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My Home Speakers, My Car, and Me...The Ballad of What's Going Wrong?

Okay, so tell me what's going wrong.

My new dedicated room is 13x12x8. It's small. Bare walls. Hard tile floor. Windows on the front wall.

I have some loaner speakers in there at the moment while my other speakers are on order. Right now I have Dynaudio Focus 340s. They are 7ft apart from one another, 29" from the side walls, and 19" from the front wall. I am sitting 9.5ft from the speakers with a glorious center image.

I have ran room correction via my Linn KDS/3, called "Space Optimization." It works very well.

Yet, here I am listening, and verything I put on gives me anxiety. Literally a vibratory feeling that sucks.It's maybe half of a song in and I'm feeling this way.

And I think to myself, "When I'm in my car, cranking my music, why don't I feel the same?" I feel fine in the car. Perfect, even.

So, why would I be feeling this way in my room?

I question if I naturally need to sit further back from the speakers (which I can't do: I'm out of space/room). It seems my best speaker experiences are when I'm at a friend's house and either I'm a really good distance away from the speakers, or the room is very large and/or the speakers are much further apart. All of this, of course, is contrary to what I experience in my car.

Then I think, well, let me try some near field listening with my speakers, and I end up with the same anxious feeling. 

There's really only one more thing I can try, and that is to move all of my gear into the parlor, which is a much bigger room. I couldn't leave my stuff there, because the wife wouldn't want it, but at least I could experiment to see if a greater distance from the speakers will be better. However, that doesn't answer my question of why I feel fine in my auto with the music blaring in such a confined space.

Could it be that a sealed up listening space, full of soft stuff, is optimal?

Here is a diagram of my room (if it matters).

http://imgur.com/PC8LyVX


Thanks for nay thoughts. It's driving me batty.
evolvist

Showing 5 responses by evolvist

evolvist OP
167 posts
 
Hmmm...thank for the thoughts.

So, even with room correction running in software, it's still could not be defeating real, physical room problems?

You're right. The room is very hard and bare.

My body associates music with relaxation, no matter the style or genre; it's been conditioned over the years to let everything else melt away and escape via sound.

So, it could be a form of shock?

Perhaps I put too much stock in the room correction. One would think that being 9.5ft away from the speakers would be great, especially having a nice even image in the room, despite the speakers, themselves, being less than optimal.

I'll see if I can get some blankets and such up on the walls today and see how that does.

Thanks, again! Any other thoughts are always welcome.
evolvist OP
167 posts
 
@yogiboy  - But, if one is expecting to get full range speaker quality, with a small room like that, just forget the concept that you'll ever reach the highest of highs and the lowest of lows?

These aren't very big speakers. In fact, once could argue that they are a bit bass shy.

I could be wrong, but with acoustic room treatment and/or correction, with 9.5ft away (which wouldn't be considered near field), and 7ft apart, from speaker to speaker, by all measures isn't that still considered optimal?

Now, we're talking about what, some small floorstanders, and maybe a sub to fill out the rest? 
evolvist OP
167 posts
 
+++10 guys! 

I'm determined to get to the bottom of this. I come from a world of headphones for 35-years, so I'm not exactly a noobie, but when I changed rooms this totally threw me for a loop. 

My hope is that I find a solution, but also that somebody will come across this thread in the future and it can help them out, too. 

So, I went and and purchased twelve 12"x12" diffusion panels,  twelve absorption panels of the same size, and two small bass traps for my front wall (I kept the receipt). I have a rug. So, I'll see how much I can do tonight. 

One thing about Space Optimization from Linn, it really is quality. The actual SQ is fantastic. I simply think I'm running into issues that software can't cover. 

We'll find out. :-)
evolvist OP
167 posts
 
I'm going to try out some acoustic treatment tonight. Technically I could pad the whole friggin' room if I wanted to. I have a fair sized rug that I can put between the speakers and myself for now. 

Hopefully this will give me a good idea where I'm headed. 

I'm just thinking that it can't be the loudness, otherwise I would feel strange at concerts or in my ride. I wouldn't think the room would be too small, but maybe it is. 

Anyway, it will be a worthy experiment this evening. 
evolvist OP
167 posts
 
Hey guys, a theoretical question (on my part), though some of you may know in practice:

If you've clicked on the photo of my room you'll notice to open alcoves on back wall. One leads to a hallway and the other leads to the kitchen. 

Now, imagine that I've made back wall my front wall, so that now my LP is with my back to the windows. 

At almost a 45 degree angle in my room the ports of the speakers are now aimed towards the alcoves. In other words, there is no front wall that each speaker is directly in front of. 

From there, in order to keep an equilateral triangle, my speakers must be 8ft apart, in order to keep the ports in "open air," which also increases my distance from the side walls, although each speaker is now not an equal distance from the side walls. Still, not only would the speakers no longer be firing into a square room, buy also those ports are "free" and not firing into a wall. I got the idea from here:

http://www.decware.com/paper14.htm

Unfortunately, my power went out in Houston, so I couldn't have a listen. 

So, is this sound theory (pun intended) and/or do you think they'll sound good without worrying about bass traps behind the speakers? 
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