I can think of two things that may cause your wife's trinkets to shake in response to the low frequencies output by your speakers
The first is room gain or boundary reinforcement as mentioned by "nonoise" ... below your room's transition point (Schroder frequency) the wave lengths of the frequencies' below the transition point will no longer fit within the room's dimension and these frequencies below the transition point will pressurize the room ... unfortunately this pressurization is not even through out the room with the four corners and the mid point of all walls having higher pressure than the rest of the room
If your wife's trinkets are placed in or on a corner Hutch and placed in the corner of the room they will be experiencing higher pressures due to the wall's reinforcing and boosting of those low frequencies in the corners ... this excessive build up in the corners during low frequencies passages may be just enough to shake the trinkets and is also the reason why you place your Resistive Bass Traps in the corners of the room to reduce the extra energy created by the corner walls
Also you room no matter what the dimensions are will have higher pressurization at the mid points of all the walls including the ceiling and floor ... if your wife has her trinkets placed on a free standing book case and that book case is placed right at the mid point of the front/back or side walls they will also experience higher pressurization like in the corners and this can be the cause of the shaking during low frequency passages
Placement of trinkets on a free standing book case or hutch which is placed at the mid point of any wall or in the corner may experience enough pressure from the wall's boundary reinforcement to cause them to shake when low frequencies below the room's transition point are present
But I don't think that is what is causing your problems
One of the biggest misconception in audio is that the speakers can produce enough vibrational energy that the cabinet's coupled to the floor can cause the walls ceiling and floors to vibrate
If the speaker had that much energy to shake the room violently they would probably come apart at the seams and the stuffing would fall out into the room
Here's the second reason I believe your wife's trinkets are being shook
Your wall are excited and vibrate in sympathy with your speaker's low frequency response when the speaker produces a frequency that is equal to your wall's Primary Resonate Frequency
Based on the length of the dimensions of the room each wall (length .. width .. and height ) has a primary resonate frequency dictated by it's actual length that will cause the wall to vibrate when that frequency is excited by the speakers low frequency response
You can calculate this P/Resonate Frequency mode by dividing 562 ( the speed of sound divided by 2) by the walls length
In your case 562/16 Width = 35.125HZ's ... for the room's length 562/17 Length = 33.05HZ's and for the 8 ft ceiling height (I'm guessing) it would be 562/8 Height or 70.25HZs
When ever your speakers reproduce one of these low frequencies ... 33HZ .. 35HZ or 70HZ ... the wall whose primary resonate frequency (based on it's length) is close or a match to that frequency being produced by the speaker will vibrate in sympathy with the speaker which is pressurizing the room again below the rooms transition point
You should be able to see that when your speakers produce these low frequencies that match the wall's Primary Resonate Frequencies' based on it's length ... the wall or walls will vibrate violently shaking anything attached to them such as a shelf with trinkets on it or pictures hung on the wall or recessed lighting fixtures along with any Deer Head or Fish trophies attached to the wall
Speaker produces low frequency that excites wall ... wall shakes in sympathy to speaker exciting it at it's P/R/Frequency and wife's trinkets on shelf attached to wall shake
Also take note that because your room's dimension are very close (16x17) that the room's P/R/F points are very close also and will reinforce each other causing additional boost or gain
You will also get additional reinforcement because your 8 foot ceiling height is a direct multiple of your 16 foot wall dimension in a 2 to 1 ratio ... Happy Birthday
Most Home Theater low frequency punch is around 30 to 35HZ and seldom goes into the mid or low 20's .... this punch or slam is right at your room's dimensions (16x17) Primary Resonate Frequency excitation point ... so I feel the low frequency content in the 30 to 40HZ range is exciting your walls and shaking the wife's trinkets
An easy way to check this out is to run a test disk ( like any of the Stereophile test disks) with 1/3 octaves from 200HZ down
As the 1/3 octaves play down to the lower frequencies the bass tones will be clear and distinct ... when you hit the octave on the test disk that matches your wall's Primary Resonate Frequency point ... the walls and room will shake violently and it will be clearly audible ... once the test tones are out of the range that excites the wall ... the bass test tones will become clear and distinct again
I'm just guessing by your room's dimension that your walls will vibrate audibly between 30 and 40HZ and also around 70 or 80HZ
Enter your text ...