Standing waves


Hello everyone,How detrimental are standing waves in a listing room?
g11657
Well, on the one hand, standing waves cause the largest measurable deviation from an ideal response in sound quality. On the other hand, problems get worse as you go down in frequency so as a result smaller speakers, with higher cut-offs tend to sound better.

If you want your listening room to be close to flat from 16 Hz to 30kHz they must be dealt with.

But this is all general theory. Better question is what is your specific problem and how to deal with it. :)
The first question needing to be answered is the dimensions of the room. Generally, the smaller the room, the worse the standing waves (eigenmodes).
Nevile Thiel (rip) gave me great advice once to counter standing wave problems. To use odd multiples rule.
Position your speakers so the bass driver for best standing wave countering is at 1/3rd of the room length or if this can’t be done 1/5th or 1/7th. Same goes for the width.
Unfortunately floor to ceiling is pot luck.
I have mine which can go down to 20hz -3db at 1/5th length and 1/7th width, and it worked a treat.

Cheers George