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Lack of sidewalls effect

Roy_L

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My living room is organized in a way that the speakers are placed next to the long wall of the room, so there practically are no near sidewalls (while the back wall is about 30cm behind the speakers). Could this be the reason why almost every speaker sounds to me a bit "dark", including speakers that are not measured as such? I always seem to need to add 3-4 db on top with EQ.
 
Could this be the reason why almost every speaker sounds to me a bit "dark"
I doubt it.

A lack of sidewall reflections would usually make the sound brighter, not darker.
 
Lack of side wall is great for sound being only 30 cm from the wall may be the issue. Try moving the away from the wall as your only reflection is from behind.
 
I am not sure what "Dark" really means, I think using common nomenclature about sound would be helpful, most agree the principal are: Low, Mids, Highs and spatial characteristics. The rest is just poetic jargon with no consensus about what they really mean IMO
 
"Dark" meaning something like that...

1736875968815.png
 
Lack of side wall is great for sound being only 30 cm from the wall may be the issue. Try moving the away from the wall as your only reflection is from behind.
Just be careful with SBIR if moving them away from the front wall. It can cause a suck out in the bass/lower mid.

IMG_7812.jpeg
 
My living room is organized in a way that the speakers are placed next to the long wall of the room, so there practically are no near sidewalls (while the back wall is about 30cm behind the speakers). Could this be the reason why almost every speaker sounds to me a bit "dark", including speakers that are not measured as such? I always seem to need to add 3-4 db on top with EQ.
I recently did same kind of setup and did not notice anything of like, just had to dial in bass again. The top end is cleaner now though compared to last placement where walls were a bit too close and added plenty of reflections, one could say even distortion with high volume. Perhaps one could say it's darker now in feel? But I'd just call it smoother and more correct.
What is your reference? Was your last setup different or is this just a general feel of things?
 
This could be anything from benign to catastrophic, depending on the vertical scale :D
Yes and it could mean dark as well as bright depending on the FR below 1kHz.
Front wall reflections and (missing) side wall reflections do not do much over 1kHz. So if the effect is in 1-20kHz it is probably not about reflections. (More so about the general "treatment" of the room.)
 
In my experience the stereo image is much more satisfying when the side walls are at least 1m away from the speakers, ideally 1.5m away.
 
In his book, Floyd Toole talks a lot about "early reflections" (mostly desirable) and I have one quote specifically about sidewall reflections:

"In uncontrolled experiments with audiophile friends, we decided that absorbing side wall (sound) reflections seemed to flatter some recordings (mostly pop/rock) while leaving the walls reflective flattered others (mostly classical and jazz)."

"The treatment of early reflections boundary areas is "optional": reflect, diffuse, or absorb, as the customer prefers."

"In the field architectural acoustics it has long been recognized that early reflections improve speech intelligibility."

"Early (sound) reflections had the same desirable effect on speech intelligibility as increasing the level of the direct sound... Late reflections (including reverberation) are undesirable, but reducing them should not be the first priority, which is to maximize the total energy in the direct and early-reflected speech sounds. Remarkably, even attenuation the direct sound had little effect on intelligibility in a sound field with sufficient early reflections."

"For speech intelligibility - a crucial consideration for movies - it is early reflections that are the main contributors. Early refection energy arriving within about the first 50 ms following the direct sound has the same effect on speech intelligibility scores as an equal increase in the direct sound energy."


"Early reflections also reduce the thresholds for detecting resonances in loudspeakers, making flawed loudspeakers more noticeable and revealing more timbral subtleties in music."


"Early reflections can reduce the timbral degradation and speech intelligibility loss in the phantom center image."
 
This could be anything from benign to catastrophic, depending on the vertical scale :D

Is that 1dB/Div? 5dB? 50dB?
I dunnow. Just what my minidsp / umik2 measured without me tinkering with any default settings.
(Can't repeat it I'm afraid, as I recently sold it).
 
What is your reference? Was your last setup different or is this just a general feel of things?
It's on every setup I've had and measured with my minidsp (which I don't have anymore), including several different speakers. I guess it's the room then; It's not a huge issue, I correct it by ear with my RME DAC's digital EQ.
 
It's on every setup I've had and measured with my minidsp (which I don't have anymore), including several different speakers. I guess it's the room then; It's not a huge issue, I correct it by ear with my RME DAC's digital EQ.

You may get some improvement if toe in speakers, pointing them directly at listening position.
 
Good to show pictures of the room.
But generally less early arriving reflections gives a smoother response with less harshness besides better insight into the recording.

Your speakers may be lacking some level (your graph doesn't show the y-axis), and also have higher distortion in the highs. I often find piston drivers lacking in resolution and clarity compared to compression drivers or certain planars. Quite easily heard in an AB test, but challenging to know exactly what frequencies it's in.
 
My living room is organized in a way that the speakers are placed next to the long wall of the room, so there practically are no near sidewalls (while the back wall is about 30cm behind the speakers). Could this be the reason why almost every speaker sounds to me a bit "dark", including speakers that are not measured as such? I always seem to need to add 3-4 db on top with EQ.

Hello Roy,

If all speakers sound a little "dark" to you:
How old are you?

Ability to hea high's decreases significally after the age of 50.
 
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