Room acoustics - yet again


I have the books and the theory of room acoustics for rectengular enclosed rooms. Any guidelines for irregular (ie partly-cathedral ceilings, multiple openings to the listening room) ? Or is it the usual measure-listen-change ? My problem is finding a reasonable starting spot and tewak from there.
ikarus
1. Try a modelling system like CARA that can accomodate irregular room shapes.
2. Try ETF which can measure what is actually going on.
CARA is a german-developed software package that models rooms for the purpose of interpreting room acoustics. Their site is quite informative and includes an overview of how to use the software. It is at: http://www.cara.de

Rhintek, Inc. is the US representative for CARA. Our site is http://www.rhintek.com

Hope that helps!
Rainer McCown,
Rhintek, Inc.
This is a timely discussion as I'm about to move from a rectangular room to an irregular shaped one with a cathedral ceiling. The new space is easily twice the volume of the existing room. I also have a copy of CARA on order. My feeling is nothing will take the place of experimentation in determining the optimal system layout, but with the complex acoustic challenge of the new space some kind of help is necessary.

The reason I chose CARA was simple. While there are several products available that do rectangular rooms, CARA was the only one in my price range that does odd shapes. Once the dust settles I'll report back as to whether it was worth the $50.
I too am blessed (!) with a very irregularly-shaped room(s):
a two-foot sofa-enclosed jog-out on the left wall, and a 45- angled fireplaced cut-back on the right, with large openings right-front (to entry hall) and behind me into another smaller library-roon. Add to this a 7 ft Steinway B, and an insistent wife...phew! Yet I heartily disagree with the stated view above that irregularity is completely unfortunate!
Staggering driver/boundary distances becomes almost automatic, and problematic bass modes are smoothed, too! The piano's depth required that I find reference speakers that had sufficient bass to be way out from the front wall (8-9 ft), had great WAF, and worked in the nearfield (as a 7.5 ft triangle is all I had left). Several 3-ways (esp Nautilus) couldn't cohere in the nearfield, and rear-firing woofers (Verity Audio Fidelios) sounded anemic. Fortunately I was able to find outstanding speakers that work exceptionally-well (Parsifal Encores, woofers front-firing).
The triangle evolved by trial and error acoustically. I used
soundstage development and tonal cues as guides, as I was unaware of software for irregular shapes. The resultant soundstage is VERY deep, yet triangular (piano angles back starting 1 ft behind the speaker plane; opening on right rear). Having non-parallel
sidewalls seems to be very beneficial, as I have very little
first-reflection anomoli. Measurements indicate surprisingly flat bass response: only a mild bump at 80 Hz... although it's a little hot at 6kHz because I toed in to widen the sweet-spot and reduce reflections.
My friend who is pres/owner of a prestigious acoustical consulting firm (ex-BB&N Acentec) was pleasantly surprised at the stage I was able to produce. His "very good!" proclamation says a lot.
His sole mod was to lean forward even closer (only 6.5 ft off the plane); interestingly the guys at Verity Audio had suggested pulling my chair forward a bit as well. Sitting
in a 7 ft triangle in a 14x24 space seems a bit close, but
the soundstage is easily as wide as the room, and sometimes
20-30 feet deep (the Alephs help here)! Apologies for my quasi-bragadocio, but I want to urge you to proceed with confidence and good cheer, knowing that the asymmetry can have benefits.
Maybe you needn't worry too much about software-assistance, either, but I would urge you to be VERY careful with speaker selection. To risk repeating: whereas many 3-ways will cohere reasonably given
sufficient distance, I certainly found that extra care was required when selecting for near-field use. Getting the modernistic N803 past my wife was a great initial coup, but what awful sound in the nearfield! I had also been warned by some at this site that "loading" a piano soundboard in the room was a big taboo, and that non-parallel sidewalls
would result in a non-rectangular stage, but I certainly experience NO ringing or resonant overhang from the Steinway (maybe it helps that it's horizontal?--an upright would be problematic?), and I don't really miss hearing the "back corners" of the stage, as often referred to. Sorry to not be concise, but I'm now a firm believer that a well-damped, asymmetric living room can make a wonderful listening room as well. Visiting friends and musicians are soon transfixed, exclaiming often "it's like he/she's right THERE!..." Truly gratifying. So don't sweat the software and trust your ears when selecting speakers carefully. Hope this helped. Good luck. Ernie