If acoustic treatments are not possible. Then the route to go would be to use very warm components and speakers, less resolving lowering treble.
Room with glass windows as a walls.
My daughter moved from first floor townhouse apartment to 42nd floor skyscraper apartment and fifty percent of her apartment walls are actually glass windows from floor to ceiling now.
I helped her with setting up her system at old place and the sound was pretty decent however new apartment acoustic wise is total disaster.
Of course I did put her system together at new place but sound is terrible. She actually understands all my explanations about acoustic issues at new place, but she doesn’t take it seriously. My daughter actually listens to a lot of music, sometimes for hours however I wouldn’t call her audiophile, probably just a serious music lover and I understand that she will have listening fatigue pretty soon at her new place.
Acoustic treatment probably would be limited or refused due to esthetic and design incompatibility. Has anyone experienced setting up a system in such conditions, any advice?
The densest/heaviest/least acoutically transparent ripple-fold curtains* you can find, with the deepest ripples available. Prevent sound waves from reaching the glass and being reflected back into the room, as much as possible. *https://vitaliainc.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-ripple-fold-drapery/ and: https://www.acoustic-curtains.com/curtains/acoustic-curtains/ Happy listening! |
@rodman99999 is correct. Also, the use of thick area rugs and overstuffed furniture helps. Anything to absorb some of the echo that will be generated in that room. |
A few of these placed strategically my help. Other options also https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/mittzon-frame-w-cstrs-acoustic-screen-gunnared-beige-white-s39514683/ |
Darko also had a pice on the IKEA product. https://darko.audio/2024/06/cheap-easy-room-treatment-with-ikeas-new-mittzon-range/ |
This video from Acoustics Insider says that windows are relatively similar to drywall. Approach reflection points in a similar manner. |
@onhwy61 Yes, she definitely noticed the problem, but as I see she is too overwhelmed with adapting to the new place, organizing everything there, so sound system is not priority yet. Also she is trying to be more independent and I think she will not complain anyway but probably she will just limit her listening instead. |
@rodman99999 Thanks Rodman, ripple-fold curtains is way to go. We’ll definitely consider that.
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@surfmuz - With the correct acoustic curtains; the window reflections will be almost infinitely tuneable, with the pull of a cord. Can't hurt! Happy listening!
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Lots of glass windows? Is this a loft apartment with high reflective ceilings, hard uncovered or untreated floors. Very little furniture to dampen reflective sound waves? Large open dimensional space? Starting with the windows is most likely the real killer in the picture, but also, just a beginning. To properly condition a space like this (assuming I'm correct) is a nightmare for an amateur. Hiring an acoustical specialist would most likely present a cost beyond the value of the system. Sounds like you'll be chasing this problem around without much true acoustical satisfaction, For a long time. If your daughter is a "serious listener" as opposed to just a casual listener, the sublime answer may be a good quality pair of headphones. Less hassle and less expense in the long run. Admittedly however, the drapery treatment, as several have mentioned, plus a lot of cushiony furniture will definitely help the situation, without going crazy. Listening at lower volumes will help as well. But don't rule out component placement. Especially the location and positioning of the primary satellite speakers. I'm certain that some experimentation is this area will yield a number of different results. I don't know what caliber of equipment she has. If it's just "mid-fi" as I call it, trying to treat the listening space is probably not worth it. If sound really matters to her, the other consideration might be to move at an opportune time. Then choose you apartment listening space carefully as much as other living space considerations. |
@axpert No, it’s not a loft apartment with a huge open space, and no reflective ceiling, floors are laminate. It’s one bedroom apartment with office room and living room divided by structural wall, but that wall is actually not a full wall and not connected with a glass window wall on the side, the space between them is approximately one feet. The system and speakers are facing this structural wall and the other window glass wall is behind the speakers.
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Many years ago the acoustics company I worked for was the 4th company to try to put in a sound system in the newly built Crystal Cathedral in So. California. Clearly it was an impossible job and our Lead engineer said they would have to put in satellite speakers behind every seat. Well that was to expensive but ultimately concessions had to be made to the look of the interior to get the RT60 to something close to intelligible. Sometimes you just can’t win?
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In extremely reflective envrons there seems to be only two solutions, both mentioned here. 1) dampen the hell out of it (heavy curtains like theater curtains- very expensive) , 2) distributed low level nearfield playback that doesnt energize the room enough to hit the reflective surfaces (Donavabdears post). Also complicated and expensive. Narrow dispersion can help but it has its own problems of being beamy with a very small sweetspot that is hard to find in both planes (vertical and horizontal). But if you can find it, that can at least provide some measure of enjoyment. For most, rooms like this are usually a long process of experimentation and money that usually ends as "cannot be fixed". The Crystal Cathedral story is a great example: still sucks after hundreds of thousands invested. Glass heavy rooms are the one case where being an audiophile and fussing over sound quality doesnt work out well. @winoguy17 is right! |
Your query reminded me of this video in which the speakers sound pretty damn good in what appears to be an acoustically awful room. There was also another video (same speakers/room) with different music, but I could not find it. Was the sound doctored, or did they actually achieve this sound @ the listening position? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGtXhRDpLJU
DeKay
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Glass walls are rough. If there's ANY possible way for her to hang acoustic clouds on the ceiling, that would be my suggestion. You can make them yourself for super cheap or order them from a company like GiK Acoustics. Minimal issue, just need to cover the holes and paint that part of the ceiling when she moves if she's renting. Also not sure if every single wall in the room is glass, but if you can get paneling up on any of the NON glass windows, that would be ideal. And one more suggestion would be, if she can stomach it, use adhesive or command strips and hang at least a decent size section at first reflection 4-6" thick of the thicker stuff on the window where her first reflection point is. Or again, buy some panels from GiK for first reflections. With clouds, and first reflections covered, and if her rear wall is not glass, putting some diffusion on there, would help massively! Best of luck to you and to her! |