Have you heard a great listening room?

Bill, I don't know if I would classify my room as "great", but it is pretty good. It is 14' wide by 24' long. It has a vaulted ceiling that is 8' tall behind the speakers, rises at 45 degrees to 16', stays flat for 8', and slopes back down again at 45 degrees to the far wall at the other end from the speakers. This allows the sound to develop in an expanding manner for two-thirds of the room and then reflect back behind the chair like an auditorium. Seems to work well. There is an opening to the kitchen at the rear right end of the room, that allows any pressure wave build-up to release into the kitchen. Of course, with a low power system, I don't get alot of pressure wave build-up. It still needed first surface reflection control, and bass traps behind the speakers' corners. I have addressed those issues with some DIY lenses, panels, and traps. I believe that my good room makes my modest system sound better than some of my friends systems that have spent more money, but have less-than-good rooms.

If you have time, money, and an obsessive-compulsive disorder, you can build your own ideal listening room.
First, the room dimension ratio is more important than room size. The perfect room ratio is 1:1.4:1.9. An example would be ceiling 10 feet, width 14 feet, and length 19 feet. This ratio avoids room resonance from low frequencies. To further reduce room resonance, resilient channels should be used to isolate sheetrock from studs on the ceiling and the walls. Don't forget to use R-15 insulation, and solid wood doors to keep the sound contained in the listening room. The right amount of carpeting and drapes will absorb excess high frequencies. For more information, consult such books as The Complete Guide To High-End Audio by Robert Harley.

www.goodwinshighend.com specializes in building listening rooms. They're in MA. I heard the one at progressive audio with the avalon/spectral/MIT 2c3d system. It was nice. www.auralex.com has some good articles too.

Bill; it looks to me that at 25 X 16 X 9+, you already have excellent dimensions and the rest is set-up, furnishing, treating etc. At 14 X 22, I consider my room quite good with the limiting factor being the low 7 1/2 ft. ceiling ht.

think you alteady have a "winner" on your hands. If you don't have a good dedicated AC system, that's what I would look at 1st, but then it's my guess that you've already done that. Good luck with any project work. Keep us up-dated on your progress. Craig

Hi Lakefront:

I've heard a few and unfortunately it's not mine at the moment. I thought I would throw out one short thought.

The idea of an "ideal room" seems a little problematic to me. Sound includes direct sound and sound due to resonances, reverberation, reflections.. as you know. Seems like the speakers you use and their characteristics will have a big impact on how these interact in a room.

If you just look at one thing, like the off-axis radiation pattern of a specific speaker, it's not hard to see that different speakers will act differently in the same room. If you put a typical box, large panel area dipole, or open baffle ....ect ect...in a room it seems that a room that deals best with one might not be so hot with the other.

Have you thought about bringing a pro in? Talk to Albert Porter (I think it's Albert Porter) who posts here. I think he is in the middle of such a project.

Also, I'm sure Kirk's room was great but general advice would be to avoid creating dimensions that are even multiples or fractions such as 20/30.

Just found a fun Room Mode calculator on line at www.mcsquared.com/modecalc.htm which is kind of fun.

Just a thought. Have fun!

I remain,

the best room i have heard was a 20 x30 with a 12 foot ceiling. it had double sheet rock an was out of sqaure. the speakers were gen 11s. not the best system i have ever heard but the room was awsome. the system was first rate as well. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMEND NOT USING A ROOM CORRECTION DEVICE. i have never heard one of those worth 10 cents. if you use the dims you said, you can get great sound. the main thing is to treat the corners. or round them off with some type of tube trap.

Bill-The best sound I have heard comes from one of those cheap sleezy motel rooms that has hourly rates ;) Oh that's not what you were talking about, sorry :)
~Tim