my room sounds dead


My new room sounds really dead. I have to increase volume 3 times to get the same playing level that I had in my first room. There is no bass response. The walls are composed by rockwool covered by middle density wood panels. Ceiling is covered by egg crates and there is a heavy carpet (that I don't want to change) on the floor. What are the more efficient solutions to increase the bass response and get my room sounding more "living". I use electrostatic panels as speakers (strangely sounded plenty of bass in my first room --> L:4m l:3,2m h:2,5m sorry I don't know what it makes in feet). I've tried to put speakers closers to the walls but it sounds worst. I can hear all low frequencies when I stand up but when I'm sitting, it sounds poor and lifeless.
Thank you for helping me to go to the right way.
aworkx
Sounds a lot like a speaker placement/ angle thing. I installed the big 4x8 sheets of "sounding board" Litterally sucked the sound out of my room. I then had to cover that with "live" hard vinyl panels. ( it worked) The "more bass when standing" issue ;in my view is placement,and angle. Try listening nearfield if possible/if all else fails.
Did you build this room yourself? or was it already like this? You need to undo most of the acoustic treatment already in the room. Start by removing the egg crates from the ceiling. This should liven things up a bit. The walls may be dificult to redo/undo, but they are absorbing a lot of sound which is why you have to turn the volume up so much more than in your previous room. Most good listening rooms use room treatment sparringly and one step at a time to make sure it does not become too dead. Let us know how the egg crate removal goes and we can go one step at a time if you want.
Generally speaking you should not have to provide wall-to-wall treatments to "tame" a room; thus the full wall treatment combined w/ full ceiling and carpet have caused a dead room. As Arcmania suggests, you can start by removing the ceiling treatment. I would do this in stages, you may find that leaving bits of treatment at the wall/ceiling junctions and some other strategic spots will help. However I would be prepared to add some reflective pannels if the remodel of the ceiling is insuficient. THese can be placed adjacent to the speakers on the wall, and/or behind the speakers, another spot is behind your listening position.
Good luck,
and happy listening
My room sounds "Dead" too. Usually something from 1973, 77 or 85. However, everyonce in a while there is a new "Phil" in act.
Your room is eeevevil and you should move right away. Anything dead gives me the willys. Maybe it is, in fact, possessed and you should get an exorcist. Seriously, I doubt the carpet is soaking up the bass. Since you mention electrostats, room placement is a big part of the problem and you should experiment. Insofar as the egg crate ceiling, I am not certain what you are referring to, but anything that has multiple faces on the ceiling would, I think, be a good thing. You did not mention furniture in the room, if you have a lot of it, especially stuffed chairs and sofas, you should try getting most of that out of the room and having comfortable seating with minimum upholstery. I don't know, but you may be overstating how dead the room actually is. Do you get any kind of reflection when you clap your hands while standing in the middle of the room or does that also produce a dead sound. Most rooms require more fine tuning than an no holds barred full frontal demolition and rebuilding strategy. Since it appears you are not in the USA, the type of construction of the building you are in can have an impact, but again, I can't think of what type of construction would produce such a dead sound. Overall, your room is not very large, and especially not very high ceilinged. Dynamic box speakers may prove a better match for your room and even then, deep bass would probably be impossible to achieve in such a small space. Short of that, go for the exorcist.
What were the dimensions of your last room? I've heard some most impressive bass while listening in my basement(25 to 35 feet from the speakers). I can remember about wavelength and distance ....... DANGER! DANGER! UNUSED PORTION OF BRAIN BEING ACCESSED!!! I recall the most dramatic full lenght horns were to be about 35ft. length with a final opening of 11ft.x11ft. ( 10.7m x 3.4m x 3.4m). This going back 35 years in memory, should be close enough for example purposes. I am sure the more well versed engineers on this site could give you specifics about length vs. sound reproduction, Multiples of room dimensions, and wavelength multiples including 1/4 ,1/2 lengths and so on.
I do hope you can come up with a compromise if not a solution. GOD BLESS! Thomas.
Have you tried to move your speakers closer to the listening position? I take it, that they fire along the long side of the room. I would stick to the 1/3 to 2/3 rule and start experimenting from there. Dipoles need a fair distance from the backwall of the listening room to load the room properly.
take all the egg crates off the ceiling
move your speakers nearer to the back wall in 1" steps
use the equal distance triangle in your speaker setup

best of luck

Tom
Sorry, Audiotomb, but to my knowledge, contrary to most other speakers, moving DIPOLES closer to the wall, will make the sound even more dead.