How would you rate your listening room?


I think most people visiting Audiogon are familiar with Stereophile's equipment rating system. So, more or less using that system, how does your main listening room rate as to potential music quality? I've given this some thought, and at 14'W 22'L and 7.5'H, I'd rate my room as "B", mainly because of decent dimensions. With the addition of ASC treatment(s), which I've done, I'd upgrade it to "B+", and if I were to go to good quality monitor speakers (which I won't) with bass to about 40HZ, I could maybe upgrade the room to "A-". My room could never be full class A IMHO because of low ceiling height. I'd like 9 ft. ceilings and a 2-3 more feet of width. Also, as I like good sized near full range speakers (I have Vand. 3Asigs.), I doubt I'd be willing to go to smaller speakers. Have others thought of rating their rooms? Cheers. Craig.
garfish
Njonker, your bass response is not as serious a problem as you think. Although the exact frequencies may differ, nearly all domestic rooms without serious acoustic treatment exhibit the sort of problems you have detailed. A bass trap that would be effective at 50-60Hz will be very large, however, if the problem is particularly annoying, than a more effective solution is to use an outboard equalizer. The dip at 125Hz is probably phase cancellation from the floor reflection. Try placing something that will soak up sound at the "mirror point" between your speaker and the listening position. I use a large fabric foot rest.
I hope Garfish will not mind if I vary from his topic, especially since I posted about my room and plans to improve it. I would like input on speaker choices to build into the space in my walls (during the reconstruction I described) . These would serve exclusively for Dolby 5.1 and beyond, and will only be active when movies are in play. The ideal design would be one of the new surround speakers that measure only 4" or 5" deep. I have space for any depth at the rear of my room, but the sides are limited, due to the construction of the load bearing walls. It has been suggested by some friends in the audio business (NOT speaker companies) to consider the new B&W in wall surround speakers, as well as Vandersteen and Aerial. I looked at all three web sites, and Vandersteen and B&W both fit the need for the side and rear positions, but the Aerial is quite deep, and making it work on the side positions will be almost impossible. Does anyone have suggestions, especially those who may have actually installed and used such a system? I would like to do this right and not look back later and wish I had gone another route. By the way, the current system is Soundlab U-1 for the front, Vandersteen dialogue channel and Fosgate SD 180 Bipolar for sides. There is currently no rear surround speakers. Everything is driven by individual mono tubes amps.
Albert, I think if your going to build a room for audio and video, you might want to look at the future directions you may go. If six channel is of any intrest to you, and SACD or DVDa live up to there potential, it may be only two or three years before you start looking at a state of the art surround system. A few of the new SACD (DMP) that I've gotten are recorded in DSD six channel. The recommendation in the flier talks about the proper set-up of six channels and strongly recommends the same speaker for the five main channels. If that was the case the set-up is rather like a cicle in the middle of your room, and this might have a large impact on how you chose to proceed. Just a thought, good luck. J.D.