Acoustic treatment project living room pic+REW

[HellBound]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my living room project. I spent quite a bit of time trying to improve the acoustics without making the room look like a recording studio. Space is a bit limited, but I really happy with how it has turned out so far. There are still some small things to fine tune here and there.

There are a few dips in the L/R measurements, but I feel like the center speaker and the subs blend everything together nicely, so I honestly don't notice them during listening.

I recently bought a Tonewinner AT-600 and ran Dirac Live. So far, I think regular Dirac Live works best in my room. I also tried Dirac Bass Control, but I couldn't quite get the sound the way I wanted. To me, the bass and overall sound became a little "closed in" compared to regular Dirac Live. I will spend more time experimenting with it.

I really looking forward to Dirac ART, I will come later this year. From everything seen, I think it could help smooth out the last few issues in the room?

The next step is adding Arendal 1723 Height S speakers and 1723 Surround S on side back, so the final setup will most likely be 5.2.2. Unfortunately, there no room for anything bigger in my living room.

Current system:

Arendal 1528 Monitor 8 (L/C/R)
2 × Arendal 1916 subwoofers
Tonewinner AT-600
Apollon 3×NCx500 power amplifier

The room is roughly L-shaped with an open layout towards the kitchen.

Acoustic treatment
Front wall

Wooden slat wall with a thin 3 cm acoustic panel behind it

1 × 17 cm bass trap
2 × 10 cm bass traps
2 × GIK TurboTrap bass traps

Side and rear of the room

Two poufs open up and filled with glass wool (Glava Proff 34)

1 × 10 cm bass trap
1 × GIK TurboTrap
2 × 17 cm bass traps
1 × freestanding 10 cm bass trap

I also opened up the bottom of my sofa since it was basically a large empty cavity. I filled the entire base with 25 cm of Rockwool The bass is much tighter now, and low frequencies stay much more controlled in the room after I have done everything.

At this point I feel like I have done most of what I can with physical room treatment, so I'm really curious to see what Dirac ART can add. I also will keep experimenting with Bass Control.

As most of you know, once you start tweaking... hours disappear before you even notice

I've attached some REW measurements along with a few photos of the room. Any feedback or suggestions are always appreciated.

 

[gregoj]

looks great!

 

[Cote Dazur]

Lots of love and work for this set up, I hope it sounds great to you.
This looks like an apartment, how loud can you play it?
I love the idea of the poufs opened up and filled with glass wool (Glava Proff 34), I will try it.

 

[HellBound]

Yes, I'm happy with the setup now, but I'm looking forward to getting some surround and highs front in place so that I can feel the surround on the film again, and to try ART eventually. Got a microphone stand and now the measurements are a little better.

You're right that it's an apartment, 4-apartments, so not too many people can complain about loud sound ; ) But it's well insulated, so I haven't really had any complaints yet, I'm being considerate so I only play loud music when those below are outside.

I mostly play music between -40/-25 and movies -20/-10 depending on the situation. I use different "profiles" with a lot of bass or little, etc.

Yes, just remember to have something around so it doesn't come out into the room if you're going to fill it with it. I filled a lot of rockwool in the couch.

I've ordered 6x Soundblocks from Gik. I'm going to have them behind the sofa towards the kitchen. So they will go 50cm above the back of the sofa and 180cm wide. I'm going to try a few different things and take measurements.

 

[jaakkopetteri]

Measurements seem nice and I'm sure ART will make things excellent. Would love to hear more about the Tonewinner. Only thing I would suggest is a logarithmic scaling for the frequency axis for all plots

 

[vainoulou]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my living room project. I spent quite a bit of time trying to improve the acoustics without making the room look like a recording studio. Space is a bit limited, but I really happy with how it has turned out so far. There are still some small things to fine tune here and there.

There are a few dips in the L/R measurements, but I feel like the center speaker and the subs blend everything together nicely, so I honestly don't notice them during listening.

