How to Improve my Stereo System?

[Thomas_A]

You forgot the wall behind him, which is a worse offender than the front wall.

Depends much on the constraints of the room. I was giving the key points from the actual set-up as pictured. It it is possible to flip things around, then it is another story. Also, regarding back wall, I have my own view and that is that a close back wall is not a bad as many others think or say, as long as you can adjust bass with a parametric EQ. I would say from the setup that the sidewalls is a bigger issue, one open side and one close wall/windows - not possible to adjust at all with EQ.

 

[Chromatischism]

Depends much on the constraints of the room. I was giving the key points from the actual set-up as pictured. It it is possible to flip things around, then it is another story. Also, regarding back wall, I have my own view and that is that a close back wall is not a bad as many others think or say, as long as you can adjust bass with a parametric EQ. I would say from the setup that the sidewalls is a bigger issue, one open side and one close wall/windows - not possible to adjust at all with EQ.

Not just bass, though - the mid to high frequency reflections sound awful. Agree on the side walls. Best to have an open back and avoid the rear and equal sides.

 

[Thomas_A]

Not just bass, though - the mid to high frequency reflections sound awful. Agree on the side walls. Best to have an open back and avoid the rear and equal sides.

Well, I do have a sofa with soft head rests and also I tend to like sprawling on the couch, so there are some natural damping occurring. And my experiments have so far not concluded that reflections from close back wall is particularly bad. The boundary effect is rather high up in frequency and is easily damped compared to a longer distance, and also quite well diffused due to lateral reflections. I have tried to find studies on such experiments comparing "no wall to a close wall" regarding perceptual effects of reflections from frontal arrived sound, but not yet found what I am looking for .

 

[Guenselmann]

Really appreciate the lively discussion and all the helpful advice!
I am skeptical about rotating the setup as suggested because putting the TV and one speaker under the slope would waste a lot of space. But I will think about it and also have a UMIK-1 coming in while I keep my eyes open for one of the Denon AVRs. Or are there any news when those new Onkyos with Dirac Live will land in the EU? Might be worth waiting for some reviews, maybe they are actually good.

 

[Guenselmann]

Hey all, UMIK-1 arrived today. I followed the "Getting Started with REW: A Step-by-Step Guide" PDF to run a first measurement. Only did the left speaker looking from the listening position because I don't have much time today, unfortunately.
One thing I found strange was that I had to crank the volume up all the way to -10 dB on the Topping E30 to reach the level suggested in the guide. That was really loud. Maybe I did something wrong and the absolute level was actually louder? Not sure, will check next time.

Anyway, here is the response of the left speaker:

Oh boy, I already knew the bass was exaggerated, but didn't expect that much of a boost. It is also followed by a valley around 157 Hz, which looks worse with less smoothing (see appendix). I will do some research to understand the graph better.
One question: If I understand correctly, the black graph is the calibration curve of the UMIK. Is the measured SPL already compensated against this? I assume so because isn't that the point of calibration, but am asking because there is a hump in the high frequencies which correlates with the hump of the black line.

 

[Dj7675]

Hey all, UMIK-1 arrived today. I followed the "Getting Started with REW: A Step-by-Step Guide" PDF to run a first measurement. Only did the left speaker looking from the listening position because I don't have much time today, unfortunately.
One thing I found strange was that I had to crank the volume up all the way to -10 dB on the Topping E30 to reach the level suggested in the guide. That was really loud. Maybe I did something wrong and the absolute level was actually louder? Not sure, will check next time.

Anyway, here is the response of the left speaker:
View attachment 149700

Oh boy, I already knew the bass was exaggerated, but didn't expect that much of a boost. It is also followed by a valley around 157 Hz, which looks worse with less smoothing (see appendix). I will do some research to understand the graph better.
One question: If I understand correctly, the black graph is the calibration curve of the UMIK. Is the measured SPL already compensated against this? I assume so because isn't that the point of calibration, but am asking because there is a hump in the high frequencies which correlates with the hump of the black line.

Congratulations on your MIC and measurements. One thing I would recommend is to not being too reliant on a single point measurement. You can either do an RTA measurement or take 4-5 measurements around your listening position and average them. On my first go around with measurements I made changes based on just single point measurements that weren’t good. At a minimum EQing the low end to tame the bass will be important.

 

[Guenselmann]

Yes, I want to do a lot more before I draw too many conclusions. Just have to find the time. Thanks for the hint!

 

[abdo123]

Hey all, UMIK-1 arrived today. I followed the "Getting Started with REW: A Step-by-Step Guide" PDF to run a first measurement. Only did the left speaker looking from the listening position because I don't have much time today, unfortunately.
One thing I found strange was that I had to crank the volume up all the way to -10 dB on the Topping E30 to reach the level suggested in the guide. That was really loud. Maybe I did something wrong and the absolute level was actually louder? Not sure, will check next time.

Anyway, here is the response of the left speaker:
View attachment 149700

Oh boy, I already knew the bass was exaggerated, but didn't expect that much of a boost. It is also followed by a valley around 157 Hz, which looks worse with less smoothing (see appendix). I will do some research to understand the graph better.
One question: If I understand correctly, the black graph is the calibration curve of the UMIK. Is the measured SPL already compensated against this? I assume so because isn't that the point of calibration, but am asking because there is a hump in the high frequencies which correlates with the hump of the black line.

the bass boost is very easy to deal with, I'm just impressed at how good your response is above 100Hz! Holy molly that's golden.

 

[Thomas_A]

Hey all, UMIK-1 arrived today. I followed the "Getting Started with REW: A Step-by-Step Guide" PDF to run a first measurement. Only did the left speaker looking from the listening position because I don't have much time today, unfortunately.
One thing I found strange was that I had to crank the volume up all the way to -10 dB on the Topping E30 to reach the level suggested in the guide. That was really loud. Maybe I did something wrong and the absolute level was actually louder? Not sure, will check next time.

Anyway, here is the response of the left speaker:
View attachment 149700

Oh boy, I already knew the bass was exaggerated, but didn't expect that much of a boost. It is also followed by a valley around 157 Hz, which looks worse with less smoothing (see appendix). I will do some research to understand the graph better.
One question: If I understand correctly, the black graph is the calibration curve of the UMIK. Is the measured SPL already compensated against this? I assume so because isn't that the point of calibration, but am asking because there is a hump in the high frequencies which correlates with the hump of the black line.

Bass hump is expected and should be fixed with some parametric EQ. The rest looks rather fine in balance. I am not sure but it looks like you need to add calibration curve.

(If you have some thick bed matresses or containing foam or other thick facbric you could experiment with those by covering the wall directly behind the speakers. Not that you should use them but just to test evaluate audible effects at listening position.)

 

[Chromatischism]

the bass boost is very easy to deal with, I'm just impressed at how good your response is above 100Hz! Holy molly that's golden.

He's using 1/6 smoothing though which is quite a lot. Variable would probably be better for a full-range measurement.

If you're up to tackling the bass, measure from 10-300 Hz and set your vertical axis to the same. And turn off smoothing.