Share your in-room measurements?

[Sal1950]

Let me know what you think about the measurements and my ideas. I welcome any suggestion to conduct further tests and aim to improve the results.

Beautiful view!
I would highly suggest some additional room treatment, EQ can only accomplish so much.
I think that would be a very reflective room that could really use some taming.
JMHO

 

[Albert Dagger]

Beautiful view!
I would highly suggest some additional room treatment, EQ can only accomplish so much.
I think that would be a very reflective room that could really use some taming.
JMHO

Thank you! I agree, the room would benefit from more treatment for sure. I have some acoustic panels behind the couch, but I am worried about adding more since this is also my living room. I don't want it to look like a mixing studio!

 

[Thomas_A]

Thank you! I agree, the room would benefit from more treatment for sure. I have some acoustic panels behind the couch, but I am worried about adding more since this is also my living room. I don't want it to look like a mixing studio!

The panel behind does not really do so much. My suggestions would be

- A large thick rug on the floor
- some more soft pillows
- a different (fabric, not leather) thick sofa (with soft neck rests)
- a small coffee table in front of the sofa

It may be incompatible with your preference of style though....

 

[kemmler3D]

I think the sofa looks cool and you should keep it, but a thick rug and more throw pillows (honestly, I normally hate throw pillows, but...) might help. Or a nice cushioned ottoman, that kind of thing.

 

[Albert Dagger]

The panel behind does not really do so much. My suggestions would be

- A large thick rug on the floor
- some more soft pillows
- a different (fabric, not leather) thick sofa (with soft neck rests)
- a small coffee table in front of the sofa

It may be incompatible with your preference of style though....

I think the sofa looks cool and you should keep it, but a thick rug and more throw pillows (honestly, I normally hate throw pillows, but...) might help. Or a nice cushioned ottoman, that kind of thing.

I can try with a porous and thick rug and some more soft pillows. It's easy to remove these items in case one doesn't like them. My partner and I love hi-fi gear in the living room, especially the speakers, but we are not huge fans of rugs. We can give it a try...

The sofa is definitely staying. it's an original Danish piece, and we searched extensively to find this precise design and colour

 

[kemmler3D]

I can try with a porous and thick rug and some more soft pillows. It's easy to remove these items in case one doesn't like them. My partner and I love hi-fi gear in the living room, especially the speakers, but we are not huge fans of rugs. We can give it a try...

The sofa is definitely staying. it's an original Danish piece, and we searched extensively to find this precise design and colour

If you come to the conclusion that you need to mitigate the reflections from the leather, you could always put a blanket over the back of the couch during listening sessions.

 

[Sal1950]

you could always put a blanket over the back of the couch during listening sessions.

That's what I do. I have a leather couch along the L wall and I keep a heavy blanket
folded over the arm on the side closest to the L speaker and also a Mexican blanket over
the back. It's really hard when you have very irregular shaped, open floor plan rooms
like we do.

 

[ExPerfectionist]

I've used the Audyssey App for room correction, using the three curves below. I have a 4dB low-shelf boost and a slight tilt for all curves, just different cut-offs as the centre and the surround speakers don't run full range. I don't have a sub. Room corrections have a curtain at 4KHz (no room correction beyond that frequency).

My current system:
Denon x6400h AVR, pre-out to Marantz AMP10
Monitor Audio Gold 200 5G, Centre 5G, FX 5G, Monitor Audio in-ceiling speakers.
More details in my profile description.

View attachment 316719 View attachment 316720 View attachment 316721

I've checked how the room responds using REW and a UMIK mic. I've measured at the main listening position, with the mic at 90 degrees. You can see the aggregated results of the 5 bed channels below (the first picture with uncorrected measurements, the second with Audyssey on, Dynamic EQ off, and the target curves above as filters).

The two speakers sloping down after 2KHz are the surrounds. The three speakers with a slight rise after 2KHz are the fronts and the centre. I think I will try to correct that to match the curves of the surrounds. Overall, the bass response has much improved, imaging has improved, and also the level matching between channels. The surround experience is more immersive. The stereo response is also much better.

I've tried a full-range correction and didn't like it because Audyssey was boosting too much beyond 10KHz. The treble sounded unnatural even if more 'airy' (I wouldn't know how else to describe it). It gives the feeling of a wider soundstage. So, I tried different curtains. I first stopped at 500/600Hz and the result was not as good. Correcting up to 3/4KHz is better and I will try even higher to smoothen the response of the fronts. Some instruments and vocals can sound a tad bright because of that rise between 2KHz and 6KHz.

Rt in the room is higher than what you find in treated theatres. T20 is 0.5 at 1KHz and goes up to 0.7/0.8 at 4KHZ/6KHz. Dirac might be able to reduce these values, but I haven't tried.

Note:
Dynamic EQ is off and stays off. I mainly listen to music and these settings are perfectly fine. Dynamic EQ boosts the surround and height speakers, as well as increasing bass and treble. Using Dynamic EQ at -15dB is better but still not good. For me, the best solution is not using Dynamic EQ at all.

Things to try in the near future:
- Use MultiEQ X with increased headroom to further improve on the target curve and the EQ filters.
- Use REW to create EQ filters (I'm reluctant to try this because I am already quite happy with a basic correction like the one I did)
- Use Dirac and compare it with Audyssey.

View attachment 316717

View attachment 316718


Here, you can see how I measured the room. Pretty typical stuff, UMIK at 90 degrees at the listening position, ear height. There is no wall from where I took the photo, so an uneven response between the left and right speakers is expected. The room also has many reflective surfaces, and could probably use more absorption (or a reduced volume).

View attachment 316722

Let me know what you think about the measurements and my ideas. I welcome any suggestion to conduct further tests and aim to improve the results.

