Thanks for sharing...
Raise your acoustic panels or die
Hi everyone,
I just had an interesting result while waiting on new panels from GIK. I've been pretty lazy in setting them up, nothing is hanging. Everything is just placed on the floor around the speakers. On the wall behind the speakers I have 2 Soffit Traps and 2 standalone panels inside them. Kind of like this:
(ST) (P) --------- (P) (ST)
With the traps standing up vertically. Last night I decided to put the panels directly on top of the soffit traps, giving me near floor to ceiling coverage in that corner. Lo and behold it raised the stereo image by a good 15-20 degrees or so. Orchestral instruments now appear above my tweets.
So, if you have been leaving all your panels on the floor for convenience sake I strongly encourage you to raise them so they are more centered around the speaker, instead of at and below it.
I just had an interesting result while waiting on new panels from GIK. I've been pretty lazy in setting them up, nothing is hanging. Everything is just placed on the floor around the speakers. On the wall behind the speakers I have 2 Soffit Traps and 2 standalone panels inside them. Kind of like this:
(ST) (P) --------- (P) (ST)
With the traps standing up vertically. Last night I decided to put the panels directly on top of the soffit traps, giving me near floor to ceiling coverage in that corner. Lo and behold it raised the stereo image by a good 15-20 degrees or so. Orchestral instruments now appear above my tweets.
So, if you have been leaving all your panels on the floor for convenience sake I strongly encourage you to raise them so they are more centered around the speaker, instead of at and below it.
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Riley: Experience comes from making mistakes and experimentation. I’ve often said that if your imagine is lacking, improve your room acoustics in the dimension of the issue. Image too narrow? Go wide with treatment. Lack depth? consder the wall behind and in front of you. More technically knowledgeable acousticians than I have said similar things. What I did not expect however was that vertically adjusting panels by a few feet would be so noticeable, or affect imaging this much. I expected my changes to improve the bass, not the image. |
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I'm having a good time with a pair of book cases on a rooms back wall. Same room has a ceiling fan too.. I'm not sure on that? Right over my head too.. Dead center of the room.. I pulled and mismatched book depths with both cases.. It helped quit a bit with a couple issues I had. Not pretty but worked VERY well. The right diffusers have to look like a diffuser, BUMMER, I might as well go with a stalactite, stalagmite decor'. Look like Superman's digs. :-) Good deal Erik, gettin' there.. Nice and clean.. WE (the Wife and I) actually called flooring guys and PRO painters for the front/music room.. Nice when a plan comes together. I've never used anyone.. I always did the work.. I like the idea of someone else doing the work though. :-) |
Erik for someone that is always suggesting members to try things and recommending GIK panels, i just thought your room would be a little more organized than what it is. that is all i am saying. who are you to tell me to say what i have to say and move on ? last time i checked you don’t own the site no need to get your panties all bunched up. i find it interesting that other members give sarcastic comments and you don’t make comments to them ? why is that? |
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Shocker! Panels meant to be mounted on wall sound better on the wall than on the floor? groundbreaking thread.Not going to investigate but is there a quota of mentions that need to be made to keep that discount? sorry couldn’t resist, sticking with the spirit of this place ...., although, it is good to experiment with locations of panel placement looking for pressure zones. VPR’s can be a surgical tool in the correct location, and this can be at floor/wall junctions. |
@erik_squires Thanks for the suggestion, Erik. I have been moving a lot of things around and mostly attending to frequency response. To place traps, I listened and measured around the room, and located traps where the peaks are highest. In some places, however, the peaks are *not* at the floor, and your suggestion helps remind me to consider that raising panels might help imaging even if frequency does not. Unlike some other posters here, this is my room to do as I wish with, and so anything which can be tried is fine with wife, family. Are the (P) panels bass traps or diffusor/absorbers, by the way? |
I don't think those Gobo free-standing panels are really designed for that, at least not their primary purpose. By all means stack corner traps to the ceiling. But you might try the Gobo's positioned at 45 degrees, half way between the side edges of the TV and the inside rear corners of the speakers. Those stacked silver boxes will be in the way on one side. |
I see 9 windows a 4 ft opening into another room a stairwell that is probably 3ft wide a 24×30 return duct and a ceiling fan which can be a benefit. The return duct can be fronted out and I think it is as a table..but trim out with louvered doors. All the windows should have partial sun bloc pull down cloth shades. 2 main area of concern is to be able to balance the left and right sides of the room..1 side has a much large opening than the other. There will a noticeable difference in pressure L to R not just freq.response so you may have more image wander than you may care to see. Good luck wherever you are. Tom |
@erik_squires I agree that all dimensions really must be tried. I’m curious if you’ve investigated different stands for your panels. I have found that some panels need to be raised off the floor and kept away from the walls a bit. Have you purchase stands for panels, ever? Or made some? Here’s the kind of stand I mean (obviously without the white board): https://tinyurl.com/4cwben3r Here's a neat DYI solution that looks much better: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/showpost.php?p=8774501&postcount=19 |
I think we covered this but I wanted to clear up my point, yes it's good to center your panels, but panels on the floor and ceiling and floor to ceiling can be very useful. If you have only a handful of panels though, I do suggest you raise them up. The consultant at GIK in fact recommended several floor mounted panels for my own listening room, so having panels there is not, by itself, wrong. |