REW measurements and tips for optimization

[digitech1]

Hi everbody,

I am seeking for advice from this excellent forum and its members , as after reading tons of threads and testing I do not get any further to my desired goal.

I am trying to use digital and room acustic enhancements to optimize the acoustic/sound of my speakers in my living room. I have heard them in another room setup and it was beyond what I can accomplish in my living room. I can make a few adjustments here and there but I just do not know what to go for next.

If you dont mind let me give you some information of my setup.

I am running a 5.2.2 setup with a Denon X8500H AVR, some Quadral Platinum speakers and 2 SVS SB-2000 Pro Subs.

In order to optimize my room I ordered a UMIK-1 mic and used REW to get measurements of decay and frequency response. My AVR uses Audyssey XT32 and after running a measurement I compared the results of audyssey against non-audyssey. I used the audyssey graphs to adjust my current setup. I saw that especially in the low range (20HZ peak put up to 200 HZ easily) I have a very long decay time and huge room modes. I used the SVS subs DSP with a parametric EQ to level at least the frequency response as best as I could. I didnt make any adjustments to the audyssey curves of the left and right speaker in the App to tune the EQ afterwards.

My Room looks the following (please see pictures attached) and I am willing to invest into some feasible and potential diffusors or absorbers to enhance my acoustic. I just dont know if it will benefit according to my room setup.

I started my optimization journey with 2 Basstraps (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B077V3XK85/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) but to be honest, I didnt see any changes in the frequency response charts, nor in the waterfall chart. Isnt this where I should at least see a decay in the 50-200 HZ range (which is supposed to be the intended HZ range where the absorber filters frequencys) ?

As I didnt see any results in REW from my pass traps I removed them (due to WAF - could have convinced my wife but whats the point without measurable differences?)

I am thinking to put some absorbers oder diffusors (which one? diffusors or absorbers) onto my back wall to lower the decay time of my frequencies

I wouldnt know how to progress from now on - is there anything that you can recommend to me worth checking, doing, investing or whatsoever?

My Room size is 2.4H, 5M width and 8m long

Please see pictures of REW measurements of Front L Front R and Subs below - all done with audyssey XT32 and Subs adjusted with the DSP of the subs.

The Bass Traps in the pictures attached are only there because I just removed them from the corners, so no worries, they were placed in the corners in the back of the room.

Also find pictures of my living room attached to give you some vizualization and characteristics of the room

Left Speaker Pictures (Freq Response, Waterfall, Spectogram)

Right Speaker:

Sub

Please excuse any mistakes in writing - greetings from Germany

Please see Room Pictures attached

thank you so much in advance.

 

[Pawelekdabek]

Did you placed your bass traps in the centre of that room? If yes no wonder You haven't observed any change. Place them at least behind your front speakers. Ideally bass traps should be placed in corners but I can see your room is not regular.

However, two bass traps of this size will not be enough to solve all of your bass problems.

 

[digitech1]

Did you placed your bass traps in the centre of that room? If yes no wonder You haven't observed any change. Place them at least behind your front speakers. Ideally bass traps should be placed in corners but I can see your room is not regular.

However, two bass traps of this size will not be enough to solve all of your bass problems.

Hi Pawelekdabek,

I did, I did place the bass traps behind the right speaker and behind the surround right speaker in the corner, but I didnt find any differences in the above charts, shouldnt I see a shorter decay time or similar?

Apologies, the Bass traps in the room are just in the middle of the room on these pictures because I removed them shortly before I took the pictures.

 

[dasdoing]

your waterfalls actualy don't look bad above 30Hz.
is there an absorbtion graph for that basstraps? I doubt they do anything below 30Hz where your main ringing is.
for that 37Hz-ish mode they perhaps can do something, but you have to look at the product graph if they absorb there

 

[digitech1]

your waterfalls actualy don't look bad above 30Hz.
is there an absorbtion graph for that basstraps? I doubt they do anything below 30Hz where your main ringing is.
for that 37Hz-ish mode they perhaps can do something, but you have to look at the product graph if they absorb there

there is. the pictures were taken with basstraps though

see below

 

[dasdoing]

the pictures were taken with basstraps though

yea, makes sense. try them in the two nearby corners, as allready mentioned

View attachment 104540

more of a "mid-bass trap" lol

 

[Pawelekdabek]

Could you measure only front right without bass traps and second time with two bass traps stacked as a column in that corner? By doing so, you will se if they are really efective.

Like that:

Spoiler

 

[digitech1]

Could you measure only front right without bass traps and second time with two bass traps stacked as a column in that corner? By doing so, you will se if they are really efective.

You mean the front R corner or the surround back corner? Shouldnt bass traps optimally be stacked in the first reflection wall corner?

 

[Pawelekdabek]

You can try both options If you want. I would start with front one since bass frequncies are omni-directional.

 

[digitech1]

You can try both options If you want. I would start with front one since bass frequncies are omni-directional.

What should I take a look at in order to see if they are effective? Waterfall decay times?

 

[Pawelekdabek]

All SPL, RT60, Decay, Waterfall. If they did something and your mic position is EXACTLY the same in both measurements there must be some differences.

 

[racerxnet]

Your SPL graph tells you where the nodes are. I had the same issue and moved the bass columns around and took a sweep for each new position. Look at the sweep from REW and see if there is an improvement. I had to move them all the way into the corners before the graph changed for the better. Anything below 300hz is room related problems.

 

[racerxnet]

Make sure your mic is using the cal file and centered.