How many of you are satisfied with your space?

[PristineSound]

Arguably audio equipment is much easier to acquire than your home. Most of us don't have a purpose built space for audio, we have to make do with the design of the home. Whether it's too small, just terrible shape with poor acoustic properties or not enough rooms. We are limited.

 

[MrBlueSky4470]

To me it seems that there is a huge gap between the first option ("Very and fortunate...") in the poll and the other options. I think this should be reworked.

 

[PristineSound]

To me it seems that there is a huge gap between the first option ("Very and fortunate...") in the poll and the other options. I think this should be reworked.

What about it will do for now?

 

[Hear Here]

My new-build flat had poor acoustics at first. No carpets, curtains and little by way of soft furnishings. Clap you hands and reverb shouted it's presence. It was also almost semi-circular with floor-to-ceiling glazing on the curved wall. At 945 Square ft with low 7 ft 7 ceilings, what could be worse?

Over time with careful additions of carpeting (about 40%) curtains and more furniture, careful speaker setting up and I am very happy, though an extra 3 ft of ceiling height would be nice.

It is now such that using "Room Correction" DSP (surely the industry's most inaccurate label) adds nothing to sound quality. In fact the contrary, as my speakers lose a little of their top end sparkle, despite my Dirac not allowing adjustment about 500 Hz. The bass may be slightly flatter but the entire signal has to pass the processor and it does the top end no favours. I prefer the filter off.

Rooms do need work to get the best sound, but chucking DSP at the problem should in my view be the very last resort. Choosing the right TYPE of speaker is probably the first.

Anyone agree?

 

[DVDdoug]

Ha! No, I am not!!! And I never will be satisfied...

I've had my speakers in "dance halls" a few times for DJ gigs and they sound much better in a larger space. The natural reverb is wonderful. And there's something about a larger space that makes it more comfortable (for me) to listen louder.

I do use a "hall" or "theater" setting on my AVR when listening to regular stereo, for the feel of a larger space.

 

[BeeKay]

I do use a "hall" or "theater" setting on my AVR when listening to regular stereo, for the feel of a larger space.

 

[Greenman]

One of the considerations when we were looking at houses (25 years ago) was how the hifi would work (or not) in the lounge. Fortunately we acquired somewhere with a reasonable sized (for uk) lounge (7m x 5m), with solid walls and detached, main issue is only 8ft height, room modes aren’t disastrous. So overall I’m pretty lucky.

 

[Mart68]

Lived in lots of different houses and other buildings in my teens and twenties, so even though I knew nothing formal about room acoustics at the time, I knew what I was after when buying a house.

Could ideally do with a couple of extra feet of width but otherwise main mode is way down at 19KHz and there's no problem modes so it's not bad.

Fairly heavily damped, although only small amount of dedicated treatment. Don't feel the need for any digital correction in the LF.

Live alone so can do what I like with the room. There's a lot of equipment.

One of my brothers was dating a woman who worked for EMI. He brought her round one time and as soon as she walks in she says 'Why have you turned your living room into a recording studio?'

 

[Cogito]

I could use some more room treatment, but the wife is barely tolerating the three pairs of speakers, big-ass subwoofer and a rack full of gear. I don't want to push my luck as I don't want to kick her out of MY house. Also, I can't stand doing laundry...

 

[PristineSound]

My current space will do for now. However, my kids are getting older, and I'm running out of space. It's hard to have my kids' friends and classmates over to work on school projects and hang out because the lack of space. So we are actively looking to upgrade, and will be looking for a place that has enough space to build out a home theater, with a dedicated listening room.

But in the US, real estate prices are out of control, interest rate is high, particularly in the northeastern part. . .and the market is down due to the craziness, so not a good time to sell any investment.

Hoping the craziness will settle down by end of this year or early next and interest rate will come down a bit.

 

[Brian Hall]

I could use some more room treatment, but the wife is barely tolerating the three pairs of speakers, big-ass subwoofer and a rack full of gear. I don't want to push my luck as I don't want to kick her out of MY house. Also, I can't stand doing laundry...

I'm not saying to take advice from someone who has been married and divorced three times, but when it comes down to it, doing laundry is not that big a deal and is worth it for the peace, freedom and huge cost savings. Having a housekeeper doing some cleaning once a week is pretty cheap too.

 

[Chrispy]

I moved into my current and last house 11 years ago. I didn't particularly choose it for acoustic properties, nor tested it for such....but works well enough in various rooms. I did after a whirlwind of property viewing thought I had chosen the house with an area that might be appropriate to a projector/theater space but realized later there was a support pole smack in the middle of that space. No biggie, tho. I have systems in five rooms so far....and some leftover gear still (which is as you said, easy to acquire/accumulate).

 

[DVinylfan]

Voted "It will do for now, working on or hoping to get a better/bigger space." because voting either option "my space sucks.." feels defeatist and that isn't how I choose to live.
Due to domestic limitations my speakers are crammed into corners of the room. They sound correspondingly terrible.
But one day soon I'll buy them a room in a new home where they'll have the space to breathe to sound as wonderful as they are.

 

[xanalog]

One of the considerations when we were looking at houses (25 years ago) was how the hifi would work

The "art of compromise" is always at play, though.

I nixed so many house choices because I was not about to compromise the living-spaces that were not conducive to music.
Like, did I really need (want or care for) a Jacuzzi bathtub?? Heck no!
Some dozen years later, it is still a win-win for the both of us.

 

[MattHooper]

I am very happy with my listening room.

It’s the front room on the main floor of our house, which would traditionally have been the living room. We started with it furnished as a living room with a sofa on one side and two big stuffed chairs on the other end near the bay windows. However I co-opted it as my two channel listening room early on. (it was going to be one of those “ living rooms” that nobody actually does much living in otherwise).

Even back then, possibly due to the odd shapes given with the bay windows as well as a large opening to the hallway, and a suitable amount of furniture, the room sounded really good. A few speaker manufactures who dropped by to listen we’re surprised how good speakers sounded in the room, even big ones.

Nonetheless, I got the Home Theatre bug and the only room I had at my disposal was the same room. I wanted it renovated for use as a Home Theatre with surround sound, but also maintaining my separate two channel system. I hired an architect and an acoustician to help renovate the room. There was quite a bit of room treatment involved (though made to not look like room treatment) .

In the end, it came out sounding better than ever.

Of course it’s not absolutely perfect. It doesn’t totally solve every issue in the bass frequencies. But even there I’ve got smooth enough response to satisfy me, and generally sound reproduction is wonderful in the room.

 

[Somafunk]

Not really as it’s too small at 4.6m x 3.6m x 2.4m but I’ve lived in this tiny bungalow since I left my parents and will never move, so I made the most of what I have with room treatment etc.

It does the job, that’s about it

 

[RayDunzl]

Satisfied here.

 

[Chrispy]

Satisfied here.

Not home thing, but curious, do you use any sort of gear in your gliders for music?

 

[izeek]

even if i had a larger place, id still have it all laid out the same.
im in an apartment, all my gear is in the living room. i wouldn't have it any other way. im lucky enough to have a wife that loves music and enjoy being in the room with her. the room is about us.
the tv is muted and on cc if it's on. if someone wants to watch something, then we turn the music off. mostly, there will be music playing.

 

[RayDunzl]

Not home thing, but curious, do you use any sort of gear in your gliders for music?

Not me.

Listen to the airflow and use a handheld to hear and communicate with other pilots and check airport weather.