Room treatment of L shaped room ?

[Xenio]

Hello,

I have a home theater with one 65" oled TV (hopefully one day 77" or 83"), 4 focal aria 906, 1 aria cc900 (center speaker), one focal sub1000f and a denon avc x3700h

According to ASR measurements, the receiver and speakers are great. Probably not the center one, but I don't really know what I could do. I have no measurements for the sub but I do think it's not a bad one per se. I do have room correction from audyssey.

My room is L shaped :

The red rectangle is my couch (not the one seen on the background image), X are the speakers, and the big dot is the sub. Actual photos :

Currently, even just speaking can be not that pleasant if the room is cleaned. Also when the sub is doing it's job there are vibrations IN the walls ..... like metallic ones erf

I want to improve the acoustic of this setup. I was wondering what I could and should do ?

- Putting mineral wool panels on the big white wall so that it absorbs some energy to compensate for the lack of reflections from the open side ?
- Putting some panels on the ceiling ? A carpet on the floor where there is the little table ?
- Putting panels behind each speaker ?
- Finding something better than what I use to have the center speaker a bit angled

Also my surround speakers are not even above the side of the couch (need higher stands), and they are super close, if we are two in the couch, well, we don't really ear that much the speaker from the other side.
What would be the solution ? 2-way bipolar speaker high up on the back wall ? (like focal aria sr900, not forcefully those, just to see what I'm talking about)
I don't know if it would really help ?

Finally, would going for a second sub and/or floorstanding speakers help ? Mainly the second sub since I'm probably just convincing myself that floorstanding speakers would be good because it looks good lmao.

I guess buying a umik 1 and measuring everything would be the first step.

Any other ideas ?
Thanks in advance

 

[Keith_W]

I guess buying a umik 1 and measuring everything would be the first step.

Diagnosis comes before treatment. Nobody should attempt acoustic treatment without taking measurements first. Get your UMIK1, take some measurements, identify some specific issues, and we can talk

 

[Philbo King]

I also have an L-shaped room. I made a total of 12 2'x4'x2" absorbers (A long room, 32'x15', with a bar area for the 'bottom' of the L about 10'x12'). Of the 12, I had to put 8 of them in the bar area, and only 4 in the large room, to tame the dips & peaks. The smaller bar area was the source of most of my standing waves. I also have a large sofa in to middle, and another large sofa and love seat against the back wall to tame bass reonances. It did help a lot.

 

[DVDdoug]

I see a lot of hard surfaces... But I don't imagine that you want to put a big rug on that nice floor...

I don't think the shape is a big problem. It might create different bass resonances but not necessarily worse.

Also when the sub is doing it's job there are vibrations IN the walls ..... like metallic ones erf

Is it only one spot? Do you have metal studs? If you push on the wall, does it stop? Maybe you can add some screws to keep the wallboard from vibrating or to lock everything together? Otherwise, it might require some minor "re-construction". Or, if it's in one location, try drilling a hole and squirt-in some expanding foam insulation.

 

[Xenio]

I see a lot of hard surfaces... But I don't imagine that you want to put a big rug on that nice floor...

I don't think the shape is a big problem. It might create different bass resonances but not necessarily worse.


Is it only one spot? Do you have metal studs? If you push on the wall, does it stop? Maybe you can add some screws to keep the wallboard from vibrating or to lock everything together? Otherwise, it might require some minor "re-construction". Or, if it's in one location, try drilling a hole and squirt-in some expanding foam insulation.

It's hard knowing from where it comes, I'll try to... but yeah, it's made of placopatre, so it's metal stud. It's possible that most of this vibration comes from the ceiling light though. I'll try to see if I can do something about it

Yeah, the floor is nice, but I'll just find an even nicer rug The room is big, the floor will be visible at the other side

Diagnosis comes before treatment. Nobody should attempt acoustic treatment without taking measurements first. Get your UMIK1, take some measurements, identify some specific issues, and we can talk

I think I'll buy one yeah, can't do anything without it.

Though... The thing about bipolar speaker high up on the walls vs what I have now is probably not something I have to measure to know if it's better

 

[boxerfan88]

Sofa right up against the back wall is bad. Moving the sofa forward by about a foot or so will help in the bass region. However, most will have no choice but to leave it.

 

[kiwifi]

Hello,

I have a home theater with one 65" oled TV (hopefully one day 77" or 83"), 4 focal aria 906, 1 aria cc900 (center speaker), one focal sub1000f and a denon avc x3700h

According to ASR measurements, the receiver and speakers are great. Probably not the center one, but I don't really know what I could do. I have no measurements for the sub but I do think it's not a bad one per se. I do have room correction from audyssey.

My room is L shaped :
View attachment 452229





























The red rectangle is my couch (not the one seen on the background image), X are the speakers, and the big dot is the sub. Actual photos :View attachment 452230View attachment 452234View attachment 452233View attachment 452232View attachment 452231


Currently, even just speaking can be not that pleasant if the room is cleaned. Also when the sub is doing it's job there are vibrations IN the walls ..... like metallic ones erf

I want to improve the acoustic of this setup. I was wondering what I could and should do ?

...

Any other ideas ?
Thanks in advance

Have you considered rotating the entire setup 90 degrees anti-clockwise? This would put the LCR pointing towards the kitchen and the main listening position would no longer be against a wall.

 

[Bjorn]

Diagnosis comes before treatment. Nobody should attempt acoustic treatment without taking measurements first. Get your UMIK1, take some measurements, identify some specific issues, and we can talk

There's no need for measurements to treat specular energy.

