Whole Room SQ Optimization?

[Zed]

Hi. I’m hoping this topic is covered somewhere, and to educate myself on…

For non-critical listening spaces, in which there is either no fixed listening positions, and/or limited ability to apply room treatment, how does one achieve the best “average” sound possible? Meaning…optimized for an average of all listening areas.

For instance, we spend more time in our kitchen than maybe any other room. It’s on the larger side, and I have open shelving for speakers at around 6ft up, in addition to one space where a sub would work (due to limited power outlets, in this 120 year old house). I’m not carpeting my kitchen. I have Canton Karat 920DC speakers in there now, and an old tube receiver is being replaced with hypex nc250mp amp (on order), and a minidsp flex (on order), with roon pi4 as source. No sub yet.

In addition, our living/dining room is similarly challenging, with a pair of Monitor Audio BX2’s on wall brackets 7’ up (angled down) an svs sb-1000, and also hypex/flex/roon. The speakers are high up due to space limitations. That room at least has some carpeting, sofas, and opportunities to create a preset for a single listening position, but mainly looking for the best possible average of the entire room, as we rotate around.

Specifics on equipment and spaces aside, I’m hoping that with Dirac set to the widest arrangement, and decent enough power to choose from a wider array of bookself speakers, I can achieve the best sq possible, under the conditions.

Thoughts and suggested reading would be much appreciated.

 

[RickSanchez]

Well, take this for what it's worth -- which is very, very little as this is something I know almost nothing about -- but would you be better off designing your system around omni-directional speakers? (Instead of the directional speakers you have now.) Seems like your situation is well-suited for omnis:

• "non-critical listening spaces"
• "no fixed listening positions"
• "the best possible average of the entire room, as we rotate around"

You could use your miniDSP Flex to manage the crossover with your subs, plus any other EQ you need to do.

 

[abdo123]

Well, take this for what it's worth -- which is very, very little as this is something I know almost nothing about -- but would you be better off designing your system around omni-directional speakers? (Instead of the directional speakers you have now.) Seems like your situation is well-suited for omnis:

• "non-critical listening spaces"
• "no fixed listening positions"
• "the best possible average of the entire room, as we rotate around"

You could use your miniDSP Flex to manage the crossover with your subs, plus any other EQ you need to do.

Easier said than done since full range omnidirectional speakers don’t really exist.

 

[abdo123]

With limited ability to apply room treatment nothing will improve sound quality wherever you sit in the room.

Perhaps maybe you can do some low Q filters to bring down the bass a bit so people sitting in the corners aren’t deafened by the bass.

 

[Zed]

With limited ability to apply room treatment nothing will improve sound quality wherever you sit in the room.

Perhaps maybe you can do some low Q filters to bring down the bass a bit so people sitting in the corners aren’t deafened by the bass.

Thank you, that’s good food for thought. Although, we have no corner seating.

 

[Hipper]

Perhaps you could show us photos of these rooms and point out the areas you want the music to sound good.

It will be difficult to get the best sound at all locations so it might be an idea to point to positions in order of importance if that's possible.

I'm have no experience on multi speaker (channel) use (as opposed to stereo) but perhaps some solution involving a number of small speakers plus sub with a suitable processor may be best? It might be possible to have one source but two sets of speakers if the rooms are next to each other.

 

[GalZohar]

Electronically, I think the best you can do is measure the seats that are used and EQ for any common issues. Auto-EQ systems already do that more or less, although he maximum number of positions measured is limited. I guess you should avoid EQing high frequencies completely.

For speaker positions I'm guessing the most important would be not to stick any speaker too close to anyone's face or that speaker will blow his ears and also completely mask the other speaker. But again what really matters is your specific limitations.

For room treatments you should probably see what limits your ability to treat and work on improving that limitation

 

[Zed]

Perhaps you could show us photos of these rooms and point out the areas you want the music to sound good.

It will be difficult to get the best sound at all locations so it might be an idea to point to positions in order of importance if that's possible.

I'm have no experience on multi speaker (channel) use (as opposed to stereo) but perhaps some solution involving a number of small speakers plus sub with a suitable processor may be best? It might be possible to have one source but two sets of speakers if the rooms are next to each other.

Hi. That’s a great suggestion, so here are some pics of the two rooms. One is our kitchen, which is probably the room that gets the most use, and the other is the living room. As you can see there’s nothing ideal about either. But hopefully with Dirac Live I’ll be able to create a best-of-worst scenario.

 

[Zed]

Related question: Would selecting speakers with a wider sound stage work better for situations like this? If so, how would one go about finding speakers which meet that criteria?

 

[Hipper]

Those are nice looking rooms which can't be spoilt by intrusive products like room treatment or large speakers etc..

Is this the sort of situation where people use Sonos?

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/home

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Easier said than done since full range omnidirectional speakers don’t really exist.

They don’t?

 

[abdo123]

They don’t?

Not really, for a full omni-speaker you need a disco ball covered with tweeters.

 

[Zed]

Those are nice looking rooms which can't be spoilt by intrusive products like room treatment or large speakers etc..

Is this the sort of situation where people use Sonos?

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/home

Hey, and thanks. You understand the challenge! I described the system in my initial post, but in a nutshell, it’s based currently on a tube amp and roon. Migrating to class-d and a minidsp shd with dirac in the coming weeks.