We plan to move to a new house soon. It is a rental, so we have to live with the space pretty much as is. It is obviously not an optimal “listening room” but I wanted to ask what kinds of room treatments I should consider (there will be a carpet in the listening triangle).
My current setup is 803Ds as fronts with Vincent SP-995 monoblock amps driving them. For 2 channel music, I have the SA-93+ Preamp and CD-5 CD player (also both from Vincent). For HT, I have a Denon 2809 receiver connected via pre-out to the Vincent monoblocks & 803Ds and driving the (to be replaced) Polk center and surrounds. I plan to get an HTM2D center and a third Vincent SP-995 to have matching speakers and amplification across the front and to get a pair of SCMS’ for the surrounds for a 5 channel setup (the SCMS will continue to be driven by the Denon for now). I have never used a subwoofer, but may add one as well, though the 803Ds bass is pretty strong already. Here is a diagram of the planned speaker placement:
Below is a diagram of the room with dimensions. The surfaces are as follows: floor – hardwood parquet laid on concrete, most walls & ceiling - plaster covered brick, long wall – drywall (I think) with 5cm of sound insulation between drywall and brick structural wall (shared with attached house next door).
I would guess that the drywall + sound insulation wall will absorb some LF waves (according to the Crutchfield Room Acoustics guide), but that otherwise the plaster on brick walls/ceiling and wood floor on concrete will be mainly reflective. I used the axial room resonance mode formulas from Crutchfield to put together the following table.
One obvious limitation is that the listening area is located at one end of a very long room, and by virtue of the window placement (can’t put widescreen TV in front of a window), the orientation of the front speakers is “across” the room rather than lengthwise. Another odd feature of the room is that the opening (no door) from the living room to the dining room is directly across from the wall where the fronts and center speakers will be (and almost directly behind the listening location). Because the room is relatively narrow (12.6 feet) and there has to be space to walk behind the couch, I will not have too much flexibility in the placement of the 803Ds – they are going to have to be relatively close to the wall behind them. In our current place, I have the 803Ds only 9 inches from the wall which I think is cramping their style a bit and making the bass a little more boomy than it should be. Here is the room resonance table for our current living room (19x21.5 feet with 11 foot ceilings), which might explain some of the boominess of the bass.
In our new place, the surrounds will be wall mounted – one on the rear wall (from the listening perspective) in a little corner and nestled into a bookshelf and one mounted on the rear wall.
I won’t be able to actually setup and listen to my system in the space until August, but I was wondering if the gurus in this forum could share their thoughts on any room treatments that I should definitely plan on (other than the obvious carpet between the couch and the speakers). Any other thoughts on speaker placement? How critical is the spacing from the wall behind the 803Ds (I’ll need to strike a balance between sound quality, space usability, and “bumping-into risk” with small kids around). Will the window or the opening in the “rear” wall have significant impact on the sound?
Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice!
My current setup is 803Ds as fronts with Vincent SP-995 monoblock amps driving them. For 2 channel music, I have the SA-93+ Preamp and CD-5 CD player (also both from Vincent). For HT, I have a Denon 2809 receiver connected via pre-out to the Vincent monoblocks & 803Ds and driving the (to be replaced) Polk center and surrounds. I plan to get an HTM2D center and a third Vincent SP-995 to have matching speakers and amplification across the front and to get a pair of SCMS’ for the surrounds for a 5 channel setup (the SCMS will continue to be driven by the Denon for now). I have never used a subwoofer, but may add one as well, though the 803Ds bass is pretty strong already. Here is a diagram of the planned speaker placement:
Below is a diagram of the room with dimensions. The surfaces are as follows: floor – hardwood parquet laid on concrete, most walls & ceiling - plaster covered brick, long wall – drywall (I think) with 5cm of sound insulation between drywall and brick structural wall (shared with attached house next door).
I would guess that the drywall + sound insulation wall will absorb some LF waves (according to the Crutchfield Room Acoustics guide), but that otherwise the plaster on brick walls/ceiling and wood floor on concrete will be mainly reflective. I used the axial room resonance mode formulas from Crutchfield to put together the following table.
One obvious limitation is that the listening area is located at one end of a very long room, and by virtue of the window placement (can’t put widescreen TV in front of a window), the orientation of the front speakers is “across” the room rather than lengthwise. Another odd feature of the room is that the opening (no door) from the living room to the dining room is directly across from the wall where the fronts and center speakers will be (and almost directly behind the listening location). Because the room is relatively narrow (12.6 feet) and there has to be space to walk behind the couch, I will not have too much flexibility in the placement of the 803Ds – they are going to have to be relatively close to the wall behind them. In our current place, I have the 803Ds only 9 inches from the wall which I think is cramping their style a bit and making the bass a little more boomy than it should be. Here is the room resonance table for our current living room (19x21.5 feet with 11 foot ceilings), which might explain some of the boominess of the bass.
In our new place, the surrounds will be wall mounted – one on the rear wall (from the listening perspective) in a little corner and nestled into a bookshelf and one mounted on the rear wall.
I won’t be able to actually setup and listen to my system in the space until August, but I was wondering if the gurus in this forum could share their thoughts on any room treatments that I should definitely plan on (other than the obvious carpet between the couch and the speakers). Any other thoughts on speaker placement? How critical is the spacing from the wall behind the 803Ds (I’ll need to strike a balance between sound quality, space usability, and “bumping-into risk” with small kids around). Will the window or the opening in the “rear” wall have significant impact on the sound?
Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice!
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