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I can prove your room is bad

So you want to upgrade?  You want to know what the next big thing is you can do for a better sounding experience?

Try this.  Pull up a chair 2' in front of your speakers.  If you can't move the speakers, put it up to just 1, and listen for yourself.

The difference between what you hear sitting in front of the speaker like this, and what you hear at your normal location is all in the speaker dispersion and room acoustics. If you feel mesmerized, entranced, and wowed by your speaker at 2' but not 8' you really should consider improving the room, and if you can't, consider getting speakers with alternative room coupling, like ESL's, line arrays, bi-polars, etc.

That is all,


Erik
erik_squires

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,574 posts
 
This method does not demonstrate a need for you to improve the room. You pass.
FWIW, I've used the Classic Audio T-3s in a variety of rooms and I can safely say that in all of them- and without treatment of any kind- the speaker has *always* sounded better at the listening chair than from 2 feet or the like.

The YT link I posted hints at a possible reason why- the speaker's total room energy is such that it will do well regardless of the room. I'm just pointing out that this aspect really needs attention- if as Dr. Toole is saying is true, then a lot of speakers need work in this area, as in many systems I've heard the speaker does sound better close up than further away where the total room energy is more of an influence. Dr. Toole points out that the on axis response might be great, but the room energy being off will cause the system to be less than it could (IOW, cause it to suck).


atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,574 posts
 
Up close, do you hear a better speaker (to you) than you do sitting down.
I don't. My speakers sound a lot better at the listening chair. This is on account of the fact that they are rather large, and the midrange is a horn. You need to be a bit back for everything to blend.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,574 posts
 
My original point was to help audiophiles figure out if the direct speaker signal was making it well enough to their seat, without tools. Your question is, literally and figuratively, orthogonal to my own. ;-)
Actually its spot on. Speakers radiate in three ways- on axis, off axis (whose response should be smooth) and total room energy. The latter is probably the least understood, and is where many speakers fall flat on their front baffles.

For more on this, here is Dr. Floyd Toole, using Science to show how this works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrpUDuUtxPM
The relevant information relating to this topic starts at 23 minutes. Pay attention to the comments about Sound Power. If in a hurry, skip to 31 minutes and you can see that the total energy in the room is the dominant factor but is actually to a large degree a function of the speaker rather than the room!
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