New Hi Fi system is bright :(

[Keith_W]

Your sofa is right against the rear wall. This will ensure that any reflections will arrive at your ear with minimal delay and minimal attenuation. The large sofa in front of the rear wall will selectively attenuate longer wavelengths, but your head sits above the sofa and you will hear mostly high frequency reflections. As an experiment, go to your bedroom and retrieve your pillow. Put it behind your head and against the wall. If this improves things, you need to either reposition your setup so that the wall isn't so close, or put something on the wall (e.g. some drapery) to absorb the reflections.

 

[restorer-john]

Your sofa is right against the rear wall. This will ensure that any reflections will arrive at your ear with minimal delay and minimal attenuation. The large sofa in front of the rear wall will selectively attenuate longer wavelengths, but your head sits above the sofa and you will hear mostly high frequency reflections. As an experiment, go to your bedroom and retrieve your pillow. Put it behind your head and against the wall. If this improves things, you need to either reposition your setup so that the wall isn't so close, or put something on the wall (e.g. some drapery) to absorb the reflections.

He could always attach the sofa to the roof, glue the cushions on the side walls, staple the rug to the front wall and drag in the mattress from the bedroom, cut it in half and put a piece on the floor, either side, in front of each speaker.

 

[AnalogSteph]

To reiterate what others have said, while that room is a decent size it is way too barren to be any good acoustically. The barren walls, tiled floor and glass front are all way too reflective. It looks like a gym and no doubt sounds the part, flutter echo galore - no wonder things are bright. Having a wall directly behind the listening position is in no way helping matters. The seat is about the only object to provide substantial absorption or diffusion, and that's by no means cutting it.

This one is going to take some relatively drastic measures to straighten out. More furniture, acoustic panels for the wall behind the listener and behind the speakers, thick drapes for the window, a ceiling absorber and a thick carpet would all be beneficial.

 

[Sokel]

All suggestions about room treatment roughly translate to a couple of grand (more if they look nice too) and that's before addressing issues down low.
Does it make sense for a 1k$ speaker played through a TV?

Why not getting some nice Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX for less for example which are far more gentle,can be EQ'd like a charm and will need less care if the intension for this exists?

I don't think he married the KEFs,I see no ring on either of them

 

[KenA]

I’d try reorientate your room. Put your entertainment unit in front of the glass. Get heavy drapes over the glass. That would allow your speakers to come forward off the wall and not be in the way of walking, and your seated position won’t have a wall directly behind it. Get very heavy rugs between speakers and sofa, then get stuff on the walls, both reflective and absorbing to help mix it all up.

I read a review that compared the CXA81 with the CXA61 when they first came out, and claimed that the 81 the brighter of the two - or at least shouldn’t be put with bright speakers. But they’ve probably both got a pretty flat response.

 

[KenA]

He could always attach the sofa to the roof, glue the cushions on the side walls, staple the rug to the front wall and drag in the mattress from the bedroom, cut it in half and put a piece on the floor, either side, in front of each speaker.

Reality is, that would probably help a lot!

 

[fpitas]

He could always attach the sofa to the roof, glue the cushions on the side walls, staple the rug to the front wall and drag in the mattress from the bedroom, cut it in half and put a piece on the floor, either side, in front of each speaker.

I'd fill the room with spray foam. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Mart68]

All suggestions about room treatment roughly translate to a couple of grand (more if they look nice too) and that's before addressing issues down low.
Does it make sense for a 1k$ speaker played through a TV?

Why not getting some nice Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX for less for example which are far more gentle,can be EQ'd like a charm and will need less care if the intension for this exists?

I don't think he married the KEFs,I see no ring on either of them

A couple of grand? No I don't think so. It could cost that if you wanted. All that's needed is to kill the HF reflections, most anything not hard and shiny will do that.

Rugs, bookshelves, books can all be had for nothing in today's throwaway society. Most types of furniture also. Plants in pots are cheap unless you want something exotic.

For professional treatment, acoustic tiles are not expensive, couple of quid each.

It wouldn't take that much to get the balance to be more acceptable. The problem is there's next to nothing in the room except the speakers and the couch.

 

[Sokel]

I'd fill the room with spray foam. But maybe that's just me.

I once filled a gap in my garage exit with this stuff without gloves,it must took me more than an hour to take it off

 

[fpitas]

I once filled a gap in my garage exit with this stuff without gloves,it must took me more than an hour to take it off

Yeah, polyurethane glues skin just fine. I found that out constructing my speakers

 

[Sokel]

A couple of grand? No I don't think so. It could cost that if you wanted. All that's needed is to kill the HF reflections, most anything not hard and shiny will do that.

Rugs, bookshelves, books can all be had for nothing in today's throwaway society. Most types of furniture also. Plants in pots are cheap unless you want something exotic.

For professional treatment, acoustic tiles are not expensive, couple of quid each.

It wouldn't take that much to get the balance to be more acceptable. The problem is there's next to nothing in the room except the speakers and the couch.

Let's only think about the rug,What kind of thick rug that looks nice too and it's not made of plastic will cost less than a grand for this dimensions?

Curtains?Forget the hiend ones that women want,some decent ones will go to about 200-300 euro for that dimensions.

Add the rest and...

