Is My Room Large Enough?

These are all good posted suggestions. I heard a small room about this size with acoustic treatment at a dealer and it was amazing - probably one of the best overall systems that I've heard - including the room treatment and the equpiment together. It was a great room for jazz/classical/vocal. He had the small triangle echo busters in the ceiling/wall corners of the room, with a few panels on the walls and ceiling. The equpiment was a Audio Research tube amp, a passive preamp, and ProAc 1.5's, set up in a near-field configuration. It was an amazing space. The bass was deep and so perfectly defined. That listening session sticks in my mind more than any other. I think my tastes in music/movies overall makes me a bit more of a banger - where I like the large room, B&W N802's and a big solid state amp, but after hearing that system, it makes me want to start over in a small room and see what I could do with the right acoustic treatment and a pair of those ProAc's to listen to my jazz stuff.

Sorry to hear about your small.. er.. room Avguy.

There are a lot of good suggestions above and I am going to try some of them. I have used a small room for a while and have tried a few things that have made improvements. I have tried to assemble less-forward sounding equipment and apply room treatments that assist in presenting soundstage images slightly behind the speakers, which seems to make the room “deeper”. Controlling early reflections is more important in my small room verses larger rooms I have used. Relocating the equipment rack from between the speakers to the side- wall makes quite an improvement in “depth”. Applying diffusion to the back and sidewalls seems to work better than absorption alone. I know this seems crazy, but I started hanging artificial ivy (the type with small leaves sold in craft stores works well) in these locations: walls beside the speakers, behind my listening chair, and on the center-wall & corners…the more I hung, the better the clarity and soundstage. After I started using the artificial ivy as "diffusors", the speakers seem to “disappear” on most recordings, an effect similar to a friend's system which uses RPG diffusors. Also, I like to experiment with different absorption devices. Currently, I am using Michael Green’s Roomtune treatments in all ceiling corners,40mm Marigo wall treatment dots,and tube-traps in the corners behind the speakers. Good luck with your new room and equipment!

hi jd,

i mentioned this as a possibility in a thread on the cable topic (?!?) called *excessive bass*. (?!?) any set-up that places the speakers asymmetrically in a room can be beneficial, especially for small rooms. it doesn't have to be completely diagonal - for example, keeping the listening-triangle-ratio the same, try moving one speaker closer to the back wall, or have one speaker closer to its nearest side-wall than the other, etc. this *will* help break-up standing-waves.

i have my speakers set-up this way, w/the right speaker closer to the right wall than the left speaker is, to the left wall, & my short wall is 25' long...

regards, doug

Now you've got my attention Sedond. Thanks, I think, now I might really have to screw things up and try a partial scew. Sounds like it's time to have my buddies over so we can play! I just hate breaking up a good thing, but I'll never know without a try. It is very intreging though, I would guess just 15-20 degrees would work fine, and it might even add depth. I'll post my results once I can muster the guts to do it. J.D.