music. I didn't quite realize how flat everything was sounding before, but the depth is back and everything is so much more tactile. I honestly didn't think that there would be that much of a difference, but it was well worth it.

I added panels on the side walls at the first reflection point and then on the back wall behind my seating position, so nothing too crazy. That said, it was a significant improvement and while it seems like such an obvious thing now, it's amazing how much of an afterthought it was prior to me going down this road.

I'm sold on the benefits of treating the room and I'm sure I could improve it even more if I wanted to.

[dyazdani]

Glad you made some progress! It's hard to understand unless you've been through it before. You can add little by little and see where you want to stop.

[NMG]

Yeah for sure. Right now it's pretty sweet so I don't see the need for more treatments at this time