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A 1-Year Room Acoustics Journey, the BEFORE and AFTER comparison

privilege15

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I've been working on my room for over a year from zero knowledge about acoustics to what I know today with the help of Audiosciencereview forum which triggered the whole thing for me. I think I've reached some kind of a milestone to share the BEFORE and AFTER comparisons of how Room Treatment, DSP and more subs can change the overall room acoustics. It all started when I had an untreated room with a couple of Revel M16 speakers, a single Yamaha subwoofer and no DSP.

My room is a weird shape with multiple open spaces to corridors and 2nd floor. It has a very high (6 meters at the highest point) vaulted ceiling with protruding beams. The speakers are NOT equal distance from the side walls also.

Here is a quick sketch of it:

room_dimensions.jpg




This is how the room sounded with 2 speakers, a single sub, no treatment, no DSP (1/24 smoothing) BEFORE:

SPL_Before.png

RT60 (Topt) BEFORE:

RT60_Topt_BEFORE.png


Waterfall BEFORE:

Watrefall_Before.png


I've been working on the room and acoustics throughout the year without prior experience.

Eventually I purchased 2 x SVS SB-1000 Pro subwoofers to accompany my Revel M16 speakers. Placed the subs at the back corners as best sounding spots in my room. Removed the old Yamaha sub. Installed and tuned DSP Parametric EQ manually. Installed a bunch of velocity and pressure based acoustic panels and bass traps. In total 10 broadband pressure based 3 inch, 80kg/m3 rockwool DIY bass traps / acoustic panels, 8 foam based Auralex LENRD bass traps (all the way from floor to ceiling) in problematic corners and 2 Auralex freestanding sound deflectors. I did not block early reflections because I didn't like the sound without the reflections. Revel M16 can boast outstanding off-axis response. It's a sin to block their horizontal reflections. The sound stage expansion is audible without any measuring equipment. I don't care about vertical reflections against the ceiling becuse it's so high and it's vaulted, it just redirects the sound waves elsewhere. The carpet on the floor takes care of the floor reflections to some extent for me.

Here is the room treatment distribution as it is today and as I like it:

acoustic_treatment.jpg


There is an air gap between all panels and the walls. I like reflections, hence all sound absorbers are in the corners, except for the deflectors which simulate equal distancing from the side walls.

The sound is adjusted across the 3 seater lounge via DSP EQ as an average best between all 3 seats. There is no central seat as a matter of fact. It has just 2 wide cushions so one is seating either on the left or on the right.

This is how the room SPL looks NOW (1/24 smoothing):
LEFT SEAT
Room_Treatment_v6_L.png



CENTRAL SEAT
Room_Treatment_v6_C.png



RIGHT SEAT
Room_Treatment_v6_R.png


RT60 (Topt) AFTER

Room_Treatment_v6_RT60.png



Waterfall AFTER:
Room_Treatment_v6_Waterfall.png


Hopefully someone will find this experience and comparison graphs useful. I learned all about it from the forums only. I tuned the system to how I liked it best, only later to realise that it actually resembles the popular House Curve. Well I just trust my ears above all in the first place.
 

Colonel7

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Looks really good! And thanks for the before and after measurements. Were your before measurements taken from the center seat? Are you done and if you were to do more what would it be? What was the biggest improvement by addition? If you don’t mind, could you post a picture of the setup now?
 

Frgirard

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I've been working on my room for over a year from zero knowledge about acoustics to what I know today with the help of Audiosciencereview forum which triggered the whole thing for me. I think I've reached some kind of a milestone to share the BEFORE and AFTER comparisons of how Room Treatment, DSP and more subs can change the overall room acoustics. It all started when I had an untreated room with a couple of Revel M16 speakers, a single Yamaha subwoofer and no DSP.

My room is a weird shape with multiple open spaces to corridors and 2nd floor. It has a very high (6 meters at the highest point) vaulted ceiling with protruding beams. The speakers are NOT equal distance from the side walls also.

