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Making odd-sized room rectangular with movable partition wall or curtain

exponent_of_sock

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I'm converting my office into a listening/audio restoration (mixing) room. Most of the material I work with is 100-year-old 78 RPM jazz records with little in the way of usable information below 200 Hz. That said, I still listen to modern music in the room and I want the response to be as flat as possible.

One of the bigger limitations is that the room has a smaller back section that's about four feet more narrow on one side. I have an upright piano in there and some shelves, and I'd like to cordon that off from the rest of the room when I'm doing serious audio work. I'm thinking of putting up a movable thick acoustical curtain or partition wall. First impressions from research is that they're generally not cheap and that the best curtains are about as effective as the movable walls.

The space to be blocked off by a curtain or wall is 8 feet high and a 9 feet wide

Any recommendations, thoughts, or warnings? I suppose I could get a bunch of high quality panels on stands, but the movable curtain or wall would be more practical to use and store. I'm in the midst of ordering some room treatments from GIK, but I'm considering the whole picture at the same time. Thanks!

I use Genelec 8351b monitors, so I can fix a lot with GLM, but would like to start with the best possible room.
 

Hipper

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GIK will offer free advice (in the hope of selling you stiff of course).

GIK panels (such as the 244) are pretty light so easy to move although I only have the basic broadband panels (no flexrange etc.). I bought from GIK separate wooden feet for them.

It would be useful if you could post a plan or photos of your room.

I'd also recommend you find some way to measure what you hear at your listening position if you want the best sound. It's very difficult to do this just by ear. It can be done perhaps by ear and test tones but many on here (including me) use the free software Room EQ Wizard (REW) but it's not that free as you need a microphone, mic stand a cable plus a lap top or similar computer power. And it takes a bit of time (and brain effort in my case!) to learn.

An open space at the back of the room is not necessarily a bad thing unless there's a problem with noise coming into the listening room. The main issue might be that it if it's off centre it makes your room asymmetrical so that what you hear is not balanced, left to right.

The basics principles to getting the best sound in your room are:

1. Carefully position you speakers and listening position.
2. Use room treatment.
3. Use a sub or subs perhaps.
4. Use DSP/EQ to finish off.

Some of these may be domestically impractical but the more you can do the better the chance of success.

You may be concerned about the digital nature of DSP/EQ but any damage the conversion from analogue and back again (providing you have a decent ADC and DAC) should pale into insignificance compare to the improvement in sound. Obviously others disagree but there is some discussion on this site about it.
 
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