small room questions


i will soon have a dedicated room for my audio and was wondering if it is possible to get good sound in a 10'x 11' room. i currently have a set of sonus faber toy monitors on stands and a rel t2 sub. the room will be completely bare other then a chair, audio rack, and audio equipment. i have about $600 i can spend on treatments. i have read about setting the speakers diagonally in the room to help cancel room nodes, but dont really know where you would put the sub. anybody been able to tackle a small room with success??
rayray8
You can get sound from this room. Put your chair about two feet from the rear wall. Speakers about 2-3 feet out from the back wall and corners. IF possible bub in the middle, second choice right or left side wall 4 feet out from back two 1/2 from corner. Check out ASC for tube traps panels etc... Set your equipment up first. Listen for standing bass waves or boomyness. Most listeners listen to a sun=b WAY TOO LOUD.Cross over at 80HS is a safe bet for your speakers. Small rooms can be great sounding spots. If you have little or no windows even better. Cover windows with HEAVY DRAPES. Tube traps in upper and lower corners is where I would start/ Then a tube trap behind both speakers. Thirdly a sound absorption panel directly behind your speakers. What type of floor. If you have non carpet floor put a rug in front of speakers it shouls come at least to the listening chair. Leave walls behind you LIVE no panels. Room treatments to many are a black art, but to me it is more important than the equipment
Diagonal is perfect. Locate the Sub in the corner, facing the corner, and it will blend with monitor speakers up high.
If you're treating the reflection points, don't forget to do the ceiling with absorption or diffusion.
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near-field listening works best in small rooms, like yours. Play with the treatments till best sound is achieved. To expand the sound stage think about a center speaker, identical to the speakers you already have.
My room is 12 x 14 and I've had it set-up every way possible, finally settling on diagonal. Best performance my system has ever given me. Front speakers are a couple of feet out from walls, and probably 4-5 feet from the front corner, which allows for a very deep and resolved soundstage, with loveseat a couple of feet from the back corner. Only downside is a slightly narrow soundstage due to limitations of speaker positioning because of furnishings.

Give it a try. I think you may be surprised how well it can work.
atsacoustics.com has the most cost effective acoustic panels I've seen (apart from DIY, which they can also supply materials for). Their standard panels have a wood backing, but they also sell them without the wood backing for the best absorption in a corner.

My office is about exactly that size. But it’s full of racks, gear, computers, Desk, file cabinets… yeah. There’s scant little room for walking around. I use two 40 in tall 3 way towers. No sub. They’re my desktop speakers. Sitting on either side of my corner desk. They’re like huge head phones but without the heat and pressure headphones can provide.. they used to be in each diagonal corner… but things had to change. I’ll be moving them back to the BR HT system soon though.

Near field listening is an under statement, in that room. Your’s will be much better.

I don’t see 10 x 11 as a real problem. IF you keep everything on par with the system. I’m assuming the 11ft is the length… 10ft the width. Seems just right for small monitors & a sub. Lateral spacing ought to be fine, off the wall distance though looks to be a tad more limited, given the distance off the wall behind yourself the LP will wind up being.

The ‘big deal’ IMO is going to be reflections primarily. Front & side walls first. Upper corners of the room too. Tons of ways to address it/them. Hanging up Rug runners on the wall behind the speakers, and diffusion at first reflection points on the side walls will be big helps… addressing the upper corners will help that slap echo a lot. Dropping a set of 18 x 48 x 2-4 DIY fiberglass panels set diagonally on each corner should be all you need… if more is desired place one 24x48x2 panel on the wall behind your head centered on the wall and your ear height.

U might even want to go with narrower panels… like 12 in. vs 18.

Inl lieu of some of the corner treatments, you could put plants in there. Hanging, on stands, or in thin wicker baskets … just so the waves are broken up. In fact I prefer a room to be a tick more lively than dead, and not look studioish like.

So simply add what u can when U can as you go… here or there… it should be fun… Good luck.
RayRay8- many good suggestions here. Let me add one: research near-field listening setups. In my experience, makes all the difference in a small room.

Enjoy the music!
i am thinking of using 2"acoustic panels behind each speaker, first reflection points, and behind where i sit. plus 4" panels in each corner. total of 10 acoustic panels. any suggestions?
You can get awesome sound in a small room. I would keep the sub out til you get a reference. I know its hard to not use gear you paid for but you really should listen without it first. Play around with speaker poasitioning ALOT when (if) you bring the sub in, make sure it makes a real, seemless improvement.
Googling suboofer placement has a number of good sites.But always try to keep the crossover higher and the volume lower and move from their after long listening.People always want more but often less is moire.Might want to add Velodyne SCS-1 eq to smooth it out.If it's a real hard room it's counter intuitive but then putting some Sonex or even a nice rub behind the speakers on back wall can help (drapes other carpet if it's hard "live room").Sonex can real do a good job but it and other tiles are so pricey for what they are (friends used to just use the old 24 egg crates they get from supermarket for thier band practice rooms).For any room unless it's covered in shag carpet (like a Austin Powers "Shag Pad") can benefit from strip on sidewalls to stop standing wave "smearing" of tail end of note.Bob Harley in his "Complete Book To High End Audio" had a good suggestion.Get some roll out mirror mylar and put to sides of couch.Then hold lamp in your lap and where light hits mylar sound is just like a light wave and will hit in same place.A few feet of absorbent material will give sound focus.Other people like ASC tube traps or make their own.Others like the Michael Green triangle "pillows" (small) to put in ceiling corners.But given what a lot of this stuff costs look into DIY sites (Audioholics is good place)

All that said I have small room and 1)you can only produce so much bass in said room but the combo you have sounds right (20 Hrz. wave is close to 57 feet wide).My main thing with your room and mine is getting fare enough off back wall and placing speakers for good coupling and getting good imaging.Good you don't have other stuff in their but don't go nuts.Not much of this is helpful i.e. do this but if you have larger space you get to place spread and side walls distance and space to wall and seating the way you want but at some point those fine "Toys" would get swallowed up if too large.I did the Carpet behind (others make frame and put in odd foam) and treated sidewalls) but I know I'd rather large room and use panels or tube traps to tune it but have to work with what we have.Maybe grab a copy of the Harley book.
Let us know what you do and what works and doesn't
Cheers
Chazz
I use a room exactly the same size (and you will need to kill some reflections, for sure). It is NOT great but, at least, I have music. And, I'd suggest, that's all that matters. WAY too much analyzing going on by audiophiles. Just try to dig the music. After all, isn't Satisfaction and Revolution amazing music even in your car? By the way, I have not tried "diagonal".