Speakers & the room

Your room is nearly a multiple of 7 to 8 feet in all dimensions. Try a TACT or
Rives PARC. Try sitting at 38% or room length. Keep your speakers well out from
the rear wall (at 6 - 8 feet). Try placing the speakers closer together - away
from side walls ( 4+ feet ).

Also try Superchunks or GIK Tri-traps - this will be more effective than even the
big bad Auralex LENRD's. (I'd suggest 8 GIK Tri-traps at the minimum)

Hello Spaz,

That's some lovely equipment you got there.

Eyeballing the pics on your System page, two things sort of jump out at me: Perfect symmetry, and lots of absorption panels. In my opinion, therein may lie at least some of the problem.

As you move between areas in the room with absorption panels exactly opposite your ears to areas with flat, reflective areas exactly opposite your ears, yes the tonal character is going to change. If you had diffusion panels spread about with some asymmetry, and relatively little absorption, then the soundfield throughout your room would be more uniform at midrange and treble frequencies.

In an effort to give you less variation in bass from one room location to another, let me suggest going with a semi-diagonal setup. For example, imagine looking down on the triangle formed by yourself and the speakers, and rotating that triangle about 30 degrees clockwise within the room. This will stagger the distances of your two bass sources to the room boundaries, which should result in a smoother bass summation pretty much throughout the room.

Finally, if you still aren't getting enough bass at the listening position, it's not cheating to add a sub. In fact, adding a third bass source (also positioned asymmetrically) should smooth the in-room bass even further. If you really want to go all-out with that third bass source, mount it closer to the ceiling than to the floor. This will significantly stagger your bass sources in all three dimensions.

Best of luck to you.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

Sounds like a standing wave problem - alas, no thickness or amount of Auralex foam "traps" are going to ameliorate the problem...I've tried their offerings, and they simply don't work all that well (though I heartily endorse their quadratic diffusors). It seems like tube/bass traps are the best solution - while the ASC offering is certainly effective, you can roll your own for a lot less. Yes, it's messy and time consuming, but they are very effective. Take a look at Jon Risch's threads over at the asylum for construction info.

Good luck,

-Richard

1-what's up with the ceiling tiles? I'm assuming that they are acoustic tiles since you have done so much else. Have you tried opening up just a few (put grids in)? It will allow some sound to go up and never come back down.
2-If it were my room, I'd have the bulk of the acoustic treatments either behind the speakers or behind my chair. Some side reflections are necessary to fill in the room and most speakers are not designed with "infinite" space in mind.
3-Although you have a simply awesome system, it may not be right for you? Borrow some speakers from a friend or dealer and see if they make you happier? Something more open like Vandersteens or even Martin Logins may appeal to your taste? This is why many of us have multiple speakers and amps & are always changing.

Funny you should ask!

I use Verity Parsifal Encores (among others) and the sound in my current room (similar to yours) is nowhere near what it was in my previous listening rooms. The P/Es employ monitors jumpered to woofer cabinets like your EOS.

I looked into TacT/Lyngdorg/DEQX but they're mostly direct sales so it's harder than usual to get a handle on this rather expensive fix.

Instead, I inserted a $600 Velodyne SMS-1 and and a second amp between the woofer modules and the monitor modules of the Verity P/Es - no more "jumper madness" - for equalized bi-amping. The SMS is a room analyzer (20 - 200hz), 6 band parametric e.q. (20hz-120hz) and active crossover (very flexible low pass, 80hz @6db/octave fixed high pass). Bottom line: problem solved.

Caveats:

The included high pass is kinda bare bones. Verity crosses the woofers and monitors symmetrically @ 150hz 12db/octave. I'm crossing an octave lower, asymmetrically. The sound in this room is vastly improved, but a bit different than I recall out of the P/Es in past rooms. Still, the sound is not only improved, but very satisfying period.

If I want to really do it right, I'll add an appropriate high pass (e.g. Marchand) and match the factory's passive x-over. This will add another $800ish to the price tag, bringing the total to $1400 plus additional bass amps (I had appropriate ampliication on hand already) - hardly cheap.

Finally, tweaking response via the PEQ is a time consuming trial and error process. You see a "bump" and position the band below it, reduce level, broaden and narrow the "Q" and nothing happens! So you start screwing around in nearby bands and, eventually, you get improvements. I managed to take a broad 12 db (relative to 80db) bump, and a couple of narrow 7 to 8 db swales and equalize to +/- 3.5 db from app 38hz to 200hz.

Not only is the bass response vastly better, but the mid-band sounds much better. The trade is the sharp roll off at app 38hz. I can get more extended response, but it will come at the cost of relocating one band of eq to the lowest bass and screwing up the nice, smooth performance I have now.

Generally, I don't like to modify the intended installation of a great product like the P/E, but - in this circumstance - this approach worked for me in a situation similar to yours and you may want to investigate further.

Good Luck

Marty