 

[Mart68]

Let's only think about the rug,What kind of thick rug that looks nice too and it's not made of plastic will cost less than a grand for this dimensions?

Curtains?Forget the hiend ones that women want,some decent ones will go to about 200-300 euro for that dimensions.

Add the rest and...

I was poor for a long time, I learned how to improvise, adapt, overcome

Even easier today with the internet. Go in freecycle or similar I bet someone is giving away a perfectly good set of curtains, perfectly good rugs. I know people who change out all their furniture every couple of years, give the old stuff away, sometimes the chairs have never even been sat in.

Maybe the o/p has the cash to do it all out mint? We don't know. The point is it can be done on the cheap if that was necessary (and acceptable to all parties).

 

[AnalogSteph]

All suggestions about room treatment roughly translate to a couple of grand (more if they look nice too) and that's before addressing issues down low.

Nah. Should be far cheaper with a bit of ingenuity and elbow grease in particular.

Why not getting some nice Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX for less for example which are far more gentle,can be EQ'd like a charm and will need less care if the intension for this exists?

Surprise! Bass aside, they are way more alike than different, and if anything the Sierra LX might be perceived as slightly brighter as a result of the widening around 3-5 kHz.

Easily compare loudspeakers measurements

www.spinorama.org

The situation could be alleviated with a more directional speaker, but it would take something fairly extreme to properly tame this dumpster fire. There's a ton of other speakers that are similar to or even wider than the R3 Metas (they have dispersion quite similar to Neumann KH 120 IIs).

 

[tinnitus]

Take an MLP measurement and see your RT60 time display

If it looks like this, you don't need any further treatment.

No measurements, no insights.

 

[Sokel]

Nah. Should be far cheaper with a bit of ingenuity and elbow grease in particular.

Surprise! Bass aside, they are way more alike than different, and if anything the Sierra LX might be perceived as slightly brighter as a result of the widening around 3-5 kHz.

Easily compare loudspeakers measurements

www.spinorama.org

View attachment 320907

The situation could be alleviated with a more directional speaker, but it would take something fairly extreme to properly tame this dumpster fire. There's a ton of other speakers that are similar to or even wider than the R3 Metas (they have dispersion quite similar to Neumann KH 120 IIs).

I only gave an example,don't eat me!
If you have listened to them I stand corrected!

(but if it was me with such a room and no intention to spend a dime I would choose VERY differently,the round headache of anything even remotely bright is my No1 enemy)

 

[DSJR]

This is what happens when Klippel rules one's head without taking the room acoustics into account! I'm going to suggest that this is why so many skilled speaker designers have put a gentle scoop in the lower kHz region, the last here being @Karl-Heinz Fink who seems to know EXACTLY what he's doing and why, but couldn't get through as to his speaker 'voicing' choices...

Without wholesale room 'quietening' of high frequencies and more soft furnishings to absorb the excess (which can end up 'killing' a room negatively), I'd suggest some eq being the cheapest option as changing the speakers may be an issue unless the supplying dealer is friendly on returns. So many speaker choices in different markets I daren't recommend any at the roughly £/$2k level.

A decent far more powerful power amplifier may well add a little more 'authority' to the perceived sound, but no, it's not a level matched A-B test, just a subjective vibe of 'added listening comfort' when a far more powerful good quality amp is used, especially with speakers like the KEFs with 3 - 4 ohm loading across the midrange which some amps may not like much... Mind you, 117WPC at 4 ohms should be enough for most purposes in a room that size.

 

[restorer-john]

I'd fill the room with spray foam. But maybe that's just me.

Gotta love spray foam. LOL

 

[restorer-john]

I once filled a gap in my garage exit with this stuff without gloves,it must took me more than an hour to take it off

Gorilla Grip. That chit is frightening...

 

[RosalieTheDog]

Did any of the previous suggestions help?

Did you connect the speaker wire to the top or bottom terminals? If you connected to the top, make sure the "Link" knobs on the back are fully clockwise. This engages the woofers.

It looks like you have a hard tile floor and not much on the walls. Adding a larger rug or some canvas pictures might help.

To the OP: this is good advice.

- Check first if there is a connexion problem.
- Then consider TV settings.
- Lastly, but perhaps most difficult to do something about it immediately, is that room does indeed look very barren. It's not that it lacks professional acoustic treatment, as much as furniture, bookshelves (literal ...), curtains, etc. that many people have and that do help the acoustics.
- If you don't want to change the living space so much, you can consider some EQ somewhere in the chain (which will cost additionally ...).

 

[thewas]

This is what happens when Klippel rules one's head without taking the room acoustics into account! I'm going to suggest that this is why so many skilled speaker designers have put a gentle scoop in the lower kHz region, the last here being @Karl-Heinz Fink who seems to know EXACTLY what he's doing and why, but couldn't get through as to his speaker 'voicing' choices...

I don't see a real scoop in the lower highs in his latest product on-axis, actually the opposite, namely a peak when you look at the early reflection curves which is usually very close to the PIR due to the lack of waveguide:

The R3 meta will have less energy in that region due to its waveguide:

Source: https://www.spinorama.org/compare.h...&origin1=ErinsAudioCorner&speaker1=Epos+ES14N