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the Listening Room

Many of you may know us, we design listening rooms. While we offer fixed prices for different levels of consultation, no two listening rooms are the same and some vary wildly. I am interested in hearing what you all want to get out of your listening room. I have my own biased opinion, that the listening room is often the most important component of any system (and unfortunately frequently ignored to a large degree). Let's suppose that you could get an acoustical engineering group like ours for free, but you still had all other constraints. You could a great deal on materials to impliment the design but you still had whatever other considerations you have in your life (I don't have space for a dedicated listening room, I can't have ugly acoustical treatement in the room, I can't move walls in my house). Try to be qualitative rather than quantitative. I'm not really that interested in hearing about the specifics of rooms--I'm more interested in hearing about end result goals, such as: I need sound isolation (I like to listen loudly at night and don't want to wake up my wife), or my room sounds dead--I feel like I have a head cold when I walk into it. The other aspect that would be very helpful, at the end of the post, please put a percentage of 2 channel vs HT or multi-channel you listen to. You may even be in the camp: "the room doesn't matter much, I like buying new pieces of equipment instead" That okay too--I'd like to hear from you as well. Some people may not understand the importance of room interaction on the sound, that's okay too--if you had free consultation what would you do or ask in order to get a better listening room.
rives

Showing 1 response by twl

twl
3,251 posts
 
Hi Rives.
I may not be representative of the typical case, but I would go for the maximum result regardless of convenience or decoration factors. I don't have anyone here but me and my pets, so we can accomodate anything that makes better sound. Cost is a factor, because I am frequently broke from buying audio equipment, and still paying for the usual life expenses.

My specifics wants, would be to tailor the room to an appropriate level, which would not be so absorptive as to rob my low-power system of the needed SPL that I have very little of. I am using 2 watts now, with 100db Lowthers, placed 4' out into the room. And the room is large, with high vaulted ceilings, so every db of SPL output is very precious. My listening position is fixed, and doesn't require any latitude.

I think that ensuring that there is a control of the most offensive reflections, and control of any peaks in the response at my listening chair would suffice for me.
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