System Help


Moved my system from 16 x 17 x 9 dedicated room to a dedicated 16 x 32 x 8 listening room. What once was a marvelous listening experience has turned into a diffuse, muffled, lifeless, boring system!

Speakers: Volent CL2i
Amps: ASL Cadenza
Pre: Allnic L1500 & Reference Line Preeminence 1A
2014 Mac Mini with Keces PS, SSD & maxed RAM

Any Suggestions? Can the room make that much of a difference?

Thanks
Ag insider logo xs@2xcommunique1

Showing 1 response by sbank

Beg to differ...

Suggest not considering any gear changes until well after exploring room setup and possibly treatment first.

Start with Cardas Speaker Placement: http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_main.php
You try both ways on long or shorter walls.

Your seating distance should make about an equilateral triangle with the speakers, or experiment with the seat a foot or two further back. Even 6 inch increments can change the way your ears interact with the room. Little strips of tape on the floor at various increments can make it easy to repeat the placement of the speakers & seat. Try a few combos with a couple of hours of listening at each.

Try something absorptive or diffusive at the 1st and 2nd reflection points which are easily found by moving a mirror along the wall until you see each speakers' reflection easily from the sweet spot. These are key locations to avoid glass framed pictures etc. Echo, treble-ringing etc. are what's affected.

Bass traps in the corners on the front wall are quite often a big help. To get an idea, you can drop a couple of rolls of pink fiberglass insulation (you can even keep in the plastic bags) in the front corners. Also try a heavier fabric blanket etc. hung on the wall between the speakers. These temp. steps will give you a "quick & dirty" idea of what proper room treatment will do for you.

Lots of useful threads in the archives here on setup, also in Ethan Winer's forum on Audio Asylum. Cheers,
Spencer