I agree with others regarding putting a rug down. There's plenty of options including things that would blend in and be very minimally invasive in the room design.

Also it looks like your center channel is aimed at your knees. You may get better clarity by propping it up in the front so the speaker is aimed at your ear level.

And if you can move the couch forward even 6-8", maybe put a narrow table behind for tissue, chargers, remotes, etc., that would get the seating a little further from the back wall boundary that is reflecting behind your head and affecting some of the bass boominess. The panels above your head help bring down ringing and echo in the room, but the sound right behind your head still reflects off that bare wall.

 

[Albert Dagger]

I've done further measurements to test the impact of a blanket over the leather couch, of the curtains rolled down, and a rug.
Putting a thick blanket over the couch or rolling down the curtains didn't make much difference (just talking about measurements, no listening test). The only real difference was the thick rug on the floor. It tamed down frequencies between 1KHz and 5KHz, and reduced the reverberation time of about 0.1 for the same frequencies. No impact below or above that range. I would expect the differences measured with the rug to be definitely audible.

Measuring at a higher volume also changed a bit the results (and I don't have Dynamic EQ on). My room measures better at higher volumes.

 

[flipflop]

It tamed down frequencies between 1KHz and 5KHz, and reduced the reverberation time of about 1 second for the same frequencies.

That doesn't sound right. Can you post the RT measurements, please?

 

[Albert Dagger]

That doesn't sound right. Can you post the RT measurements, please?

My mistake. It was 0.1. From 0.8 to 0.7

 

[Kaameelis]

My fully OB DIY, 3-way, DSP corrected, 8 channels, 4 of them for 4 OB subwoofers.

 

[Chromatischism]

Dynamic EQ is off and stays off. I mainly listen to music and these settings are perfectly fine. Dynamic EQ boosts the surround and height speakers, as well as increasing bass and treble. Using Dynamic EQ at -15dB is better but still not good. For me, the best solution is not using Dynamic EQ at all.

I also listen to a lot of music and it stays on . It's not perfect, and it's not for bright speakers, but otherwise it's a net positive.

The surround speakers are easily adjusted in speaker setup.

 

[Todd k]

My revel salon 2,s in a 24 x 18 room with cathedral ceiling. This REW sweep was revels playing full spectrum no subs. Was surprised of results, had no clue I have a good room. Prefer to listen though with 4 15” subs on. I like a pressurized room With visceral bass.

 

[Albert Dagger]

I also listen to a lot of music and it stays on . It's not perfect, and it's not for bright speakers, but otherwise it's a net positive.

The surround speakers are easily adjusted in speaker setup.

Setting the reference offset to -15dB is ideal for my listening volumes. I generally listen to music at 55 to 65 (on the 0-98 scale), depending on the type of music and the mastering. Most surround and atmos mixes are quite dynamic and can be listened to at 65 without fatigue or annoyance. At this volume, DEQ with a -15dB offset does nothing, as it should! But at lower volumes, it is still not for me. I prefer having it off.

My next goal is to purchase the MultEQ X pc app and try to get the best EQ I can for my room. That counts more than using DEQ at this stage. I read everywhere on this website that frequencies above 250/500 should be left alone, but in my case it does sound better if I go higher, for the surrounds at least to 1KHz and for the fronts and centre to 6KHz. It might be theoretically incorrect to do that, but it's all better balanced. My speakers are well designed, I think the problem is the room

 

[Vuki]

My revel salon 2,s in a 24 x 18 room with cathedral ceiling. This REW sweep was revels playing full spectrum no subs. Was surprised of results, had no clue I have a good room. Prefer to listen though with 4 15” subs on. I like a pressurized room With visceral bass.

You don't have perfect room. You just don't know how to adjust dB (vertical) scale in REW. It should be 50dB you had it at 190dB.

 

[TurtlePaul]

My revel salon 2,s in a 24 x 18 room with cathedral ceiling. This REW sweep was revels playing full spectrum no subs. Was surprised of results, had no clue I have a good room. Prefer to listen though with 4 15” subs on. I like a pressurized room With visceral bass.

Vuki mentioned that your vertical scale is off. Also, you can’t measure at 40 dB. Then you are just measuring room noise and not speakers. Crank that up to 75 dB or so.

 

[YSC]

My revel salon 2,s in a 24 x 18 room with cathedral ceiling. This REW sweep was revels playing full spectrum no subs. Was surprised of results, had no clue I have a good room. Prefer to listen though with 4 15” subs on. I like a pressurized room With visceral bass.

This don't look better than my untreated tiny computer desk setup... it have 10+db swings below 200hz, and above there there are low and high shelve for similar degree... it just the vertical scale goes from standard 50db scale to 190db

 

[Todd k]

Vuki mentioned that your vertical scale is off. Also, you can’t measure at 40 dB. Then you are just measuring room noise and not speakers. Crank that up to 75 dB or so.

REW has me always a little confused. I got this reading with the help of member Sarumbear who coached me thru to this point. Not sure how to change verticle scale. That’s what I like about ASR, there is always someone who knows more than me that can teach me some things about audio. Anyone that can easily explain to this caveman how to get scale correct please let me know. Thanx

 

[goat76]

REW has me always a little confused. I got this reading with the help of member Sarumbear who coached me thru to this point. Not sure how to change verticle scale. That’s what I like about ASR, there is always someone who knows more than me that can teach me some things about audio. Anyone that can easily explain to this caveman how to get scale correct please let me know. Thanx

You should turn up the volume on your pre-amp and make a new measurement with an average level of around 75 dB. When that is done, you find the settings for the vertical window in one of the settings around the right upper corner oboe the measurement window. Change that to 50 dB from 200 dB you have now.