Help with room treatment?



I know my set up is very modest compared to some on here but I am just getting into this over the last 4 or 5 months. I built a room specifically for listening and once completed my system has sounded so much worse. Bass is worse, highs are worse. I understand it is a fairly empty room right now. After addressing first reflection points will it get any better?
Or should I return to my living room?
Rega P1
Cambridge audio Azur 740a
Cambridge audio cp1
Dali Oberon 5’s

Room is 12.5 ft by 16.5 ft

Also not sure how to add a picture otherwise I would show you

128x128kevdubbya
Well you can always PM me.

Never be afraid to try things out. People will tell you things for all kinds of reasons, or no reasons at all. DYODD- do your own due diligence! 

You can send a photo but it turns out I am clairvoyant. I see two chairs side by side. Sitting close like you are even if the speakers are perfectly set up those chairs are always going to have you a foot or two one side or the other. Whichever side you are that's the speaker you're gonna hear. Its just never going to be any good.

If seating is more important than sound you can always put the chairs side by side. But for purposes of setup its a waste of time. Put one chair right in the middle, measure precisely exactly as described above using that one point. You will be shocked at the difference. Everyone is.

I worry that by precisely you think I mean real close. What I mean is within 1/16" or a millimeter. Precisely means precisely.

The "sweet spot" by the way is more a line or plane than a spot. Sitting in the sweet spot you should be able to move a few feet straight ahead or straight back and still have really good imaging. What you can't do is move side to side. Try it and see. Even an inch or two and the image will shift. Any more and the whole balance will shift. Move a foot and it'll be like you said, like its just one channel.

Again, its an iterative process.  We're talking two very different things going on at once. In one, you're moving the speakers several inches at a time listening for bass response. Doing this you just plop em approximately. You're looking for smooth bass. When you like where they are for bass response, then you measure and dial them in down to the last hair. 

Walls reinforce bass and have a huge impact on frequency response. But you don't want them the same distance from the front and side walls because then each wall is reinforcing the same frequency and you wind up with a big bass hump. So again you experiment, further apart, or further back. Mostly you want to listen for smooth bass response.

So you get them where the bass is smooth. Then you tweak them to where the imaging is rock solid. Then you make it even better by treating the first side wall reflection.

Then... but one step at a time.
Love the records. Did the exact same thing one time myself. This big record company VP (no kidding) was coming over, my room was all new and empty, thought I had to do something, so I put some records out just exactly like you did. And the guy, he's a real good listener, as he's leaving he says its funny the sound stage wasn't quite as good on one side. Which really hurt. Because of who he was. And because I'd never noticed. Soon as he leaves I am in there listening and sure enough, and I know it was NOT like that before, so what....

No. Can't be. But like I keep saying you check, you take nothing for granted. So I remove those LPs and damn, that was it.

Move your chair a couple feet closer and smack dab in the center. And by smack dab I mean precisely ! lol!
What’s the rug made of? If it’s synthetic try replacing it with a similar natural wool rug. Synthetic rugs no matter how plush or comfortable impart a harsh tone. I’ve fallen into this trap a few times

plus the suggestions from millercarbon are good, especially about getting rid of asymmetric surfaces like the stacked LPs. In my room I can hear the sound of an exposed CD case, and it’s not pleasant 🤪