I recently bought a Tonewinner AT-600 and ran Dirac Live. So far, I think regular Dirac Live works best in my room. I also tried Dirac Bass Control, but I couldn't quite get the sound the way I wanted. To me, the bass and overall sound became a little "closed in" compared to regular Dirac Live. I will spend more time experimenting with it.

I really looking forward to Dirac ART, I will come later this year. From everything seen, I think it could help smooth out the last few issues in the room?

The next step is adding Arendal 1723 Height S speakers and 1723 Surround S on side back, so the final setup will most likely be 5.2.2. Unfortunately, there no room for anything bigger in my living room.

Current system:

Arendal 1528 Monitor 8 (L/C/R)
2 × Arendal 1916 subwoofers
Tonewinner AT-600
Apollon 3×NCx500 power amplifier

The room is roughly L-shaped with an open layout towards the kitchen.

Acoustic treatment
Front wall

Wooden slat wall with a thin 3 cm acoustic panel behind it

1 × 17 cm bass trap
2 × 10 cm bass traps
2 × GIK TurboTrap bass traps

Side and rear of the room

Two poufs open up and filled with glass wool (Glava Proff 34)

1 × 10 cm bass trap
1 × GIK TurboTrap
2 × 17 cm bass traps
1 × freestanding 10 cm bass trap

I also opened up the bottom of my sofa since it was basically a large empty cavity. I filled the entire base with 25 cm of Rockwool The bass is much tighter now, and low frequencies stay much more controlled in the room after I have done everything.

At this point I feel like I have done most of what I can with physical room treatment, so I'm really curious to see what Dirac ART can add. I also will keep experimenting with Bass Control.

As most of you know, once you start tweaking... hours disappear before you even notice

I've attached some REW measurements along with a few photos of the room. Any feedback or suggestions are always appreciated fnf.

I would love to know how you placed those GIK TurboTraps and bass traps around the front soundstage, as L-shaped rooms usually make low frequency symmetry pretty tricky. Also, since Dirac Live worked better for you than Dirac Bass Control, what cross-over frequency and target curve settings gave you the cleanest integration?

 

[HellBound]

I would love to know how you placed those GIK TurboTraps and bass traps around the front soundstage, as L-shaped rooms usually make low frequency symmetry pretty tricky. Also, since Dirac Live worked better for you than Dirac Bass Control, what cross-over frequency and target curve settings gave you the cleanest integration?

Two turbotraps in front , then I have a smaller 10 cm behind the speakers. On the wall there are only wooden slats and 2-3cm with an "Acoustic felt". The same material is behind the pentagon on the walls. Nothing to say for bass but better than nothing for the room. Under the bench with the amplifiers I have put a 17cm bass trap. The poufs are filled with Glava Proff 34. (55×40 cm), And the sofa is filled with rockwool 25cm. 17cm bass trap along the floor left wall and a turbotrap and a 5cm diffuser on the wall. 2x 17cm bass traps in window behind head. On the other side there is a 10cm freestanding bass trap, But there will be 180cmx120cmx25cm with soudblocks with diffuser soon. On the floor there is thick carpet with 6 layers of "anti-slip" cloth underneath. Otherwise, there are a lot of pillows and thick blankets.

I'm going to try a little more bass control when I get the last thing in place. I tried the speakers with a crossover of 40/50/60 with bass control. But I like it better with just regular dirac and run it full band and then I turn down the bass on the subs for music and run a separate profile for movies with more bass. At least the bass in the room has become very good than it was before the room treatment and I can play much louder without it getting tiring.

 

[HellBound]

Then I got 6x soundblocks, picture of measuring the center speaker again after. Maybe the mic is a little different than last time but is about the same place. I got it a little more "closed" around the sofa with the soundblock so the sound was a little different now than when it was completely open. I bought 4x 1610 8 Slim as highs front and surround side. They were bigger than I thought. At the back I'm waiting for two monitor stands (arms) so I can angle them up and down towards the seating on the sides back. Up front on the highs I'm waiting for brackets to attach them as a wall with tilt down. So now that's enough, now I'm done. Now I just have to get the last thing up and running.. then ART will be the last thing when it comes out to AV. Cheers