Here is a quick sketch of it:

View attachment 235061



This is how the room sounded with 2 speakers, a single sub, no treatment, no DSP (1/24 smoothing) BEFORE:

View attachment 235062
RT60 (Topt) BEFORE:

View attachment 235063

Waterfall BEFORE:

View attachment 235065

I've been working on the room and acoustics throughout the year without prior experience.

Eventually I purchased 2 x SVS SB-1000 Pro subwoofers to accompany my Revel M16 speakers. Placed the subs at the back corners as best sounding spots in my room. Removed the old Yamaha sub. Installed and tuned DSP Parametric EQ manually. Installed a bunch of velocity and pressure based acoustic panels and bass traps. In total 10 broadband pressure based 3 inch, 80kg/m3 rockwool DIY bass traps / acoustic panels, 8 foam based Auralex LENRD bass traps (all the way from floor to ceiling) in problematic corners and 2 Auralex freestanding sound deflectors. I did not block early reflections because I didn't like the sound without the reflections. Revel M16 can boast outstanding off-axis response. It's a sin to block their horizontal reflections. The sound stage expansion is audible without any measuring equipment. I don't care about vertical reflections against the ceiling becuse it's so high and it's vaulted, it just redirects the sound waves elsewhere. The carpet on the floor takes care of the floor reflections to some extent for me.

Here is the room treatment distribution as it is today and as I like it:

View attachment 235066

There is an air gap between all panels and the walls. I like reflections, hence all sound absorbers are in the corners, except for the deflectors which simulate equal distancing from the side walls.

The sound is adjusted across the 3 seater lounge via DSP EQ as an average best between all 3 seats. There is no central seat as a matter of fact. It has just 2 wide cushions so one is seating either on the left or on the right.

This is how the room SPL looks NOW (1/24 smoothing):
LEFT SEAT
View attachment 235067


CENTRAL SEAT
View attachment 235068


RIGHT SEAT
View attachment 235069

RT60 (Topt) AFTER

View attachment 235070


Waterfall AFTER:
View attachment 235071

Hopefully someone will find this experience and comparison graphs useful. I learned all about it from the forums only. I tuned the system to how I liked it best, only later to realise that it actually resembles the popular House Curve. Well I just trust my ears above all in the first place.
Good effort, but we measure the speakers in mono and not in stereo.
In stereo, only to see the coupling in the bass which must be effective up to 120 Hz.

the topt curve : 450ms at 100 Hz 850ms at 900 Hz. an horror.

8 people liked it., OMG
 

Puddingbuks

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Thanks for your effort to give all this info + pictures.

The reverb / RT60 is still very high, I would say that you need some more absorption, it makes music (and speaking in the room) much clearer.

The absorption at the first reflection points is angled so that it will absorb less energy. Try setting them up straight on the wall.

Maybe you should use thicker absorption panels, to ensure more absorption of lower and mid frequencies. Putting a big (2x2meters or more) panel on the large 6 meter high wall will certainly help.

Good luck with your journey, acoustics/the room is where the most progress can be made.
 
Last edited:
OP
P

privilege15

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Looks really good! And thanks for the before and after measurements. Were your before measurements taken from the center seat? Are you done and if you were to do more what would it be? What was the biggest improvement by addition? If you don’t mind, could you post a picture of the setup now?

Yeah, that was from the central seat.

As for what gave the biggest improvements. There were two:

1. Adding the second subwoofer gave a substatial improvement in lower end.
2. Adding pressure based acoustic panels around the room gave an audible boost in overall clarity and low frequencies. The kick drums no longer sound muddy in complex music like black metal for example.


Good effort, but we measure the speakers in mono and not in stereo.
In stereo, only to see the coupling in the bass which must be effective up to 120 Hz.

the topt curve : 450ms at 100 Hz 850ms at 900 Hz. an horror.

8 people liked it., OMG

The average Topt in the graphs AFTER treatment is ~600ms, never above 650ms. you probably were looking at the wrong graph.

