I posted this thread at hometheatershack.com, but I almost expect better answers here at HBT. My home theater equipment, by their standards, is almost the equivalent of BMC, so I'm betting on a lot of "upgrade your stuff" answers, along with "remodel your room." I don't want to upgrade my equipment or tackle a big remodel job. This setup wasn't cheap, even if the audiophiles disagree. Anyway, for those who have experience with this sort of thing, how would you attack this one?
Here is my A/V equipment:
Epson 3010e Projector
Yamaha RX-V671 Receiver
Sony SS-F6000 Front Speakers
Polk CS-20 Center Speaker
Sony SS-B3000 Surround/Rear Surround Speakers
2 BIC F12 Subwoofers
2 Buttkicker LFE Transducers w/1kW amp
FBQ2496 Parametric EQ
(no room treatment...yet)
I'm measuring using a self-calibrated Soundblaster Live! USB card (loopback in place), Xenyx 802, and ECM 8000 with the stock REW cal file.
In my quest to create the ultimate man cave, I've had to make some compromises. The homebrew (beer) equipment on the left side of the room stays. I know it may contribute some ringing and is acoustically poor. The fridge on the right stays - despite the fact that it creates two more tall corners. The tile border is permanent - designed by the previous owner for a pool table - not in the budget to replace it.
So, I have an acoustic nightmare on my hands. There is a room mode (correct terminology, I think) at 45Hz and all of its harmonics (I think). There are significant multi-frequency nulls all over my desired listening position(s). No amount of sub placement experimentation fixed those (bass crawl, test tones, measurement, etc). I tried the recommended mid wall, two corner, stacked, and front wall placements for my two BIC F12s. I also tried each sub individually, as well as phase adjustments. The best results (both heard and measured) were from the present configuration (front wall, under the mains), with both phase switches set to 0. I'll include a graph of my right seat listening position, as the nulls seem most pronounced in that location with all sub placement options. If I could fix those deep troughs and ringing, I think I'd have a decent house curve on my hands.
The overall room dimensions are 23' wide x 21' deep, with an 8.5' flat ceiling. On the right side, there are 3 doors, one covered by the blackout curtain seen in the picture. In the back right, there is a 6'x6' alcove for the entry door from the house. In the back left, there is a 6'x3' alcove for the bar/closet area. The speakers are laid out symmetrically, with the surrounds hanging from a lateral 16" mid-wall beam, and the rears on top of wall cabinets over the bar.
My overarching question is: How would you treat this room? I have roughly 10" of space behind the screen, and I can treat at least three vertical corners from the floor to ceiling (front left, front right, rear right). I assume I probably want to put some foam in the space over the wall cabinets and against that mid-wall beam. In the interest of budget constraints, I'd like to use Roxul Safe and Sound. I can buy 12 packs of 3.5" thick sheets from Lowe's for around $40. Two thicknesses of that should be effective...I think(?).
On to the pics and graphs - in addition to the ugly room mode(s), I have a spike at 50-60Hz, and another at 95. The room seems to resonate badly between 50-70Hz. I tried both subs individually and both 0 and 180 phase settings. The 0 phase setting seemed best, so that is what I'm including in this post. Individually, the subs had very similar response curves to the one measured with both, so I know they're not canceling one another.
Room front:
Room left rear:
Room right rear:
Both subs, no EQ:
Waterfall, both subs no EQ:
Both subs, 3 parametric filters active in an effort to reduce the 50-60 and 95Hz spikes:
Waterfall for both subs with the 3 EQ filters active:
7.2 channels, no EQ:
7.2 channels, same 3 EQ filters:
7.2 channels, EQd, measured from the right seat (the worst in the house):
Here is my A/V equipment:
Epson 3010e Projector
Yamaha RX-V671 Receiver
Sony SS-F6000 Front Speakers
Polk CS-20 Center Speaker
Sony SS-B3000 Surround/Rear Surround Speakers
2 BIC F12 Subwoofers
2 Buttkicker LFE Transducers w/1kW amp
FBQ2496 Parametric EQ
(no room treatment...yet)
I'm measuring using a self-calibrated Soundblaster Live! USB card (loopback in place), Xenyx 802, and ECM 8000 with the stock REW cal file.
In my quest to create the ultimate man cave, I've had to make some compromises. The homebrew (beer) equipment on the left side of the room stays. I know it may contribute some ringing and is acoustically poor. The fridge on the right stays - despite the fact that it creates two more tall corners. The tile border is permanent - designed by the previous owner for a pool table - not in the budget to replace it.
So, I have an acoustic nightmare on my hands. There is a room mode (correct terminology, I think) at 45Hz and all of its harmonics (I think). There are significant multi-frequency nulls all over my desired listening position(s). No amount of sub placement experimentation fixed those (bass crawl, test tones, measurement, etc). I tried the recommended mid wall, two corner, stacked, and front wall placements for my two BIC F12s. I also tried each sub individually, as well as phase adjustments. The best results (both heard and measured) were from the present configuration (front wall, under the mains), with both phase switches set to 0. I'll include a graph of my right seat listening position, as the nulls seem most pronounced in that location with all sub placement options. If I could fix those deep troughs and ringing, I think I'd have a decent house curve on my hands.
The overall room dimensions are 23' wide x 21' deep, with an 8.5' flat ceiling. On the right side, there are 3 doors, one covered by the blackout curtain seen in the picture. In the back right, there is a 6'x6' alcove for the entry door from the house. In the back left, there is a 6'x3' alcove for the bar/closet area. The speakers are laid out symmetrically, with the surrounds hanging from a lateral 16" mid-wall beam, and the rears on top of wall cabinets over the bar.
My overarching question is: How would you treat this room? I have roughly 10" of space behind the screen, and I can treat at least three vertical corners from the floor to ceiling (front left, front right, rear right). I assume I probably want to put some foam in the space over the wall cabinets and against that mid-wall beam. In the interest of budget constraints, I'd like to use Roxul Safe and Sound. I can buy 12 packs of 3.5" thick sheets from Lowe's for around $40. Two thicknesses of that should be effective...I think(?).
On to the pics and graphs - in addition to the ugly room mode(s), I have a spike at 50-60Hz, and another at 95. The room seems to resonate badly between 50-70Hz. I tried both subs individually and both 0 and 180 phase settings. The 0 phase setting seemed best, so that is what I'm including in this post. Individually, the subs had very similar response curves to the one measured with both, so I know they're not canceling one another.
Room front:
Room left rear:
Room right rear:
Both subs, no EQ:
Waterfall, both subs no EQ:
Both subs, 3 parametric filters active in an effort to reduce the 50-60 and 95Hz spikes:
Waterfall for both subs with the 3 EQ filters active:
7.2 channels, no EQ:
7.2 channels, same 3 EQ filters:
7.2 channels, EQd, measured from the right seat (the worst in the house):