 

[refractioncat]

Geometrically your front and back wall would be expected to cause timbral issues as specific frequencies get cancelled or enhanced by the reflections. Broadband absorbers behind the speakers and listeners (thick and heavy acoustic curtain for the window) would be expected to help. When looking at the speaker directivity measurements the floor and ceiling reflections are a source of significant timbral error, so a thick rug and good ceiling absorbers could help.

The left side wall would cause asymmetrical first reflections as the right side is open. At higher frequencies their phase would vary significantly between the ears and probably psychoacoustically register as a sense of the space around you rather than a timbral issue, but at lower frequencies the cancellations are more consistent between the ears. A broadband absorber of sufficient size could help; I generally don't understand the idea of thin absorbers for first reflections as they remove high frequencies disproportionately and leave the low-frequency reflections unaffected. I would test whether a thick panel in that location improves the sound or not.

For speech the most likely issue is flutter echoes when two reflective surfaces are in parallel. Treating one of the two surfaces (e.g. either a rug or a ceiling panel in the case of vertical flutter echoes, or one of the opposed walls in the case of horizontal ones) is how they can be mitigated.

The centre speaker is a MTM design, meaning that it is likely to have a narrow directivity so the outer two seats sound significantly different from the middle one. it looks like there might be enough vertical room below the TV to replace it with another 906 for more even dispersion.

Raising the surround speakers high up and placing the left one as close to the corner as possible (as a front ported speaker, the 906 shoule be able to be right against a wall without problems) would help reduce the distance differences. Moving the entire setup to the right and increasing the distance of the surround speakers, if you're able to, could also help a bit. I'm not convinced that a dipole speaker would do anything useful compared to just getting some distance between the speaker and the nearest listener. It should be possible to find mounts that let you place bookshelf speakers high on the wall, angled downwards.

Whether a second sub would help is impossible to know without bass measurements. If the sub is transmitting vibrations to the structure, decoupling feet could help reduce the wall vibrations; otherwise you might have to renovate the wall in some way to address its rattling.

 

[AnalogSteph]

All I'm saying is you've got your work cut out for ya. Lots of valid points have already been brought up - you are well aware of your bare walls, but my main concern would be that the basic positioning / layout stinks. Poor symmetry, not a great listening position (and with a window behind you, it's not like you can easily place absorbers there). I would 100% support a 90° turn to the left. (Not sure what to do with your massive couch at that point, but that's another problem.) The "surround speakers next to listening position" problem may resolve itself at this point. And yes, those speaker stands are definitely too low.

 

[Bjorn]

Hello,

I have a home theater with one 65" oled TV (hopefully one day 77" or 83"), 4 focal aria 906, 1 aria cc900 (center speaker), one focal sub1000f and a denon avc x3700h

According to ASR measurements, the receiver and speakers are great. Probably not the center one, but I don't really know what I could do. I have no measurements for the sub but I do think it's not a bad one per se. I do have room correction from audyssey.

My room is L shaped :
View attachment 452229





























The red rectangle is my couch (not the one seen on the background image), X are the speakers, and the big dot is the sub. Actual photos :View attachment 452230View attachment 452234View attachment 452233View attachment 452232View attachment 452231


Currently, even just speaking can be not that pleasant if the room is cleaned. Also when the sub is doing it's job there are vibrations IN the walls ..... like metallic ones erf

I want to improve the acoustic of this setup. I was wondering what I could and should do ?

- Putting mineral wool panels on the big white wall so that it absorbs some energy to compensate for the lack of reflections from the open side ?
- Putting some panels on the ceiling ? A carpet on the floor where there is the little table ?
- Putting panels behind each speaker ?
- Finding something better than what I use to have the center speaker a bit angled

Also my surround speakers are not even above the side of the couch (need higher stands), and they are super close, if we are two in the couch, well, we don't really ear that much the speaker from the other side.
What would be the solution ? 2-way bipolar speaker high up on the back wall ? (like focal aria sr900, not forcefully those, just to see what I'm talking about)
I don't know if it would really help ?

Finally, would going for a second sub and/or floorstanding speakers help ? Mainly the second sub since I'm probably just convincing myself that floorstanding speakers would be good because it looks good lmao.

I guess buying a umik 1 and measuring everything would be the first step.

Any other ideas ?
Thanks in advance

You need to turn the setup against the left walk if you want really good sound. The position today causes too many compromises.

 

[Xenio]

I did think about rotating 90degrees, but it's really bothersome since the TV is already mounted on the wall, speaker and hdmi cables are routed in the walls too and end up there, and it would render the whole room less usable.
We wouldn't have enough room to go around the couch with the surround there, and they would still be too close anyway (it's 3m wall to wall and the couch is like 2.5m), making the usage of the setup not great with more than one person on the center of the couch.


"The centre speaker is a MTM design, meaning that it is likely to have a narrow directivity so the outer two seats sound significantly different from the middle one. it looks like there might be enough vertical room below the TV to replace it with another 906 for more even dispersion."

I guess I could already try that, but there is not really the room for the 906, sure it will fit but it will impair TV visibility. Also later I'll buy a bigger TV.
Though, trying would help me see how bad those MTM designs are and I'll try to find another solution.


So the main thing would be finding wall mounts for the speakers and putting them high up on the wall and a bit further away, rather than buying di/bipolar speakers.
Testing something else than this MTM speaker for center
Putting panels on the big white wall and on the ceiling (i'm pretty sure it can't be worse doing that)

And buying a umik-1 to check everything