Speakers in mono with 2 subs, DSP but BEFORE room treatment:
Speakers_Before.png


Speakers in mono with 2 subs, DSP + room treatement AFTER:
Room_Treatment_v6_SpeakerSPL.png


The right speaker has improved immensely. These are all the graphs that I have of separate speakers.

Thanks for your effort to give all this info + pictures.

The reverb / RT60 is still very high, I would say that you need some more absorption, it makes music (and speaking in the room) much clearer.

The absorption at the first reflection points is angled so that it will absorb less energy. Try setting them up straight on the wall.

Maybe you should use thicker absorption panels, to ensure more absorption of lower and mid frequencies. Putting a big (2x2meters or more) panel on the large 6 meter high wall will certainly help.

Good luck with your journey, acoustics/the room is where the most progress can be made.

I will argue regarding the reverb. It sounds excellent as it is now in this kind of room.

There is no absorbtion at first reflection points. The panles are reversed to deflect the sound into the room instead of absorbing but not at me directly, hence they are angled. It's intentional.

I tried putting more rockwool panels along the walls but it degrades the reflections and the reverb of the room to the worse. The amount of panels is the maximum that I want to my liking. No more is needed for my room.

I think I'm pretty much done with this room. There is nothing else needed to my tastes. I consider well known dogmas like "block first and second reflections" or "the reverb in the room must be betweem 0.2 and 0.4", etc. I do try reaching those targets before accepting or discarding them. According to my personal tastes those dogmas have been discarded. I trust my ears first - I don't like less room reverb, I don't like blocking first reflections with my speakers. The speakers are great off-axis.
 

Puddingbuks

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The reverb and room is already in the recording. That's my view on this, so I like lots of absorption.

If you like it with extra reverb, that's fine.
 

Colonel7

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8 people liked it., OMG
Try to be positive. He's shared before and after measures, documented what he's done, objectively improved the performance of the system, and aligned and described personal preferences with the actions taken and the measurements. I personally find these threads very beneficial and kudos to the OP for sharing them
 

srrxr71

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Try to be positive. He's shared before and after measures, documented what he's done, objectively improved the performance of the system, and aligned and described personal preferences with the actions taken and the measurements. I personally find these threads very beneficial and kudos to the OP for sharing them
Yes absolutely. All we have to do now is ask him to run them in mono and then help him to get his results better. Better than scaring him away from here.
 

srrxr71

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Yeah, that was from the central seat.

As for what gave the biggest improvements. There were two:

1. Adding the second subwoofer gave a substatial improvement in lower end.
2. Adding pressure based acoustic panels around the room gave an audible boost in overall clarity and low frequencies. The kick drums no longer sound muddy in complex music like black metal for example.




The average Topt in the graphs AFTER treatment is ~600ms, never above 650ms. you probably were looking at the wrong graph.

Speakers in mono with 2 subs, DSP but BEFORE room treatment:
View attachment 235097

Speakers in mono with 2 subs, DSP + room treatement AFTER:
View attachment 235098

The right speaker has improved immensely. These are all the graphs that I have of separate speakers.



I will argue regarding the reverb. It sounds excellent as it is now in this kind of room.

There is no absorbtion at first reflection points. The panles are reversed to deflect the sound into the room instead of absorbing but not at me directly, hence they are angled. It's intentional.

I tried putting more rockwool panels along the walls but it degrades the reflections and the reverb of the room to the worse. The amount of panels is the maximum that I want to my liking. No more is needed for my room.

I think I'm pretty much done with this room. There is nothing else needed to my tastes. I consider well known dogmas like "block first and second reflections" or "the reverb in the room must be betweem 0.2 and 0.4", etc. I do try reaching those targets before accepting or discarding them. According to my personal tastes those dogmas have been discarded. I trust my ears first - I don't like less room reverb, I don't like blocking first reflections with my speakers. The speakers are great off-axis.
Yes absolutely your ears are the final arbiters. All these new fangled tech and measurements are to help you get what YOU want out of it.

Congrats on hitting your end game.
 
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