Mystery of the Disappearing Frequency


I have only been involved in the pursuit for about 3 years(since my retirement) but have tried to read and research extensively. In this work I have not yet found a satisfactory answer to my dilemma. I have a 10 Db dip at about 50 Hz!!  This alone of course is not that unusual, what seems to be unusual is no matter where I take the measuring microphone(calibrated Omnimic) the dip never goes away!!  I have walked all around my somewhat small listening room(15 by 18 by 8) and the dip never get significantly lower. I have certainly read about dips but always thought they were specific to certain areas due to nulls and cancellation effects. My room is a little unique but I do not believe the following factors account for this dip. The long sides of the room have a 10 foot long bank of windows covered by thick drapes. It has a wood floor on a pier and beam foundation and the wall behind the speakers is the wall where the main house met the attached slab garage before the garage was converted to a few small rooms. The small amount of wall material is not sheetrock but rather a very thick, ribbed solid wood paneling. I followed expert advice as far as acoustic treatments(room tunes pillows at the ceiling corners,panels on the ceiling to reduce echo near the speakers, a rug with thick under pad to cover about 80% of the wood floor. I have corner bass traps on the speaker wall. The room is overflowing with records and CDs. This phenomenon was present with my previous speakers(NHT 3.3s) as well as my current BBC monitor style speakers. I have tried a variety of experiments to see if I can change the issue. The room has 2 doors but opening doors,windows and/or opening the drapes did not change the situation. Also tried removing the bass traps to no avail. Have run out of theories and experiments at this point, outside of wondering just what materials there may be in the room that absorb this frequency. My equipment has also mostly changed since I first measured a few months back, have mostly Allnic gear at this point. Your theories and suggestions are kindly solicited. Many thanks, LS
trytone

Showing 1 response by brownsfan

Trytone,  I am not sure I can help other than to offer my sympathy.  I have been working on my room since last October, and although I have made a good bit of progress, I have a fairly high level of frustration at this point.  I have spent some money, and done a lot of work, and am at the point where everything I try results in improvement in one area at the expense of another.  I have dealt with two different reputable companies, and they are both quite reluctant to offer anything definitive in terms of systematic diagnostics.  I've been told it is very difficult to do better than plus or minus 5 dB without having a custom built room.  After several months of work and spending about 2K in treatments, I'm still seeing plus or minus 9dB and having some ringing issues below 50 Hz.
With respect to your 50 Hz null, you eliminated speaker boundary problems in that you moved the speakers and it did not shift the frequency of the null.  I use the  REW software, and I plugged your room dimensions  and speaker and chair locations into the room simulator.  It does not predict a null at 50Hz.  You have changed most of your equipment recently, which seems to rule out your stereo system.This is weird.  Can you use your Omnimic program to send a single frequency continuous tone?  I was thinking it might be worth sending a 50 Hz tone through your system and seeing if you perceive a null from your chair.  If you hear an obvious audible reduces volume vs 40 and 60 Hz tones, you know it is real and not some sort of software measurement glitch.
One other possibility.  It is possible that something in your room has a resonant frequency at 50 Hz.  If, for instance, the flooring were selectively absorbing 50 Hz, it might well result in a general reduction of that frequency around the room.  I read somewhere that 1/2 plywood tends to absorb at 70 Hz, and I am seeing a dip in my room centered at about 68 that seems to resist my efforts to mitigate.  Perhaps others can comment who have plywood sub flooring in their rooms.