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Room Treatments and WAF? Long

Living area with H/T and 2 channel combined. This is our main room for everything. It is 22'6" W by 16'9" with the h/t on the long wall. Wall to the right is only 3'6" tall and joins to the kitchen. Left wall is the fireplace(never used). Rear wall is a big problem. Two large windows (roughly 3'w x 5't) with a french door between them. Cathedral ceiling, carpetted floors with a large sectional couch positioned 12'from the front wall.

I know that the room needs treatment. Particularly the first reflection points but wondering if I can treat just the left wall since the right is so short and open to another room.

The biggest problem I think is the rear. All that glass! Significant other does not want curtains but could probably be persuaded if I could come up with something that would allow her to have the open look when she wants it. Any suggestions?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Steve
scoly1
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Can you help me understand why it is less of a problem on a 23 ft wall?

Simply because you can keep the speakers at least four feet away from the side walls which makes the BIGGEST difference in side wall reflections....with 23 feet to play with and assuming you are sitting 12 feet back then an 8 foot spacing between speakers gives you (23 - 8} / 2 = 7.5 feet to side walls if you placed the speakers in the middle of the 23 foot wall (roughly speaking of course as I ignored the dimensions of your speakers but I expect it is small as most people prefer pretty looking, narrow towers these days)
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
What are you hearing that makes you think that you need room treatment? Given the size of your room, I'd be surprised if you had first-reflection problems. Generally two-channel speakers should be well away from the end walls.

If you could post a Virtual System for us to see it would really help us get specific. Also you need to tell us what's sounding bad in what way. We're shooting in the dark right now.

Given the large room, well stuffed couch, carpeting and high ceilings I'd guess that almost any problem would be related to fine tuning the speaker placement rather than changing the room. Oh, yeah, what speakers do you have?

Dave
scoly1 OP
74 posts
 
Shadorne,
Thanks for the explanation. Just trying to learn a bit.
Destep,
System:
Denon 2802 Pre outs for mains to
B&K Ref 20 (recently ran the cd player direct to the B&K)
Bryston 3bst (Mains)
Arcam Alpha 8Se cd player
B&K 5 channel amp for rear surrounds and outside
Gallo Ref 3.1 mains
Velodyne sub
Regarding what's sounding bad. Soundstage seems constrained to a small window between the speakers and a bit toward the right speaker. No depth. There are times I feel like I hear sound from one speaker and just an instant later same sound from the other speaker. Like an echo. Thought this might be due to left wall being solid while the right is open.
Hope this gives something to work with. Any more questions, just ask. Love getting this kind of support.
Steve
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Check out:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rspkr&1197744079&openusid&zzDcstep&4&5#Dcstep
gerrym5's avatar
gerrym5
286 posts
 
Try full height vertical blinds to cover the entire rear window when you want to do super serious listening. You can get these in a variety of materials from vinyl to fabrics. Forget dealing with the open area (too costly-not WAF I suspect) just position the speakers imaging the best you can.

Good luck
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